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Phronimon vol.15 no.1 Pretoria ene. 2014
Dying a hundred deaths: Socrates on truth and justice
Mogobe Ramose
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Unisa
The well-known history of the life and death of Socrates continues to attract attention. This essay examines Socrates' commitment to truth and justice. For Socrates, justice is inseparable from ethical commitment to truth. He gave up his life in the name of truth and justice. We will explore the meaning of the "internal", "external" dichotomy of truth. The proffered meaning of this dichotomy of truth will be considered from the point of view of African philosophy. The relevance of Socrates to African philosophy will be discussed as a prelude to our argument that Socrates' commitment to truth and justice is crucial for political leadership and vital for the realisation of justice in Africa and the world.
Keywords: Socrates; truth; justice; African philosophy
The thesis of this essay is that Socrates' commitment to truth and justice is crucial for political leadership and vital for the realisation of justice in Africa and the world. The elaboration of this thesis has four sections. The first explores the meaning of truth in relation to justice. The second places Socrates in the context of the culture of his time. The third is on the relevance of Socrates to African philosophy, and the fourth is a critical discussion of the "arms deal" of South Africa. The purpose of the fourth section is to give an example of the problems arising from seeking truth and justice, and being committed to them even if one were to die a hundred deaths.
Socrates faced his trial and decided not to escape from the death sentence delivered against him. His commitment to truth and justice reinforced his decision to await the death to which he was condemned. For him, commitment to truth and justice was a matter of life and death. He would therefore be prepared to stand by the same truth - for as long as the circumstances pertaining to it remained unchanged - even if he were to die a hundred deaths.
Truth has two aspects. One is that a human being must recognise what it is to be a human being by acquiring knowledge about oneself. Ontological pluriversality and epistemological diversity are the primary conditions necessary for the pursuit of knowledge about oneself. To these must be added the ethical dimension as an indispensable complementary necessary condition for the pursuit of self-knowledge. Knowing oneself involves first the identification of oneself within the ontological pluriverse. To confer identity upon oneself is to declare oneself to be different in some respects to all that there is. Identity implies difference. It does not necessarily construe difference as opposition. Instead of opposing one's identity, "difference" can complement it.
The construction of one's identity is an epistemological issue insofar as it requires knowledge of one's world, that is, nature as known and understood in one's place and time. Having such knowledge must direct one to behave in specific ways in order to attain good ends and avoid evil. This is the ethical dimension; a necessary complement to the ontological and the epistemological spheres. Knowing oneself in terms of one's identity and ethical disposition is the first meaning we assign to the concept of truth. It means interacting with others on the basis of remaining true to the acquired knowledge of oneself. This is the "internal" aspect of truth. It means being truthful, that is, adhering to the acquired knowledge of oneself by not succumbing to the temptation to lie to oneself (Kung 1968:36). This meaning of truthfulness stands in sharp contrast to being merely honest. To be honest is to conform to social norms that portray one as respectable even if such conformity may be based on lying to oneself. Lying to oneself in this way is the basis for transferring the same lie to others by living according to the relevant social norm. Honesty, as the pursuit of honour on the basis of lying to oneself, is distinguishable from truthfulness, though the two are often used wrongly as synonyms.1
Another aspect of truth is that it is an ever changing human construction of the meaning of life at a given time and place (Bohm 1994:181). This means that human beings do not "construct", for example, a stone or a river that simply exists whether or not they like it. Human beings do not "construct" what is generally known as "objective" reality. Their interaction with this reality is the matrix from which truth, as a statement on the meaning of life, is constructed. This is the "external" aspect of truth. The "internal" and "external" aspects of truth constitute and complement each other. They are the two sides of the same coin. Commitment to truth means accepting a specific meaning of life, and acting accordingly. "What is the meaning of life?" is a question to which human beings give different and sometimes even divergent answers. Conflict might ensue when the answers meet one another. Justice is both the aim and the yardstick with which to resolve the conflict. In this way justice enters into the terrain of contestations about truth. On this reasoning, truth and justice always go together. So, Socrates' commitment to truth was at the same time a demand for justice. Thus truth and justice are related in a way that thinking about the one is necessarily thinking about the other.
The pre-Socratic period in ancient Greece is the cultural background leading to the Socratic period. Socrates' philosophy may be regarded as a dialogue with this period. Out of this dialogue new insights emerge having an influence on the practice of philosophy during the lifetime of Socrates. It goes without saying that the insights of that time have become, and continue to be, the subject of philosophical controversies especially in Western philosophy. In this essay, we would like to focus on one aspect of the pre-Socratic period. The second aspect that we will focus upon belongs to the Socratic period.
From the pre-Socratic period we should like to focus on the point that one of the major problems of Athens was the fact that money had the power to undermine, displace and even destroy long established and respected ethical values (Seaford 2004:94). This was the age of timocracy; the period of money-based rule (Ramose 2010:293-294). Timocracy had no special regard for the value of the human being as a human being. Its primary and overriding aim was to continue to accumulate wealth without end. Even human life was subordinated to the achievement of this aim. It was in this situation that Solon, the renowned sage, was invited to give advice; advice that would restore ethical values and revive respect for them. The advice was the written code of Solon delivered "probably 594/3 BC" (Seaford 2004:177). According to Seaford, Solon wrote: "Of wealth there is no limit that appears to men. For those of us who have the most wealth are eager to double it" (Seaford 2004:165). Solon's advice was that there should be a limit to the desire to accumulate wealth. He prescribed moderation (Seaford 2004:166). There are two reasons for our focus on timocracy during the time of Solon. The first is to suggest that the power of wealth (money) was still strong even during the life of Socrates. No wonder that some of the Sophists preferred not to receive money for their lessons. It is also worthwhile to remember that "When Socrates is told that he should charge a price for his valuable conversation, as he would if parting with other valuable things, he replies that just as charging for physical beauty is prostitution, so too wisdom should not be exchanged for money" (Seaford 2004:162). The second reason is to acknowledge that contemporary democracy world-wide has, to all intents and purposes, been superseded by timocracy (Hertz 2001:35-48; Beder 2010). We will refer to the "arms deal" in South Africa as an example. The discussion in this connection will focus on commitment to truth in relation to Socrates' option to take the side of truth even if that means the loss of one's own life.
The period of Socrates placed special emphasis on the human being in contrast to the focus on "nature" in the pre-Socratic period (Copleston 1962:101). The human being may not be seen outside the context of culture and civilisation. On this basis, the emphasis on the human being in the Socratic period involved focus upon the customs (culture) of a people and their civilisation. Another characteristic of the Socratic period was its method of philosophy. The pre-Socratic philosophers certainly observed nature. From their observations they drew conclusions based upon deductive reasoning. Unlike the pre-Socratic philosophers, the Socratic philosophers did not rely on the logical validity of deductive reasoning as the method of philosophy. Instead, they considered that the attainment of certainty was unlikely with regard to the dynamics of human behaviour. Firm conclusions based on deductive reasoning were deemed to be unsuited to the dynamic domain of human behaviour. Accordingly, the Socratic philosophers preferred practical conclusions based on the "empirico-inductive" method (Copleston 1962:102). Scepticism about the certainty of cultural and ethical norms was the necessary complement to the "empirico-inductive" method.
Yet another characteristic of the Socratic period pertains to the aim of the philosophers. Unlike their predecessors whose aim was to discover the "arche", the ultimate truth about being, the Socratic philosophers aimed to teach. The pursuit of the aim to teach required the gathering of those to be taught and thus had the potential to have disciples of the teacher. When this aim was actually achieved "the idea became current that they (the Socratic philosophers) gathered together the young men from their homes and then pulled to pieces before them the traditional ethical code and religious beliefs" (Copleston 1962:104). This was to be used as one of the accusations against Socrates (Copleston 1962:135).
The portrayal of the Socratic philosophers as wholly destructive of the prevailing ethical norms is unjustified. Their aim to teach on the basis of their preferred method of philosophy, including their scepticism, does not lead ineluctably only to the one conclusion that they intended to destroy the prevailing ethical norms by "corrupting" the youth. Surely, to be sensitive to the existing ethical norms and to question critically their validity is not by itself an act of deliberate destruction of the ethical norms. It is not surprising, therefore, that some Socratic philosophers were highly esteemed despite Plato's rather unfavourable attitude towards them. Not all the Socratic philosophers - as Socrates' case so vividly testifies - were mere quibblers or cheats (Copleston 1962:105).
It is in the context sketched above that Socrates conceived "of his mission as being to seek for the stable and certain truth, true wisdom, and to enlist the aim of any man who would consent to listen to him" (Copleston 1962:119). He adopted scepticism and the conversational didactic method (dialectics) from that context. Dialectics was the method Socrates used in his dialogues for the pursuit of "true wisdom". His quest for "fixed concepts" committed him to deductive reasoning but without a total rejection of the "empirico-inductive" method (Copleston 1962:125). For him the quest for and the attainment of knowledge is indispensable as a guide to ethical action. Thus his primary concern was with the ethical aspect of political life. For Socrates "knowledge and virtue are one, in the sense that the wise man, he who knows what is right, will also do what is right" (Copleston 1962:129). To claim to know what is right and proceed to do wrong is to disprove one's claim to that knowledge. The claim to knowledge in Socrates' conception comprises three interrelated aspects constituting a oneness. These refer to that which is known (what); why it should be known at all; and how that knowledge must be applied in practice. To possess such knowledge is to claim one's personal conviction about it. It is to understand that "when Socrates identified virtue with knowledge or wisdom he had in mind not any sort of knowledge but a real personal conviction" (Copleston 1962:130).
On the basis of his understanding of knowledge as a real and living personal conviction, Socrates preferred to await the actual moment of his death decreed in judgement against him. He would not accept the offer to escape from this fate because "such a course of action would be contrary to his principles" (Copleston 1962:136). His commitment to principles; to truth and justice was so deep that even if he were to die a hundred deaths, at each resurrection he would stand by his principles. He declared in the Apology:
Are you not ashamed that you give your attention to acquiring as much money as possible, and similarly with reputation and honour, and give no attention or thought to truth and understanding and the perfection of your soul? ... For I spend all my time going about trying to persuade you, young and old, to make your first and chief concern not for your bodies nor for your possessions, but for the highest welfare of your souls, proclaiming as I go, Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state. Now if I corrupt the young by this message, the message would seem to be harmful, but if anyone says that my message is different from this, he is talking nonsense. And so, gentlemen, I would say, You can please yourselves whether you listen to Anytus or not, and whether you acquit me or not, you know that I am not going to alter my conduct, not even if I have to die a hundred deaths (Apology 29c-30b).
This is political leadership committed to truth and justice, since for Socrates ethics is inherent to politics. We will revert to this point in our consideration of the "arms deal" of South Africa. We now turn to the relevance of Socrates to African philosophy.
Socrates belongs firmly to Western philosophy. The question to be considered then is how Socrates came to Africa. This is important since the second part of our title is precisely about Socrates' presence in Africa on the question of truth and justice. Our inquiry into the question how Socrates came to Africa is intended to clarify whether or not he came as the omniscient teacher who had nothing to learn from his pupils. We will argue that he came - metaphorically as Western philosophy - to Africa as this kind of teacher; the champion of a deadly monologue oblivious of the dialogues he conducted in Athens. Mindful of his capacity for dialogue, Socrates is now invited to post-colonial Africa as an equal partner in dialogue.
The following points will be treated seriatim. The transportation of Western philosophy into Africa; the need for dialogue as a philosophical imperative; and Socrates' message of unswerving commitment to truth and justice, even if one were to die a hundred deaths. The treatment of these questions is intended to show that Socrates is relevant to African philosophy precisely because of the encounter between Western and African philosophies. The initial violent imposition of Western philosophy -"Western civilisation" - upon Africa established its presence. It subsequently stabilised itself through subjugation, oppression and other subtle means of persuasion. The resistance of the indigenous Africans to this also speaks to the relevance of Socrates to African philosophy. Together, the forcible imposition of Socrates and the resistance of the indigenous Africans to Socrates' presence, establish him as a member of African philosophy worthy to be "re-membered" (Mungwini 2012:121-122).
The struggle for the assertion and affirmation of the right to define the meaning of philosophy must be seen within the broader context of the studied silence of the West over the big cultural debt it owes to the culture, philosophy and theology of the civilisation of ancient Egypt (Hallen 2009: 8-10; Obenga 2006: 31-49). This silence was complemented by the subsequent forcible subjugation, suppression and denigration of African culture, especially from the period of colonisation to date. It was a systematic, systemic and sustained epistemicide which failed, despite its intensity and vigour, to kill completely and totally the indigenous cultures of Africa. This is the violent context within which Socrates was transported to Africa as the omniscient teacher endowed with the highest competence in the conduct of a deadly monologue. It is the first act of injustice to Africa. It demands justice. One of the elements of justice required is the reconstruction (Osuagwu 1999) of African history to reflect the interaction between the West and Africa without concealing the cultural debt the West owes to Africa, especially in the fields of philosophy and theology. Another element is the restoration of Socrates as the champion of dialogue, even outside the boundaries of his native Greece.
Wisdom grows from experience, provided one makes a conscious effort to learn from experience. No doubt this presupposes a learner with the capacity to learn - in this case, the human being. Our concept of the human being is linked directly to our idea of wisdom, since wisdom is ultimately the attribute of particularly human beings. Often the definition of the human being determines also the meaning and function of philosophy. This then inaugurates the struggle for the meaning and function of philosophy. It appears that there is no point of struggle for as long as philosophy is understood in its etymological sense of a love of wisdom. The source of contention lies in the understanding of philosophy as a specific academic discipline. Who defines the meaning and function of philosophy on behalf of all of humanity, and by what right? The many answers to these contentious questions show that no one - here it is not only a particular individual that we have in mind but also a group of individuals who share the same epistemological paradigm - has a prior, superior and exclusive right to define the meaning and function of philosophy on behalf of the whole of humanity. The opposite of this answer continues to dominate practice inside philosophy as a discipline and outside of philosophy, especially in the spheres of religion and politics. We refer to the following example in the case of philosophy as a discipline. Gracia gives a critique of the tense relationship between Continental and analytical philosophies. He concludes his critique in these terms:
Finally, the sorts of questions raised by Continental philosophers are frequently dismissed by analysts as illegitimate, and the questions they regard as legitimate are dismissed by Continental philosophers as trivial ... This technique of dismissal is a serious matter, for it points to a kind of anti-philosophical, dogmatic attitude that runs counter to the very nature of the discipline as traditionally conceived. ... This goes beyond the mere pride of a particular philosopher and permeates not one but both dominant traditions in contemporary philosophy. To reject at the outset any attempt and possibility of communication with those who oppose us is something that always has been criticized by philosophers and that, nonetheless, is generally accepted in the profession today. The curiosity to understand those who don't think as we do is gone from philosophical circles to the detriment of the discipline. The situation, therefore, is intolerable not only from a practical standpoint, but, more important, because it threatens to transform the discipline into one more of the many ideologies that permeate our times, where differences of opinion are settled not through argument but through political action or force (Gracia 1992:25).
Gracia is critical of two main attitudes with their attendant practices. One is the dogmatic attitude ready to impose itself upon others by resort to physical force. Another is wilful blindness and deafness; refusing to see the visible other and avoiding to listen to the voice of the other. Both are "anti-philosophical" attitudes because they undermine and, even more strongly, obliterate the very possibility condition of doing philosophy, namely, engaging in dialogue with the other without contemplating resort to the use of physical force.
Dialogue is the method and means of doing philosophy. It is reliance on reason and not force as the means to resolve conflicts, even if the resolution may be to agree to disagree. No other philosopher than Socrates has demonstrated this thesis better. Dialogue is an indispensable element in the definition of philosophy, precisely because it demands the positive recognition of the other as a partner and not just a partner, but an equal partner by virtue of our human equality (Healy 1998:63-65). Equal partnership on this understanding does not necessarily mean that all the partners in the dialogue possess cultures that automatically must be accorded equal weight (Healy 2000:71-73). On the contrary, the cultures are sites of comparison on the basis of dialogue as equal partners. The outcome of the dialogical comparison is neither the putative superiority nor inferiority of one culture over another. Instead, it is the validity or invalidity of particular cultural norms or practices tested against the power of reason (Healy 2011:302-303).
Dialogue is an ethical imperative because the concession that all human beings are equal is an ethical matter. On this basis, we suggest that dialogue is the ethical and methodological constitution of the meaning of philosophy proper. Philosophy is an ethically grounded dialogue proceeding from the recognition of the other as other and accepting the responsibility to respect the other to the extent of not being an obstacle to the other's pursuit of survival and happiness. On this reasoning, philosophy demands both the "internal" and the "external" dimensions of truth, as already discussed. It demands truthfulness. The practical implementation of truthfulness brings to the fore the exigency of justice. In this way, philosophy as engagement in an ethically grounded dialogue demands the commitment to truth and justice as a matter of personal conviction. This understanding of dialogue restores Socrates as its champion. It makes him a partner ready to engage in dialogue with Africa on the basis of equality. Such is the relevance of Socrates to African philosophy.
One of the basic lessons of Socrates' declaration in the Apology is that he teaches that under no circumstances may truth be sacrificed at the altar of compromise. "I am not going to alter my conduct" he insists, even if he may "die a hundred deaths". The fashionable conventional wisdom that "politics is a dirty game" supported by its equally fallacious claim that "politics is the art of the possible" provides countless examples of the sacrifice of truth at the altar of compromise. It is necessary to underline the fallacy of this wisdom and stress that the political domain is pre-eminently an ethical sphere. Politics, as Socrates argued, is inherently ethical. Ethics precedes politics in logic and in fact. Politics is the creature of ethics and ought to serve the good prescribed by ethics. Justice is the aim and the measure of the good in politics. It is linked inseparably to truth. This is right reason and he who knows this will act it out in practice as a personal conviction (Ladikos 2003:67).
Socrates invokes "the soul" to explain the above understanding of truth and justice as the manifestation of a personal conviction in practice.
In Socrates' view, justice is something personal, an internal harmonious ordering of the human soul seen in its complex tripartite nature, and not as external social convention to keep some order and peace in the everyday dealings of the partners in a given political association. ... Only the person who has established the harmony within his/her soul and has put his/her own house in order, will have the will and the ability to deal with his fellow citizens in a manner which is fair and just. ... only such a person will have the right to rule in the city with justice, himself being ruled by right reason (Evangeliou 2007:67-68).
"Right reason" and the "soul" in Socrates do have a place in African philosophy. The former is to be found in one of the fundamental principles of African ethics, namely, I am related, therefore I am (cognatus sum ergo sum) (Bujo 1998:54). It is to be noted that this relationship is with human beings and encompasses all that there is. The "soul" or the spiritual dimension gives meaning to this relationship. It prescribes responsibility in a specific and direct ethical sense by laying down yet another fundamental principle of African ethics, namely, "promote life and avoid killing" (Bujo 1998:77). On this reasoning, ethical responsibility means taking the standpoint of "promote life and avoid killing" and then using it to respond to one's conditions of existence. This ethical responsibility must be applied in all three spheres of the African understanding of community, that is:
1. The living. This encompasses overall responsibility towards human beings, the plant and animal kingdoms; the land that is the mother of life and the air that we breathe.
2. The living-dead ("ancestors"). Re-membering those who died but continue to live with us through our joys and sorrows (Bujo 2001:56).
3. Leaving the land as good as we found it so that the following generations may live from it.
Participating in procreation and in that way becoming active builders of the new community is the responsibility to ensure the continuity of the lineage and the survival of the wider community in which one lives. "Right reason" in African philosophy is the fulfilment of these three tasks. Doing this gives harmony to the "soul". Only those who live according to this ethic of responsibility are full members of the triadic community and cannot but be committed to upholding truth and justice in the conduct of their own affairs and those of the community at large.
Socrates' second lesson is that "Wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth and every other blessing, both to the individual and to the state". This echoes Solon who advised ancient Greece when it was ethically destroyed by timocracy. It is an irony of history that "the silent takeover" as Hertz (2001) so aptly describes it, has eroded democracy in our time and surreptitiously substituted it with timocracy. It is once again time to recall the wisdom of Socrates and Solon and bring an end to the irrational immoderate pursuit of wealth before it is too late. Money may not be the measure of all things (Ajei & Ramose 2008:26-28), especially in our time when the threat of nuclear omnicide is real. African ethics holds that whenever one ought to make a choice between accumulating and holding onto excessive wealth on the one hand and preserving the life of another human being on the other, then one ought to opt for the latter. This is the meaning of the Sotho vernacular proverb "feta kgomo o tshware motho" (meaning: bypass the cow - the symbol of wealth - and hold onto the human being). Here we find yet another coincidence of ethical insights between African (ubuntu) and (Greek) Western philosophies.
The two coincidences of ethical insights identified above must show their knowledge and virtue by acting according to the insights. Knowledge and virtue must be owned as personal convictions for which an individual is prepared to die a hundred times. Against this background we now turn to consider the "arms deal" of South Africa.
It is important to justify and clarify the treatment of the "arms deal" of South Africa. This is because our topic, Socrates on truth and justice, appears at first glance to have neither direct nor specific connection with the "arms deal" of South Africa. Indeed, this is merely a question of appearance. At a fundamental level, namely, the ethical; there is a direct and specific connection between Socrates' understanding of and commitment to truth and justice and the "arms deal" of South Africa.
We have already argued that ethics precedes and is the mother of politics. The political is therefore the ethical by definition. This means that at the core of politics lies the ethical principle of the equality of all human beings. Justice emerges as the necessary means and measure by which to deal with this principle of equality in relation to the fundamental right upon which all other rights revolve, namely, the human right to life (Ramcharan 1983). This means that in practice human interaction in the domain of politics is already under the ethical obligation to recognise, respect, protect and promote the right to life of every human being. This is the mandate conferred conditionally by ethics upon politics. The laws made by politics and the institutions it establishes ought to have the sole aim of upholding this ethical mandate. This mandate is conditional because if politics does not live according to its precepts, then it loses its reason for existence.
On this reasoning, politics is from birth already charged with the ethical obligation to know only the one truth it ought to serve, namely, the principle of the equality of all human beings and the recognition, respect, protection and promotion of the right to life of every human being by resort to justice. The "arms deal" of South Africa or any other country, must answer to this mandate: it must demonstrate its knowledge of the only truth it ought to know and act out in the name of justice. It must show commitment to truth and justice first by being fearless in its defence, and second by being willing to die a hundred deaths in defence of truth and justice. There is, therefore, a direct and immediate connection between Socrates' understanding of truth and justice and the "arms deal" of South Africa..
The argument in the preceding paragraph justifies and clarifies our treatment of the "arms deal" of South Africa. It underlines the argument of Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic - as cited by Feinstein - that "politics [is] selfless service to one's fellow human beings, [it is] morality in practice, based on conscience and truth" (Feinstein 2007:238) Politics is the ethical domain fecund with political holiness attainable through political love: "love for those most deprived of life and working so that they may have life" (Sobrino 1988:81).
Having thus shown the connection between our topic on Socrates and the "arms deal" of South Africa, it is now time to turn to the context in which government as the bearer of the conditional ethical mandate, operates. By way of a very broad generalisation, we suggest that many governments across the world today are operating in the context of neo-liberal capitalism holding onto defective democracy subordinated to timocracy. In practice sovereignty is no longer vested in the people. It is also nominally transferred, and conditionally so, to government. The substantive and actual exercise of transformed sovereignty, namely, economic sovereignty, is in practice vested in the unelected owners of capital and money generally referred to as business or the corporations. These are the economic sovereigns.
Even before they are elected to form a government, political parties need to survive as entities independent of the electorate. Their quest for survival is linked to their need for money. This renders them objectively dependent on the economic sovereigns. It can bring political parties into a politically problematical funding relationship with the economic sovereigns.
Where this relationship plays itself out most explicitly is in the arena of party political funding. In the US, campaign funding is a quagmire that in my opinion severely weakens American democracy. It is virtually impossible to run successfully for meaningful office in the US without either being extremely wealthy or having the backing of very well-resourced interest groups. The consequence is that once in office you are expected to deliver for your special interest backers. The Bush administration is the most venal manifestation of what has been a reality of American politics for decades (Feinstein 2007:245).
This malleability of political parties to the will of the economic sovereigns means that they are at risk, objectively, of sacrificing the sovereignty of the people in order to ensure their own survival. Thus the political party can become anti-democratic by failing to uphold its permanent conditional ethical obligation to obey the sovereign will of the people.
The preceding paragraph shows that in the contemporary context in which governments operate, the potential for corruption in pursuit of either individual or political party survival is a living and immediate danger. This may be illustrated further:
The Congress Movement in India, so indomitable a political force, was laid low by the Bofors arms scandal, which 14 years after it was signed, brought down Rajiv Gandhi's government. It has been regularly reported in the media and in recent books that Mark Thatcher was paid [twelve million pounds Sterling] as a middleman in the Al Yamamah arms deal which was signed between Saudi Arabia and the British government, led at the time by Mark's mother (Feinstein 2007:233).
To these we wish to add the experience of Willy Claes, a former Belgian politician who held different cabinet positions in several Belgian governments. The highest point of his political career is, arguably, his position as Secretary General of NATO from 1994 to 1995. He was legally pursued even while he was Secretary General of NATO because of the accusation of a bribe paid during negotiations with the Augusta firm for the purchase of military helicopters at the time when he was Minister of Economic Affairs in Belgium. He was stripped of his professional immunities to make way for the court proceedings. On 23 December 1998 the Highest Court in Belgium (Hof van Cassatie) confirmed the decision of the Lower Court which convicted him and imposed a conditional three year jail sentence, the suspension of his citizen rights for five years and the payment of a fine of sixty thousand Belgian Francs. These cases show that the potential for corruption is a living and immediate danger in the sphere of the secret world of arms deals (Feinstein 2011:237-329). They also affirm that governments and individuals acting in the name of the government may fall in the cause of truth and justice. It is a moot point whether or not the outcome of the current Commission of Inquiry into the "arms deal" of South Africa (the Seriti Commission) will culminate with the fall of any government or individuals having acted in the name of the government (Feinstein 2014:6).
A detailed history of the "arms deal" of South Africa is contained in many sources. (Holden & Van Vuuren 2011:115-167). It is unnecessary to recount it here. Of importance for us in this history, are the following questions:
• Is the deal a direct and immediate response to the government's sole conditional mandate to uphold the principle of equality of all human beings and, to recognise, respect, protect and promote the right to life of all the citizens of South Africa?
• Was there at the time any ground to hold that there would be a threat of war in the foreseeable future necessitating the agreement to purchase the type, quality and quantity of the arms?
• Were there at the time urgent and supervening priorities justifying the postponement of the agreement to purchase the arms?
It is clear that we have to await the end of the protracted inquiry into the arms deal before we can find definitive answers according to the law. However, it is vital to recognise that legal answers are exactly the kind of answers that take only juristic facts into account and even so, the admission of such facts is dependent upon prescribed legal procedures. It is to be hoped that even within this restricted and exclusivist domain of law, the final outcome of the inquiry into the "arms deal" of South Africa shall reaffirm the enduring maxim of let justice be done though the heavens may fall - fiat justitia ruat coelum. The truth of the law will not necessarily coincide with the only truth that any government ought to know and act upon, that is, upholding the principle of the equality of all human beings and the recognition, respect, protection and promotion of the right to life of all the citizens of South Africa. Commitment to this is the only way to emulate and affirm Socrates' example of leadership in Africa. It shows that the interaction of governments globally with regard to arms deals poignantly reaffirms the urgency of the three questions posed. Answers to them are equally urgent in view of the historical, structural, systemic and systematic impoverishment and death of the many for the benefit of the few. So far experience of world politics suggests that answers according to Socrates' commitment to truth and justice are yet to come.
We have argued that there is a relationship between Socrates and African philosophy. The question of the meaning of truth and justice was selected as an example to illustrate the relationship. The coincidence of insights between Western and African philosophies with regard to truth and justice was used as the prism for the argument that the political is pre-eminently the ethical and, for this reason, political leadership ought to consciously pursue political holiness even to the point of dying a hundred deaths like Socrates was prepared to do. The contemporary context of government action in national and international politics was identified as the terrain within which political leadership of the kind and quality of Socrates ought to emerge. To give substance to this, the "arms deal" of South Africa was given as an example. The cumulative conclusion is that a metanoia is required to bring about a fundamental change in the prevailing relationships between governments and the holders of economic sovereignty. To be consciously aware of this requirement and to implement it in practice - in emulation of Socrates - is to act in defence of truth and justice.
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Gracia, JJE. 1992. Philosophy and its history issues in philosophical historiography. New York: State University of New York Press. [ Links ]
Hallen, B. 2009. A short history of African philosophy. Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press. [ Links ]
Healy, P. 1998. Dialogue across boundaries: on the discursive conditions necessary for a 'politics of recognition'. In Res Publica, Vol IV(1). [ Links ]
Healy, P. 2000. Self-other relations and the rationality of cultures. In Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol 26(6). [ Links ]
Healy, P. 2011. Rethinking deliberative democracy: from deliberative discourse to transformative dialogue. In Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol 37(3). [ Links ]
Hertz, N. 2001. The silent takeover: global capitalism and the death of democracy. London: William Heinemann. [ Links ]
Holden, P & Van Vuuren, H. 2011. The devil in the detail: how the arms deal changed everything. Johannesburg & Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers. [ Links ]
Kung, H. 1968. Truthfulness: the future of the church. London & Sydney: Sheed & Ward. [ Links ]
Ladikos, A. 2003. Hermeneutical paradoxes in the trial of Socrates. In Phronimon, Vol 4(1). [ Links ]
Mungwini, P. 2012. Re-membering Socrates through dialogue with Africa: a philosophical reflection. In Phronimon, Vol 13(2). [ Links ]
Obenga, T. 2006. Egypt: ancient history of African philosophy. In K. Wiredu, A companion to African philosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. [ Links ]
Osuagwu, IM. 1999. African historical reconstruction. Owerri: Amamihe Publications. [ Links ]
Ramcharan, BG. 1983. The right to life. In The Netherlands International Law Review, XXX p. 297-329. [ Links ]
Ramose, MB. 2010. The death of democracy and the resurrection of timocracy. In Journal of Moral Education, Vol 39(3). [ Links ]
Seaford, R. 2004. Money and the early Greek mind. Cambridge University Press. [ Links ]
Sobrino, J. 1988. Spirituality of liberation: toward political holiness, (trans) RR. Barr. New York: Orbis Books. [ Links ]
1 Here one may recall Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4. It is here that we find the famous: "To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." Here the contrast is directly between truth and falsity. Honesty does not feature at all. This does not mean that it is irrelevant to truthfulness. Nor does it mean that it is insignificant. In the same Hamlet, Act II, Scene II we read: "Ham. Excellent well; you are a fishmonger. Pol. Not I, my lord. Ham. Then I would you were so honest a man. Pol. Honest, my lord! Ham. Ay, sir; to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand." In this conversation, honesty reads like truthfulness. This reading is affirmed by a similar conversation later on in the same Act and Scene: "Ham. What news? Ros. None, my lord, but that the world's grown honest. Ham. Then is doomsday near..."


text:
As you probably figured out, I've been on a little bloggy break. We've been moving and I can't wait to share with you how God provided a home for us.
If you've been praying for us, THANK YOU!!! I wish I could give you a big hug! (((hug)))
Be back soon (hopefully!)
Love Y'all dearly,
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
As you probably figured out, I've been on a little bloggy break. We've been moving and I can't wait to share with you how God provided a home for us.
Thoughts from Cheryl at 5:12 AM 5 thoughts from Y*O*U
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
New Year's Verse 2010
If you're not familiar with my New Year's verse, then go here. Here are my verses from 2008 and 2009.
Steven read a quote to me the other day from Adrian Rogers. "A New Year's Resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other."
I thought that was so cute!
As you know I don't make resolutions any more. I've been praying about what verse God would want for me in 2010. I felt like He wanted a verse about how He works, or remembering the things He's done, something along those lines. Sunday morning during Sunday school, our lesson pointed out the different translations of the word "fear". To give examples of fear, as in awe or reverence of God, it listed Psalm 40:3 and Proverb 9:10. We didn't look at these verses during the lesson but I wrote them down because I wanted to look them up later. That afternoon, I used an online Bible website to look up the verses. (I was snuggled up on the couch and had left my Bible in the van!) When I pulled up the verse in Proverbs, the website listed other verses that were related to it. One of them was Psalm 111:10, so I clicked over to read it. When I read Psalm 111, I knew it was my 2010 verse. The whole chapter describes what I've been feeling and verse 10 is what I hope to achieve. I want to be wise and want to follow and understand His precepts. Notice the order of the verse. So many times we want to understand before we will be obedient but the Word tells us to follow then we will gain understanding. The key to understanding is obedience.
I'm going to start working on memorizing verse 10 (it should be pretty easy) and I hope to memorize all of chapter 111.
Happy New year, Y'all!
Thoughts from Cheryl at 8:18 AM 0 thoughts from Y*O*U
Labels: new years, resolution, scripture
Friday, January 1, 2010
2009 Flashback
I don't think I've ever done a Year in Review so I thought I'd try it for 2009. I'm going to choose a picture and a post from each month. I hope I can keep it to just one! Hope you enjoy it!
Getting the opportunity to hug Beth Moore's neck and meeting so many wonderful Siestas!
The children at our church covered Valentine's Day notes all over Steven's car!
Favorite February post.
Favorite March post
So much happened in April, I can't pick one favorite post!
God's humor, Asher's birth, and Steven's heart attack !
Our first family picture.
Favorite May post
Favorite June post
Favorite July post
If you want to read the story behind this pic, go here!
Favorite August post
Favorite September post and post
Favorite October post
Favorite November post
Favorite December post
Whew.....that was a lot of work. But looking back over the year in picture and words has been alot of fun. It's amazing to see how the kids have grown and to read about all the things we've experienced this year. It's a reminder of my life verse, Jeremiah 29:11. It makes excited about what God has in store for us in 2010!
As always, love y'all dearly!!!!
Thoughts from Cheryl at 3:15 PM 3 thoughts from Y*O*U
Labels: 2009, reflection

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Stephen Colbert may be hilarious, but there's nothing funny about his dedication to his nearest and dearest.
The Emmy (and Grammy, he's happy to remind us) winner unexpectedly suspended production on The Colbert Report yesterday, and the Wall Street Journal was first to report that the "unforeseen circumstances" that prompted the hiatus were actually a family emergency.
According to the Huffington Post, meanwhile, it's the family matriarch, Colbert's 91-year-old mother, Lorna, who is "seriously ill."
MORE: Stephen Colbert "Rolling Seven Digits Deep" With Super PAC
Colbert, who was originally one of 11 children (two brothers died along with his father in a plane crash in 1974), has not tweeted any updates since Valentine's Day and Comedy Central is remaining similarly quiet on the subject.
Both The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, which usually schedule their breaks at the same time, were in repeats last week and were back in action Mondaybut a Report repeat was necessary Wednesday and will be again today after Colbert shut down production.
Stewart has shut down The Daily Show without a heads-up only twiceafter the death of a staff member and when his second child was born.
View the original article here| Syndicate Celebrity News using RSS here[/vc_column_text][/vc_row]


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BBC News
- Labour pledges to stop NHS prescription charges
- Andrew Fisher: Jeremy Corbyn's senior aide to quit
- Thomas Cook set for last-ditch rescue talks
- Radiohead's Thom Yorke tells of 'hard time' after ex-partner's death
- Photos show planes 'seconds from crash' at Sibson
- Labour vows to scrap education watchdog Ofsted
- Slough skate park stabbing: Boy, 15, killed
- Scottish government wants £52m for no-deal Brexit
- Public toilets 'absolute necessity', politicians are warned
- Bristol Prison: Throwing items over jail wall 'deeply disturbing'
- Harlesden stabbing: Boy, 16, charged with murder
- 'I stole a plane to get out of the Navy'
- We Are Stoke-on-Trent: 'Why we came to Stoke'
- The Scottish model whose career took off at 60
- What is Labour's Brexit plan?
- 'Wheelchair crowdsurfing makes me feel powerful'
- Thomas Cook customers fear ruined weddings and holidays
- Stratford vet tries to save orangutan shot 130 times
- Labour conference: Five things to look out for in Brighton
- Peaky Blinders: Take a tour of museum filming location
- Orkambi: Cystic fibrosis drug buyers' club travels to Argentina
- Labour conference: Tom Watson says there's been a 'bad start'
- Labour conference: Jeremy Corbyn asked about plot to oust Tom Watson
- UK veteran, 97, parachutes again over Arnhem
- Climate march organiser: 'This could be a tipping point'
- The Papers: Corbyn's key aide 'walks out'
- Pedestrian dies after being struck by car
- Brexit: How would no-deal affect Northern Ireland?
- Mark Drakeford: The UK must be reformed to survive
Local Pubs in CALDECOTT:
BeerInTheEvening.com search for pubs in CALDECOTT
TheGoodPubGuide.co.uk search for pubs in CALDECOTT


text:
Wacha paces Cardinals past Reds 5-3
ST. LOUIS (AP) — Michael Wacha outdid Tony Cingrani in a rematch of young power arms and the St. Louis Cardinals got a three-run double from Yadier Molina in the first inning, beating the Cincinnati Reds 5-3 in their home opener on Monday.
Standing room attendance of 47,492, the largest crowd at 9-year-old Busch Stadium, braved daylong rain and temperatures in the 40s to greet the National League champions and take a look at the new Ballpark Village. Hundreds milled about the attached complex, which features five sports bars and rooftop seating.
The Cardinals bunched three hits and a walk over the first five hitters to take the early lead against Cingrani (0-1), who allowed two hits in seven scoreless innings six days earlier in Cincinnati.
The Cards went 1 for 18 before adding RBIs from Matt Holliday and Allen Craig off Trevor Bell in a two-run seventh.
St. Louis ended a three-game losing streak on opening day, including a blowout loss to the Reds last year.
The 22-year-old Wacha (1-0) hadn't allowed a run in 21 career innings against the Reds before back-to-back doubles by Brayan Pena and pinch hitter Roger Bernadina in the fifth cut the Cardinals' lead to 3-1.
The NL championship series MVP benefited from two double-play balls in six stingy innings and has permitted one run in 13 2-3 innings his first two starts.
Cingrani needed 31 pitches to exit the first and lasted four innings, striking out five but walking four. Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said before the game that his hitters had been a "click off" with timing against the 24-year-old lefty last week and should benefit from another chance so soon.
Peter Bourjos moved up to second in the order and got his first two hits of the season after an 0 for 13 start. Craig got his third hit and third RBI of the season after entering 2 for 22.
Seeing Wacha once again didn't do the Reds any good.
The start of the game was delayed 12 minutes after the inclement weather combined with pregame ceremonies that featured the traditional grand entrance with players, coaches and Hall of Famers touring Busch Stadium on the back of convertibles and trucks. A team of Clydesdales was kept in the stable due to concerns the field might be damaged.
Billy Hamilton doubled to start the game and the Reds put the leadoff man on base in the first four innings but were undone by two double plays.
Zack Cozart broke an 0-for-22 slump to start the season with a bloop RBI single and pinch hitter Neftali Soto had a sacrifice fly for his first career RBI in the ninth against St. Louis closer Trevor Rosenthal.
The Cardinals opened the first with singles by Matt Carpenter and Bourjos and Holliday walked to load the bases with none out. Craig struck out before Molina cleared them with a drive to left center on a 1-2 pitch.
NOTES: Lance Lynn (1-0, 5.40) opposes Homer Bailey (0-1, 8.31) in the second game of the series, another rematch from the season-opening series in Cincinnati. Lynn allowed three runs in five innings and Bailey gave up four runs in 4 1-3 innings in St. Louis' 7-6 win. … The Reds anticipate activating reliever Jonathan Broxton (forearm) from the 15-day disabled list Tuesday. The team held off making the move Monday to give Broxton two days off after pitching on consecutive days. … Pena had two doubles and caught Cingrani for the second straight start. Devin Mesoraco was activated from the DL earlier in the day and figures to get the bulk of the playing time.


text:
Zelaya can't return to office, Honduras leader says
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Honduras' interim president told McClatchy on Monday that he won't agree to any proposal to resolve his country's political crisis that would allow ousted President Manuel Zelaya to return to power.
Roberto Micheletti, who was named interim president after the military bundled Zelaya onto an airplane June 28 and sent him to Costa Rica, said that Zelaya would be jailed and tried on 18 charges of violating the constitution if he returned.
"The only way President Zelaya can return is if he submits himself to the justice system," Micheletti said.
In an exclusive 40-minute interview, Micheletti also accused the U.S. ambassador here, Hugo Llorens, of tilting unfairly in favor of Zelaya during the crisis, rejected accusations that his government has abused human rights in putting down protests and said that he doesn't expect the Obama administration to slap tough economic sanctions on Honduras.
Micheletti's comments confirmed analysts' assertions that he plans to withstand international pressure to allow Zelaya's return under a plan being negotiated by Costa Rican President Oscar Arias. In doing so, his government and its supporters in the business community think they can ride out possible economic sanctions and a refusal by foreign governments to recognize the winners of the presidential and congressional elections Nov. 29.
Micheletti said that Zelaya couldn't be trusted because, Micheletti charged, he'd violated the constitution by attempting to hold a referendum with the aim of rewriting the constitution so that he could run for re-election. Under Arias' proposal, Zelaya would agree not to push for a change in re-election law in return for Micheletti's allowing him to return to office.
"He'd never keep his word," Micheletti said. "I know him. I helped him become president. He was a democrat. But he became a leftist with a plan to follow Ecuador and Venezuela. He wanted to become a dictator and emulate (Venezuelan President Hugo) Chavez."
What Zelaya hoped to gain from the referendum is a point of contention in Honduras. The proposed referendum question didn't mention the issue of re-election and asked only whether voters should decide Nov. 29 whether to call for a constituent assembly. Zelaya and his supporters claim that the referendum was nonbinding and that any change would have taken place after Zelaya had left office.
However, Micheletti said he believed that Zelaya intended to try to force a rewrite of the constitution before the election in an effort to remain in power. Chavez successfully pressed Venezuelan voters to allow him to run for re-election after they initially defeated such a measure.
Interviewed at his home on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Micheletti, a 66-year-old father of nine, was relaxed, a marked difference from when he met with foreign reporters shortly after the coup and refused to answer some questions and bristled at others.
Micheletti wore a square-tailed tropical shirt known as a guayabera and sat in his living room. His dog was given free rein to run about until the interview started.
As Micheletti spoke, pro-Zelaya protesters once again blocked key streets in Tegucigalpa, the capital, and teachers continued a strike that's kept the capital's public schools closed. There were no reports of violence.
Micheletti recalled that he'd spent 27 days in prison — "because I was a democrat" — after President Ramon Villeda Morales was deposed in a 1963 coup. Micheletti had been a member of Morales' presidential honor guard.
In the 1970s, Micheletti spent five years studying and working in Tampa, Fla., and New Orleans before returning to Honduras and helping to usher in a return to democratic rule as a member of Congress, where he served 29 years. He was the president of Congress when Zelaya was deposed.
One question Micheletti wouldn't answer: Was it illegal for the military to spirit Zelaya out of the country instead of simply arresting him, as the country's Supreme Court had ordered?
"I might have committed the same mistake to avoid a bigger confrontation, a lot of bloodshed," he said.
He defended police from allegations that they've beaten pro-Zelaya demonstrators. One demonstrator on Sunday showed a McClatchy reporter a bruise on his leg, where he said police had struck him with clubs.
Micheletti said soldiers and police officers simply had been trying to defend themselves.
Micheletti also said he hoped that Llorens, who left for the United States for vacation on Friday, wouldn't return. "He hasn't been fair," he said.
The State Department issued a statement of support for Llorens on Monday.
Micheletti said he doesn't expect the Obama administration to go beyond the light restrictions it's imposed on Honduras.
"Doing so would most hurt social programs for the poor," Micheletti said, adding that the United States has been "a longtime ally."
He said he'd happily retire from politics when he'd turn over power to his elected successor Jan. 27. He said he'd return to his hometown of El Progreso. There, he said, he owns a 185-acre cattle farm and is one of 60 partners in a bus company.
Edmundo Orellana, who's been a political ally of Micheletti's at times over the years but was Zelaya's defense minister, said he thought that Micheletti meant what he said about Zelaya's return.
"When he says he feels a certain way about something, you can bet that he won't be moved," Orellana said. "He's a good friend and a bad enemy."
Zelaya may return to Honduras even if he faces arrest
Time running out for Arias mediation in Honduras?
Despite Chavez's efforts, Peru isn't buying into his dream
China makes its move as U.S. falls back in Latin America
Latin America's populist leaders are sharing hard times
Now, Ahmadinejad's corner: Chavez, Swaziland and Hamas
Follow South American news at McClatchy's Inside South America


text:
Telephone Mamas
Telephone Mamas:
Separating Families to Serve Our Own
I have known women who mother their children from afar: by check, or Western Union, or bills tucked into letters. They mother by telephone or cards sent through a mail service so unreliable that by the time the news arrives it is already old. They mother by way of presents stuffed into suitcases on their way to El Salvador, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua.
They have risked arrest, robbery, rape. They have risked death by heatstroke, death by drowning in the Rio Grande, death by the bullet of an Arizona vigilante, a Texas rancher or an overzealous border patrol. They have hidden in hot sealed trucks packed with a hundred plus strangers for twenty-two hours through foreign countries on their way from there to here. They have risked losing husbands and lovers, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, and their own offspring.
They have given up Sundays at church, afternoons in the square listening to mariachi music, eating ice cream atop a wall on a lazy day under the shade of the laurel trees. They have each risked missing the day when her child first learns to walk, the day her child comes home from school to show off a report card, the day the teacher calls to say her child is in trouble for cheating on a test and the opportunity to teach her not to cheat; each has risked missing the day her daughter gets her period, the day her son kisses his first girl.
They have risked losing their children's love with every time they cannot answer through the static telephone line the question: When are you coming home Mama?
They compile excuses: when the laws change, when I save enough money, when President Clinton takes a stand, when president Bush passes that law, when President Obama gets elected, when President Obama lives up to his promises.
They have risked not being able to erase the rage of a little boy or girl who does not understand that Mama has gone to pay for the shoes and the school and the medicine for the flu and that Spider man action figure or the Dora the Explorer doll. They have risked not being able to retrieve the lost years.
Because they cannot carry their children, they carry pieces of them: wrinkled photographs, snippets of hair, baby teeth dangling from gold earring clasps.
These women populate our most intimate spaces: our kitchens, our bathrooms, our playgrounds. We entrust them with the chores we would rather not do: cleaning our toilets, working our land, fighting our wars, wiping our babies bottoms. We entrust them with our children; but we cannot entrust them to drive a car or to get a degree. We cannot entrust them with our Constitutional rights.
These women have cleaned my house, mothered my children, mothered me. Their stories come to me in bits and pieces over the heads of my babies, on the way to the pediatrician, whispered late at night in the hallway when my children are finally asleep.
Graciela began her days by chasing my boys around the kitchen island until laughter filled the house. But one day, I found her silently hunched over a sink full of dishes, her gold cross hanging from her neck.
"Mi Papa esta muriendo" she said. Her father was dying. She hadn't seen him in three years.
"Can't you go back?" I said. "Isn't it better to be with your family and have less, than to stay here miserable?"
She looked at me as if to say, What would you know about making such choices? I am a white American citizen, and privileged enough to have my own house, a nanny and my own children under my own roof.
If Graciela went back, she explains her family wouldn't be able to make the rent, pay for the funeral, or support her fourteen year old daughter who just gave birth to her one-year-old grandchild. The one she's never met. The birth she blamed herself for, because how can you mother a child by telephone?
Two weeks later her father died. She paid for the funeral. She stopped running around my kitchen island.
Beatriz at 27 knew things I was still trying to grasp at 38. She taught me how to calm an inconsolable baby, how to remain calm even when you're low on sleep and patience. She (who hasn't seen her 11 year old son and 14 year old daughter in six years) swaddled my babies up like tamales with all the love that's left over, and then some.
I know what it is to leave my children for one night or two. I cannot imagine what it is to leave them for a month, and watching that month turn into a year, or two, or eight, or ten. "How do you do it?" I asked.
She shrugged and said, "You do what you have to."
Beatriz' own mother left for the US when Beatriz was just a girl.
"Weren't you angry?" I asked.
"I was," she answered. She does not say that she knows history is repeating itself, or that she is still angry.
Today Beatriz and her mother are reunited. They work side by side to send money home to the grandchildren and children they cannot touch.
Twenty-four year old Valeria came to me when my twin babies were five weeks old. She knew how to rock one baby in the car seat with the tip of your toe while you burp the other across your shoulder. She taught me how to calm an inconsolable baby, how to remain calm even when you're low on sleep and patience.
Four years earlier, her husband was killed in a car crash, leaving her with a three year old daughter and pile of hospital bills. Her 20 year old brother C. was shot three doors down from her house. They lived in a gang ridden neighborhood where people often got caught in the crossfire or got killed as a part of someone's initiation ritual.
If you met Valeria you'd never know she carts around all this history. She has the disposition of Mary Poppins. She taught me how to how to blow bubbles with soap, water and two bare hands. She taught me how to make hats out of paper bags and how to make my children obey me by tickling them instead of scolding.
Sometimes we'd find ourselves on our knees picking up the clutter: the puzzles, the paintbrushes, the toy dishes, the duck on a string, the train set, the blocks that are so numerous you cannot walk without tripping over them. I regretted that I could not build a school with all those toys, that all the money in the world could not buy her daughter what she needed most.
Some days Valeria came to me with bags under her eyes, and I'd know that she'd just gotten off the phone. One day, her daughter told her, "Mami, you don't love me with all your heart."
Even though I feared losing her, I encouraged Valeria to go home. I was tired of participating in this love stealing—where one child is robbed of a mother, and another gets twice the love.
Although I'm not normally religious, these women have taught me the importance of faith. They shrug and say, "If God wills it."
But I'm an American. I was taught to believe in justice for all, in the right of every individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I don't believe in giving up without a good fight.
On this mother's day I offer up a prayer to those I've trusted in to create change: We The People. I pray that our Berlin wall will be ripped down. I pray that one day these women won't have to choose between leaving their children and putting food on their table. I pray that one day when I say to these women "Feliz Dia de los Madres" it won't be an expression weighted with sorrow.
* names of those involved have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved.
The author is a humor writer for Huffington Post and Inhabitots. She's raising her twin sons to dance tango, speak Spanish and wash their own dishes.


text:
Old good Simcity still looking for a good formula
While waiting for the game I watched all the developers movies. They were promising. The games is great, too. But it leaves too many ways for cheating. Especially in deals with neighbours. Still some areas for improvement :) But they will manage.
by Sixth Praetorian, Switzerland - Nov 21st 2016


text: NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- Darden Restaurants Inc. DRI, -5.07% shares fell 9% in premarket trades on Tuesday after it said it expects adjusted second-quarter profit of 25 to 26 cents a share. The Orlando, Fla., operator of Olive Garden and Red Lobster eateries was expected to earn 46 cents a share, according to a survey by FactSet. Darden said it'll book about 5 cents a share in second-quarter acquisition costs related to its purchase of Yard House, USA Inc. Superstorm Sandy also impacted its second-quarter results by about a penny a share. For fiscal 2013, Darden expects adjusted earnings of $3.29 to $3.49 a share, which includes 10 cents a share in closing costs. Analysts estimated 2013 earnings of $3.87 a share for Darden.


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The Elixir 11077 80/20 Bronze Nanoweb Light-Medium Guitar Strings 12-56 is a pack of 6-string acoustic guitar strings, made from 80/20 bronze with a Nanoweb coating and comes in a light-medium gauge of .012-.056. These strings deliver distinctive phosphor bronze warmth and sparkle as well as an extended tone life. Producing a consistent performance and tone, the 80/20 Nanoweb acoustic strings offer a smooth feel that enhances playability and reduces finger squeaking. The steel strings have an anti-rust plating that resists tone corrosion.
The main features of the Elixir 11077 80/20 Bronze Nanoweb Light-Medium Guitar Strings 12-56 include:


text:
|30 May 2010
help- blue screen
i am getting a blue screen. also, my laptop will only start in safe mode. i cant even get online help. ive tried everything.
|My System Specs
|30 May 2010
Win 8 Release candidate 8400
We need the actual DMP file created when the computer crashed. Use these to find and upload it to us. https://www.sevenforums.com/crash-loc...d-problem.html
|My System Specs
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text:
Monday, January 23, 2012
Love, love me do...
It snowed and snowed and snowed yesterday. And while I had a few things I should have taken care of, I kinda just took a day for me instead. I may be paying for it later this week but hopefully not too much.
What I did do (after shoveling more snow than I would like) was hunker down in my crafty room and color up a storm of my own, LOL! Some of which included this Sugar Nellie Rosie image that I decided to also feature in a couple coloring videos... and a card making video, which is a first for me. If you're interested, and have some free time, you can check out the videos here, here and here... as well as at Color Me Copic.
It was a little weird filming my process, especially since it is a pretty basic 'Amy' card and nothing ground breaking. Because I pretty much said everything there I'm now having a hard time thinking what to write about it that doesn't feel repetitive, LOL.
Well, I've got a long day ahead of me so I should go get ready for it. I hope this Monday is good to you! :)
Supply list:
cardstock- Bazzill and Copic X-Press It
paper- Making Memories (Love Struck)
stamp- Sugar Nellie (Rosie)
ink- Memento tuxedo black and Colorbox dark brown
Martha Stewart border punch
Ranger Liquid Pearls white opal
crochet heart
Kaiser Craft pearls
Copic Spica red glitter pen
Copic markers:
skin- E000, E00, E11, R00, R20
hair- YR20, YR21, YR24, E35
clothes- R30, R32, R35, R39, E57, E59, E49, E81, 0, R43, R46, R59, YG95, YG99
32 comments:
- Hlora said...
I love your creations today !!
- January 23, 2012 at 5:03 AM
- sweet said...
Sweet card and I love the papers you used. That heart is adorable!
- January 23, 2012 at 5:16 AM
- Valchen said...
What a lovely card! And the way you coloured the sweet image... it's just fabulous!
- January 23, 2012 at 5:44 AM
- Pöydän kulmalla näpertelijä said...
So sweet! Love how you've coloured her dress.
- January 23, 2012 at 5:56 AM
- Maria Therese said...
- January 23, 2012 at 6:31 AM
- Renkata said...
Gorgeous dress, love how you have colored her dress.
Very cute card Amy.
- January 23, 2012 at 6:36 AM
- Heidi Brawley said...
your card is GORGEOUS! I watched the video last night for it! Awesome! Love that crochet heart on it too!
Have a Great week doll!
Hugs, Heidi
- January 23, 2012 at 6:40 AM
- Creations by Shirl said...
Such a pretty card, cute image and love that crochet heart....
- January 23, 2012 at 6:48 AM
- Tanya said...
Beautiful! I am excited about the videos, off to watch, thanks!
- January 23, 2012 at 7:14 AM
- Kathy B said...
Darling card!
- January 23, 2012 at 7:26 AM
- gobeagirl said...
Amy I watched you color her and now I will have to go and see how you came up with this adorable card.. I love Rosie. She looks so pretty and one of these days I am going to get my hair colors to come out as light as you do. I am very heavy handed I guess. lol... Anyway, I love her pink dress as well. Just adorable. Be safe driving to work. Hugs, Lisa
- January 23, 2012 at 7:30 AM
- Tress said...
She is so sweet! And your coloring of her adds so much life to the character.
- January 23, 2012 at 7:43 AM
- Tanya said...
I just finished the videos, they were amazing! You explain the light and dark areas so well, thank you!
- January 23, 2012 at 8:31 AM
- Jacilynn said...
this is so sweet! loved your coloring tutorial!
- January 23, 2012 at 9:02 AM
- corry'kaart said...
hallo amy
wat een lieve en mooie kaart en dat jurkje zo mooi ingekleurd,super!
groetjes van corry
- January 23, 2012 at 9:29 AM
- Rhonda Miller said...
So cute. I love that image.
- January 23, 2012 at 10:42 AM
- Annie Rose said...
Again, I say, you never disappoint! Thank you for sharing your coloring and card-making skills.
The way you tied on the bow with the hole-punch first is fantastic - you are going to be saving me feet and feet of adhesive! hee hee
- January 23, 2012 at 11:09 AM
- kadie said...
This is absolutely adorable, Amy!
- January 23, 2012 at 11:43 AM
- Kit said...
this is so sweet, I love everything about it
- January 23, 2012 at 11:49 AM
- yvon said...
So pretty and so adorable.
Hugs, Yvon
- January 23, 2012 at 12:52 PM
- Kim Y. said...
This is awesome, Amy! Great tutorial you id too!
- January 23, 2012 at 1:03 PM
- Shirley N said...
Beautiful card and great videos Amy!!!
- January 23, 2012 at 1:32 PM
- Leanne said...
Wow! Ur gonna be buff by the time all the snow melts! :)
Aw, this is gorgeous. I haven't had a chance to look at the vids yet, but it's on my list during CHA. As always, gorgeous colors and well put together. Can't wait to see how the Amy project goes. :)
- January 24, 2012 at 8:36 AM
- Marzenciuk said...
Cute Card and I love this song...
- January 24, 2012 at 8:39 AM
- Kath said...
I watched your videos and enjoyed them so much... especially the one that showed how you went about puttung the card together.. that one was so helpful to me. love the card
- January 24, 2012 at 10:12 AM
- Shazza said...
it's beautiful.
- January 24, 2012 at 10:34 AM
- Shirley N said...
I saw your coloring videos earlier but only now watched the 3rd one of you putting the card together and I loved watching you Amy! I didn't realize you used the coluzzle--that was so interesting to see. It does look easier, I'm surely going to try it, TFS Amy! Fabulous videos!!!
- January 24, 2012 at 6:41 PM
- Mimi said...
Beautiful card Amy! Pretty colors and papers too! Really loved all three videos you made... VERY helpful tips! Have a wonderful day!! ;)
- January 25, 2012 at 1:24 PM
- Jani said...
Wonderful card!
Love it!
Jani x
- January 26, 2012 at 7:50 AM
- Vera W. Yates (Ling) said...
Amy, this card is so sweet & adorable! Love how you colored the dress!
- January 26, 2012 at 2:18 PM
- scrapncathy said...
I love the way you colored her dress! To stinking cute I must say! One question though.... Every time I look at this image it looks like it needs to be turned and she should be in a sitting position?
- January 26, 2012 at 4:48 PM
- RiNNE said...
If you mean amazing design, fabulous coloring, and genius element placements, then YES! This is a basic Amy card :). Awesome, AWESOME ombre coloring...is that the correct spelling? So sweet!!!
- January 30, 2012 at 11:11 AM


text:
Having princess hair doesn't just happen for everyone (except if your name is Kate Middleton). To create a royally awesome style like the Duchess of Cambridge's, take a cue from this Clairol Natural Instincts video — and celebrity stylist Ryan Trygstad — and then tweet a picture of your hair to @Cosmopolitan, hashtaging #CosmoSexyHair.
12 Super-Easy Hair Looks Every Woman Can Do in Five MinutesHair How-To: A Modern Voluminizing WaveHair How-To: A Textured Twist
Follow Carly on Twitter.
Photo Credit: Kristina Carucci


text:
There's no shame in jumping on board the most popular game in town. So even the Museum of Fine Arts has found a way to celebrate the beloved hometown team.
There's no shame in jumping on board the most popular game in town. So even the Museum of Fine Arts has found a way to celebrate the beloved hometown team.
Nestled in a corner between two galleries (Art of Europe and Old Kingdom Egypt) is a small exhibit that features Norman Rockwell's "The Rookie" (which was on the cover of the March 2, 1957, Saturday Evening Post), along with Red Sox memorabilia that includes Hideki Okajima's 2007 World Series jersey and a ticket stub from the 2008 MLB Season Opener that was recently played in Japan.
The exhibit is titled "Rockwell and the Shinjin" (the Japanese word for "rookie") and will be on display at the MFA through July 20 in the Upper Rotunda.
Appropriately enough, the exhibit also features an artistic rookie in Abraham Schroeder, who has been a research assistant for Japanese prints at the museum for five years. One of his pieces, a contemporary woodblock print of pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka that he made last year, is in the exhibit.
"I made it when I heard Matsuzaka was coming to town," says Schroeder. "The entire city was buzzing about him coming. So was Japan. It was the same kind of excitement that followed celebrities in 19th century Japan who were featured on woodblock prints."
That's the connection the exhibit makes — merging the Japanese baseball players on the Red Sox with the museum's collection.
"With this exhibit, I wanted to connect Opening Day with Japan," explains curator Karen Quinn. "The Japanese collection is important part of the museum and has been called the best in the world."
Quinn describes herself as "a lifelong Sox fan" who donned Red Sox earrings and a Sox shirt under her blazer for Opening Day.
"My grandfather was a Boston Braves fan," says Quinn. "Growing up in Connecticut, we used to go to Fenway all the time. In fact, through some fluke, my family got tickets to the 1975 World Series."
That's right. The series that ESPN ranked the second-greatest of all time and the one where Carlton Fisk hit the game-winning home run in Game Six. Quinn was there.
So when the museum found out that they would get "The Rookie" on loan, Quinn was the natural person to create an exhibit around the piece.
The painting features veteran Red Sox players: catcher Sammy White (lower left), pitcher Frank Sullivan (number 18) on the bench next to outfielder Jackie Jensen, Ted Williams in the center, and infielder Bill Goodman on the far right. The figure in the upper left corner is "John J. Anonymous," a random player put in by Rockwell.
But it's the figure of the lanky and bright-eyed rookie in the middle of Rockwell's painting that has captivated people for years. The model for him was Sherman Safford, a high school athlete from Pittsfield, who Rockwell picked out of a lunch line.
"Rockwell liked him because he was tall and goofy-looking," laughs Quinn.We tracked him down.
"I think a big, gangly, goofy kid was just what he was looking for," laughs Safford, who is 6 feet, 4 inches tall. "He gave me his hat to wear, which was too small, and I had a jacket on that went to my elbows."
The painting has followed Safford around since then, starting with signed copies of the Saturday Evening Post for his drill sergeant to co-workers saying they saw him on wallpaper at their local Home Depot.
But it's the magazine's inclusion in the Baseball Hall of Fame that still gets Safford to this day.
"My dad called me and said 'You'll be happy to know you made it to the Hall of Fame,'" says Safford. "I made it to the Hall of Fame before my heroes."Fast Fact:
Since being contacted by the MFA for this exhibit, Sherman Safford and Frank Sullivan (the only two living members in the portrait) have become e-mail pen pals.Rockwell and the Shinjin Through July 20 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Call 617-267-9300


text:
I'm having trouble solving the following number theory problem in my textbook:
Let a $\in Z$ with $a > 0$. Prove that there exists $k, n \in Z$ with n odd such that $a = 2^k n$
So far I've tried writing $n$ as an odd integer (i.e. n = 2q + 1) and then reducing somehow but that doesn't seem to be the correct way to solve it because I can only prove that $a$ can be even and not odd.
Any help would be appreciated?


text:
Elite teams of computer gurus hack into Google and find loads of credit card numbers and sensitive information
By Paul Shukovsky, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 5, 2005
Teams of hackers surfed the Web at Seattle University yesterday, harvesting Social Security and credit card numbers like a farmer cutting wheat. In less than an hour, they found millions of names, birth dates and numbers -- cyberburglar tools for the crime of identity theft -- using just one, familiar Internet search engine: Google.
But these were the good guys -- members of a somewhat secretive organization of computer security pros, forensic cybercops, prosecutors and federal agents called Agora.
The group decided to lift the curtain of secrecy for a day to sound a warning about the dangers of "Google hacking."
It turns out that the powerful search engine, in the hands of a knowledgeable cybertrekker, can ferret out all kinds of sensitive information never meant to be made public. All it takes are sophisticated search terms. The terms go beyond specifying key words to include file types. The right terms can even find information deleted from corporate or government Web sites but temporarily cached in Google's massive warehouse of data.
Kirk Bailey, the city of Seattle's chief information-security officer, calls his Agora compatriots "the primary defenders of the virtual world in the Northwest." Before launching eight teams of hackers from companies such as Intel Corp. and computer-security consultants IOActive, Bailey declared that "our mission is to find answers on how to fix these problems."
The hacking team members sat crunched together at round tables, each one hunched intently over a laptop. Bailey gave them the go-ahead, and fingers started flying across keyboards.
"A little music to hack by," said IOActive consultant Frank Heidt, but he then turned off the audio and got down to business.
"We're simulating an ID-theft ring," mumbled Heidt, who was focused on his screen as he entered a search term that, to the uninitiated, looked like nothing more than a jumble of meaningless letters.
Moments later, Heidt bellowed out "Yes" as military credit card numbers filled his screen. In the next chair, Akshay Aggarwal, also with IOActive, was grinning. "A million Social Security numbers of immigrants. Tax records. Addresses. What do you want?"
Around the room, hackers were compromising people's identities. They wouldn't even let the dead rest in peace.
The Intel team found a Web site listing the names, birth dates, Social Security numbers, race and religion of 602 helicopter pilots who died in Vietnam.
Another Intel team member came up with a Brazilian Web site that contained the names, credit card numbers, birth dates and home phone numbers of 388 Americans who appeared to have ordered pornographic movies online.
Bailey called the meeting to order to announce results of the contest. An ad-hoc group of lawyers and computer-security specialists won with 190 million points by digging up death certificates with Social Security numbers. But more ominously, by searching for personnel with secret clearances, the team found, in a U.S. Navy site, personal information on an expert in virology investigations and on a responder to nuclear emergencies.
Two teams found information about people on terrorist watch lists. The IOActive team was the runner-up with almost 13 million points.
IOActive Chief Executive Officer Joshua Pennell pointed out that the problem is not with Google, but with corporate cultures with the attitude, "Nobody is going to find me, nobody cares what's on my computer." These companies allow Google to enter into the public portion of their networks, sometimes called the DMZ, and index all the information contained there. Toby Kohlenberg, an information-security specialist with Intel, asserted that "Google doesn't need to be fixed. Companies need to understand that they are leaving themselves exposed" by posting sensitive information in public places. "If they're performing proper security, then their intranet shouldn't be vulnerable to a Google search engine."


text: The SICSlowpan project develops the next-generation protocol stacks for the Internet of Things. We leverage the uIP IP stack and the Contiki operating system together with the recent 6lowpan standardization work within the IETF to create open source software that is open, useable, and available to embedded developers and researchers worldwide. The project is funded by the .SE Internet Fund.


text:
We need a better bug tracker than this. User:Miloh has been looking at Roundup as a solution, as recommended by User:Malaclyps --Malaclyps 21:00, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
The downstairs buzzer is broken. I'll ping the gate hackers. --Malaclyps 21:00, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
Lighting in Church is non-operational. --Malaclyps 21:46, 20 April 2012 (UTC)
We need a CO2 extinguisher for the lasercutter. The current one will destroy the machine. --Malaclyps 19:12, 21 April 2012 (UTC)


text:
Never chill your glassware, and decline if served a frosted glass. Why? As the beer hits the frosted glass condensation will occur and dilute your beer, while at the same time alter the serving temperature.
Hand-wash all glasses. Some dishwashers will leave a residue, which may effect the head retention as well as the flavor and aroma. Use a mild dishwashing soap, and if you are really anal retentive have a separate sponge for your glass ware so there is not cross contamination from greasy food particles on a used sponge. Let them air dry, do not hand dry because the towel may leave dust particles which will affect the head retention. Caring for you glassware in this manner will also protect gold- or silver- rimmed glasses and glasses with silk-screened brewery logos.
Pouring beer is an art, and definitely part of the overall tasting experience. We always suggest that you drink a beer out of a glass, and recommend that you read the Beer Glass Guide. It's a great primer to understating why, and a guide guide to pairing a beer to its appropriate glass.
The following demonstrates the most common pouring technique which can be applied to most beers and glassware types. You'll also find that most bartenders pour draught beer as follows too.Steps to a Perfect Pint


text:
Welcome to Our Famous Dunsmuir Motel, Resort, and Vacation Rentals on the Upper-Sacramento River!
Cave Springs is one of northern California's best green motels and resorts! We've made substantial energy efficiency improvements to reduce our resort's carbon footprint and resource use. A new solar hot-water system heats our pool, spa and laundry water, and we will begin generating solar electricity in 2014! Modern on-demand hot water sytems supply our resort cabins while using substantially less gas than in the past. We take stewardship seriously, and plan to continue to reduce waste and improve energy efficiency.
Book a Dunsmuir Vacation Rental, Cabin, or Motel Room Today!
We want to help you find the right property for your vacation! Call us or use our online reservation system. Select the category of rental you want to book - Motel Rooms in our Dunsmuir Motel, rustic Resort Cabins, or Vacation Rental Properties, and click on the "Book Online" button to see the drop-down menu. Call us for the best rates, peciual offers and discounts - we'd like to help you decide on the best vacation rental, motel room, or resort cabin for your vacation. Our new website is being updated daily, so check back frequently, and send us your suggestions. We've added video walk-throughs for many of our Dunsmuir and Mount Shasta Vacation Rentals! Register to receive updates, read Louie's Blog, and receive special offers.


text:
Do you want to come to a party? Southern California punk rock legends Blink-182 will be playing in front of a sold-out BlizzCon crowd on November 9, and you're invited! If you've already scored tickets to BlizzCon 2013, then we'll see you there! If you're not on the guest list, don't worry—we've got you covered.
To enjoy the show from the comfort of your home, check out the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket, and you'll have a front-row seat to all the festivities, from exclusive developer panels to our famous costume contest, and what is sure to be an epic concert from Blink-182 to close out the show.
So what are you waiting for? Order the BlizzCon Virtual Ticket to catch the action online, or check out the press release for more details. We'll see you at the rock show!


text:
I have a web-page I am working on which simply returns a list of entries from a database. Over time, say, if ignored for a month, this list can grow to roughly 100 pages long. The user has the option to "select all" entries on that page and delete them all upon selection.
The issue I have is that the user can add a filter which only shows the entries which are now "expired" and are, therefore, redundant. This means if these results panned out over 50 or so pages, they would have to go through all these pages, hit "select all" and delete each page of results one by one.
The logical solution here would be to have a "delete all" button but I would like some external opinions on how best to implement this/where would be the best place to put it. Below is a rough wireframe of what I have.
download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups


text:
Halloween orgins date back 2000 years ago to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain (prodounced sow-in). October 31st is the Great Sabbat Samhain and fire festival. Samhain means "end of summer" and is an ancient Celtic festival that celebrates the beginning of winter, marked by death and is considered to be the Witches' New Year.
In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1 All Saints' Day, a time to honour saints and martyrs. It is believed that the pope was attempting to replace Celtic festival of the dead with a related, but church-sanctioned holiday. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hollowmas (from Middle English Alholwesse meaning All Saints' Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually Halloween.
November 1, the Day of the Dead (also celebrated by some on November 2) the dead were thought to return to earth. People would leave food on the tables for them and would usually stay indoors.
It's a very special, unique time, the only day of the year when the border between the material and immaterial worlds becomes as fine as a veil, allowing men and women with a pure heart to enter into contact with the Higher Spiritual Forces, and benefit from their protection.
During this very rare exchange, the Druid Spirits send "magic energy" into your life, enabling you to be Lucky, find Love, stay healthy and obtain great good fortune. All the "prayers" and sacred gestures you apply are to trigger the intervention of the Higher Spiritual Forces in your favor.
There's nothing complicated you need to do, as the Spiritual Forces guide you straight to success and happiness.
Witches do divination for guidance. Witches also choose this time to release the "old" in order to allow for the "new". We move from here toward a time of inner growth and introspection as we approach the coming Winter months.
If you have just been through a difficult period in your life, full of anxiety, fear, and moments of discouragement or doubt now is the time to open your heart and mind to those in the unseen world and ask for guidance.


text:
Can you spot the Code violations?
Find the Answer
Joel Nash, design engineer, Tetra Tech, Inc., Pasadena, Calif.; Alan Hartley, Church & Murdock Electric, Erie, Penn.; and Roel Trevino, Trevino Electric, Falfurrias, Texas, all correctly identified the Code violation in the November 2003 column.
After the landscaping work is complete, this sealing fitting won't be accessible for inspection. In addition, this fitting isn't designed for use in direct burial applications.
Per 501.5(C)(1) of the 2002 NEC, "Enclosures for connections or equipment shall be provided with an integral means for sealing, or sealing fittings listed for the location shall be used. Sealing fittings shall be listed for use with one or more specific compounds and shall be accessible."