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Monday, January 05, 2004
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 Timothy Wilken, MD writes: In response to my December 25th essay What's wrong with Merry Christmas? a reader wrote asking: Are you a Christian? I think that in the past I avoided this question because I didn't want to polarize my readers. I do consider myself a strong disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. ... According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a disciple is: "one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another. Synonyms include: follower and adherent. Disciple implies a devoted allegiance to the teachings of one chosen as a master (disciples of Gandhi). A follower may apply to people who attach themselves either to the person or beliefs of another (an evangelist and his followers). Adherent suggests a close and persistent attachment (adherents to a political cause)." ... By this definition, I am a disciple, a follower, an adherent of Jesus of Nazareth. However, I don't think that Jesus of Nazareth was a supernatural being. While I believe in God, I don't believe Jesus was a God or the son of God, except in the metaphoric sense that all forms of life are sons and daughters of God. As I wrote in my article on The Golden Rule, Jesus of Nazareth was an enormously important human being. He may have been the very first synergist. And, while I believe he was only human, I think he was an exception human -- a spiritual genius. Therefore I would not call myself a Christ-ian even though I am a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth. In the following article I write: Humanity has used the term God to represent ‘that’ in universe that is larger than ourselves. We have used the term God to represent ‘that’ which is the source of Universe — ‘that’ which is the source of Heaven and Earth — ‘that’ which is the source of Life and Humanity. I make no argument against the existence of God. I am in full belief that there exists ‘that’ in universe that is larger than ourselves. I am in full belief that there is a ‘source’. And I also call that source God. Let us agree then that the source of Universe — the source of Heaven and Earth — the source of Life and Humanity — is God. This agreement does not require that we define or describe God in anyway. ... Under this premise, I am a strong believer in God. But my view of God is not anthropomorphic--I do not attribute human motivation, characteristics, or behavior to God. (01/05/04)
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 Mary Williams Walsh writes: This year's stock market rally has added more than $100 billion to corporate America's depleted pension funds, but even that has not been enough to offset forces that continue to weaken the funds. If all of America's 500 largest companies had to make good on their promises to workers and retirees immediately, they would have to plug a $259 billion gap in their pension funds, according to a study by Standard & Poor's which will be published soon. A year ago, even though stock prices were lower, the same companies were considerably closer to meeting their obligations, being only $212 billion short. That is because their obligations to their workers have spiraled up at an even faster pace than stocks have risen. One obvious reason for this is that as the baby boom generation ages, many more people are starting to claim their money. Another factor is that many pension calculations incorporate several years' worth of data, to smooth out sharp fluctuations, so the market shocks of the last three years are still working their way through the system. Finally, an otherwise positive economic development, low interest rates, is an albatross on the funds because they magnify the value of future pension obligations in today's dollars. Whatever the reasons, for the nation's corporate pension funds to have lost ground in this year's bull market suggests that the troubles that flared up in the bear market will not be easily cured, and almost certainly not by market gains alone. But after more than a year's search for solutions, officials with responsibility for the $1.6 trillion sector remain sharply divided on what to do. (01/05/03)
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 BBC Environment -- There is a warning that Australia faces a future of higher temperatures, more severe droughts and raging bushfires, as well as major outbreaks of tropical diseases. These gloomy predictions are made in a new government report on climate change over the next 70 years. The findings will add to pressure on Prime Minister John Howard over his decision not to sign the Kyoto Protocol on reducing greenhouse gases. The report by Australia's leading climate scientists gives a devastating assessment of what future generations can expect. It is predicted the country will be hotter, more prone to drought and severe storms. The study has claimed average annual temperatures will rise by up to six degrees by 2070. There is more bad news. Climate change caused by global warming will, say the authors of the study, put great pressure on water resources, while the Great Barrier Reef could be threatened by the bleaching of coral. On top of all that, there is the prospect of more outbreaks of tropical diseases such as dengue and Ross River Fever. (01/05/04)
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 BBC Politics -- A senior government minister in Zimbabwe has acknowledged problems with its land redistribution programme. Special affairs minister John Nkomo told the BBC that in some areas 60% of the land allocated to black, small-scale farmers had not been taken up. Thousands of white-owned farms have been seized by the government and given to black farmers. About five million Zimbabweans need food aid because of huge shortages, partly blamed on the land policy. Land redistribution is the policy on which President Robert Mugabe and his government have staked their reputations over the past three years. It has dominated their political agenda and been the centrepiece of two election campaigns. But the hastily implemented scheme, referred to by the government as fast-track land reform, has been beset by serious problems. ... The reality is that the government's controversial policy was poorly planned and implemented from the beginning. Some of those allocated land had little or no experience of commercial farming. Others had no desire to move from their homes. Those who did move often did so with minimal support, sometimes unable to afford even to pay for seed or fertiliser. The upheaval has contributed to two years of severe food shortages which have left millions of Zimbabweans dependent upon emergency aid. Nonetheless, President Mugabe and his ministers maintain that land redistribution has been a success and that, in time, it will produce bumper harvests. There is no sign of that yet. (01/05/04)
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 BBC Politics -- Hope is rising in Pakistan of an end to hostilities with India as a regional South Asian summit gets under way in the capital, Islamabad. Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has travelled to Pakistan for the first time in nearly five years. Travel and diplomatic links between the two nuclear rivals have been restored after almost two years of hostility. Many people here want easier travel between the two countries and better business, cultural and sporting ties. In Pakistan's second biggest city, Lahore, the mood is upbeat. "I'm delighted that the Indian prime minister is here," says businessman Mohammad Arif. "There should be open borders between our countries." It is a sentiment shared by others in the markets and streets of what is often described as Pakistan's cultural capital. Khawar and her daughter Ayesha are busy shopping for the weekend. "Look at us? We look no different from Indians. We are no different," she says. (01/05/04)
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 BBC Humanity -- Twenty years ago the BBC's reports on Ethiopia's "biblical" famine sparked an unprecedented international aid effort, so why are more Ethiopians facing starvation now than in 1984? ... It is nearly 20 years now since I flew north from Addis Ababa, with the legendary cameraman, Mohamed Amin, into the greatest natural disaster of the twentieth century. It was compounded by man, of course. The Marxist military regime of Colonel Haile-Mariam Mengistu and the infamous Derg, was cruel even by African standards. The wars they were fighting with the rebel movements of the north turned the highlands into battlegrounds and cut the starving off from the outside world. The outside world did not care very much. The West was not keen to help a soviet-backed tyranny during one of the last spasms of the Cold War. The result was a crisis that tipped into catastrophe. ... In 1984 we arrived there at night and got up before dawn to find 40,000 starving people out in the open. Save the Children had set up a small supplementary feeding centre for babies, but it was completely overwhelmed. There was a French doctor from Medecins Sans Frontieres, bewildered and crying. "I know nothing of politics", she told me, "I am just a witness of Korem and thousands, millions of these people are going to die." ... Today, 2004, the population in the highlands has exploded. It is heading for double the size it was in 1984. The ever-rising numbers are putting more pressure on the land, pushing people further up the mountains to the margins of fertility. The thin soil is exhausted; the trees that bound it to the hillsides have long since been chopped down for firewood. When it is dry it blows away as dust and on satellite pictures you can sometime see a red cloud heading out over the Indian Ocean. When it rains, the topsoil is swilled away by the rivers. All Ethiopia's rivers run dark brown. There's a chilling symmetry in the statistics; the percentage rise in population is exactly the same as the percentage loss of topsoil; both 2.7% a year. (01/05/04)
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 MyWayNews -- A NASA rover plunged through the atmosphere of Mars and bounced down upon its rocky surface Saturday night, beginning a mission to roam the Red Planet in search of evidence that it was once suitable for life. Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory let out whoops of joy and embraced one another as signals from the Spirit rover indicated it had survived the landing. Within hours it began sending back photos of the Red Planet. Among the first was a tiny black and white image showing a sundial on the rover. Another showed the Martian horizon and portions of the lander. ... The National Aeronautics and Space Administration began receiving the first of an estimated 60 to 80 images from Spirit's cameras late Saturday, just three hours after the robot made an apparently flawless landing on Mars. Scientists quickly assembled multiple black and white images to form a sweeping panoramic of the Martian landscape, as well as a bird's-eye view of the rover with its solar panels fully deployed. "This just keeps getting better and better. The pictures are fantastic," said mission science manager John Callas. (01/04/04)
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5:47:16 AM 
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© TrustMark
2004
Timothy Wilken.
Last update:
2/2/2004; 6:15:26 AM.
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