August 6^th, 2020

     75^th anniversary of Hiroshima, violence during demonstrations, closing down of seminary in Argentina, John Hume, explosion in Beirut, snakes, internet.  I will comment on these things now, or soon.

   Today is the 75^th anniversary of Hiroshima and there are not many left who are the living reasons why we never ever want a nuclear war. They will soon be gone and then there will be less evidence of what nuclear war means. Because of the threat North Korea holds over Japan, Abe Shinzo wants to push for Japan to nuclearize, after solemnly swearing that Japan, after experiencing what nuclear weapons can do, would never nuclearize but would try to persuade the rest of the world that it was a lose lose proposition. Someone once commented saying that those who managed to survive a nuclear war would envy those who died. You can see why when you see the aftereffects of radiation damage to bodies long after the war.

And here we are pulling out of the agreements we made to cut down on nuclear weapons, while India and Pakistan and now North Korea, have all joined the club. I smile when I think of Isreal, who is also nuclearized, doesn’t want Iran to have nuclear capability. It is alright for them to have this threat hanging over the Iranians heads but…..

Another area of concern is how the trump administration hastens to call all demonstrations (legitimate demonstrations, freedom of speech in our constitution) terrorist or anarchic, when they must know that the majority of demonstrators are ordinary people and only a few (they might even be hired by the opposition to make the democrats look bad, as promoting  troublemakers and violence). I would advise the organizers of the demonstrations to take a page out of Martin Luther King Jr.s book, and drill the demonstrators in the absolute necessity of non-violence and keeping an eye out for those who go out of line and start doing violent things. Call the police and tell them about those who are getting out of line and let the news people know that you have done this, As soon as things get violent, the people whom you want to get on your side are pushed away and no longer want to support people who are going to try to use violence to accomplish their goals. And, of course, at present, it helps the government to use the violence to de-legitimize the protest. Maybe I am naïve but they did the same in South Africa, making all blacks look like criminals, twisting legitimate demonstrations into illegitimate destructive acts.

    Recently here in South Africa, there have been many demonstrations against the fact that poor students can’t afford the ever-increasing school fees, but some of the activists get out of hand and burn school buildings or university libraries, or smash teachers cars, not realizing that they are pushing away many people who would otherwise support them trying to find ways to solve their problems.

    You all saw, I am sure, the news about that horrendous explosion in Beirut, that blew out windows as far away as 5 miles, and whose blast was felt in Malta, 150 miles away. What devastation. And who will be held responsible. The Ammonium Nitrate that is so dangerous was stored in a warehouse in the middle of an industrial area that, as is clear now if it wasn’t then, very dangerous. Who is responsible? Good question. You can be sure that no one is responsible. There will be finger pointing----you, not me.   How many changes of the guard were there during that six years. Those who went before, surely, are responsible.  Ha. Watch what is going to happen as we see the corrupt people take over to handle this situation corruptly. Or am I just being cynical.

    In Argentina, a bishop closed the diocesan seminary down because the rector together with the students defied the bishop, who said that, during this coronavirus thing, they should receive communion in the hand rather than on the tongue which was very risky under the circumstances. They defied the bishop and went ahead to receive communion on the tongue so the bishop closed the seminary down. I agree with him.  It seems that the right wing forces (almost all countries, Brazil, with Borsonaro, a prime example, not to mention the US and backers of Trump especially, refusing to wear masks, as simple as that is, making a health issue a political issue) are growing and becoming More vocal and aggressive…..

The death of John Hume (like John Lewis) is something that you should follow up on. He fought for truth and justice in northern Ireland and was criticized for both sides for his stance, against the violence of the IRA as well as the violence to the English soldiers sent to norther Ireland to crush the uprising. He never gave up, in spite or many failures, but eventually, after many years of pushing his non-violence and negotiating with both sides, entrenched in their own cultures for years. He finally succeeded in bringing peace to northern Ireland. I wonder  what is going to happen now with Brexit not having solved the problem of borders between Ireland and Northern reland.

   You will laugh at this but I mentioned snakes. The other day I turned to find a big monkey sitting just outside my partially opened window staring in to see if there were any goodies he could filch. When I turned, he jumped away. My windows open onto an upstairs veranda, which is enclosed by bars that I thought were too close together for any monkeys to get in. I was obviously wrong. The other day I was sitting on the veranda (minding my own business), when a troop of monkeys thundered across the roof, and several of them peeked over the edge of the roof to see what was going on on the veranda. That reminded me of a trick that Bishop Bucher used, before he returned to Germany at the request of his sister who had just lost her husband, He got some plastic snakes and put them on the veranda and when the monkeys saw them they ran. Ha. I did the same and I haven’t seen any monkeys since. It happened that the lady who helps to keep the house clean also went out onto the veranda and made a hasty retreat when she saw the snakes, thinking that they were the real thing.

   As for the internet, it is on and off, on and off, and very frustrating, because we just had a very expensive new system put in and it doesn’t seem that it can provide the service we are paying for. Worse  than just that, I ordered, on line, a booster, because it seems that my room is the one that suffers the most because it is in the middle of the building with many walls blocking the signal. The other day

(to be continued…time for lunch…I will have to go to the monastery for a signal after lunch).

I am getting ready to go to supper. Our guru, Fr. Proud came over when he knew that I had received my order of boosters. He did what had to be done to make it work, and took one of the other 4 along to use at our retreat house. Ha. The advertisement said you just plug it in and it starts to work….so simple. One of Murphy’s corollaries  is, and this is good to remember when you are tempted to think otherwise,   NOTHING IS EVER SIMPLE. I would not have been able to configure and whatever else he did to make it work. It is still a bit dicey because there are several electrical things that are fighting each other or competing with each other and it mixes up the signals, so he explains to me. Ha. I just have to believe it because I have no clue otherwise. I am off to supper now. Be back shortly, after the news, always more about the explosion in Beirut.

Aug. 7^th.   As you might expect. I got happy too soon. I had hoped that the problem about internet access was solved. I should know better. Murphy never sleeps. There was and is no internet again last night and this morning. More work to be done. I can’t paste this into the blog page because there is no internet. My cell phone is OK, but I can’t use the cell phone (maybe I am too stupid) to send this missive on my blog.