I apologize for delaying this part of the post. This will be my last post in this series and I shall cover two panel discussions. Taking India Forward and the Next 800 Million Opportunity. I chose to club the two for the simple reason that they are, in my mind, related. You cannot take India forward without moving the next 800Million through opportunities and choices.

The panel consisted of Jayaprakash Narayan (Thought Leader, Speaker Par Excellence and Politician), Reuben Abraham (Exec Director and Asst Prof, Centre for Emerging Markets, ISB), Madhukar CV (Director PRS Legislative Services) and Siddharth (Actor, Rang De Basanti-fame). It was moderated by Karuna Gopal (President Foundation of Futuristic Cities). All of them you can check up at their respective LinkedIn profiles that I’ve added to their names . There was an interesting discussion around “urbanisation” and the sheer obliviousness to the fact that, at the current rate of urbanization, if we are not careful we will need 300-400 more cities in the next 10 years. Are we prepared?

Siddharth was the surprise package (and I’m adding a paragraph on his talk here by popular demand on my blog for his speech summary). He was not only a fluent speaker but also displayed great passion and lucid thinking along with a no nonsense approach to the subject. He vociferously vouched against three things in India – our ”rodent-like” memory to quickly forget the atrocities met to us, the habit of our media to sensationalize and the inability of a small fry in the system to stand up and make a difference due to the system. He cited personal examples of his visit to a CM to offer help for relief work and how he was shown the door without being allowed to utter so much as a word. His stance of, “If I as a celebrity could not make things happen, what can a small fry do to help even if he wants to. Moreover, why would he want to?”, had quite a few feathers ruffled.

In the Next 800 Million opportunity, the discussion was mainly around the issues and challenges faced by the markets and marketeers alike. Panel consisted of Sarath Naru (Venture East), Dr. Ashwin Naik (Vaatsalya Healthcare), Sandeep Farias (Elevar Equity), Manish Khera (Fino), PN Vasudevan (Finance India Ltd), Harish Moily (MYA) and MR Rao (SKS Microfinance). The panel was co-chaired by Vishal Vasishth (SONG Advisors) and S Sivakumar (ITC Agro). The best part was when the discussion centred around the fact that the rural people paid much more for a poorer quality of service they received across board! And, I couldn’t help compare the “so-called” Indian upper middle-class or “wealthy” section and the service they received vs what is available outside India. I think there is a huge value and quality gap there and I can’t even begin to imagine the negative percolation that seeps across sectors in the different parts of India and what poor quality of service and product offerings are given for the same/higher value to the “have-nots”. Talk about the system being unfair and the playfield being levelled? I think we should stop reading books written (with sponsorships, of course!) by foriegners and start looking at our own backyard. We will be shocked at what we find or, rather, do not find!

As next steps, so that the discussion does not end here. I would like to help create channels online and offline so that these thoughts can be crystallized into tangible actions. Anyone game for it? Thoughts on what we can do? How we can take the ideas forward and make a concentrated effort to drive action? Pls reach out to me.

Posted by Audiegrl

Click here for list: Expected Attendees at Tonight’s State Dinner

The dinner honors India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

—What’s the hottest ticket in the nation’s capital? An engraved invitation to Tuesday’s White House state dinner, the first hosted by President Obama.

He and the first lady will honor India’s prime minister. But in a departure from the traditional venue — the elegant State Dining Room — the Obama’s will gather with a few hundred VIPs in a huge, heated tent on the South Lawn.

Glamor and Grace

The guest list for the black-tie gala remains a closely guarded secret. Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, will certainly be there.

Several notables are good bets, such as Oprah Winfrey and Chicago hotel billionaire Penny Pritzker, as are top Obama aides David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett and Rahm Emanuel.

Tonight's Menu and Desert

Dee Dee Myers, who served as President Clinton’s press secretary, said the lobbying by people seeking an invite had probably been relentless. The first [state dinner] is always the most dramatic,” Myers said. “First impressions are important. That’s your A list, that’s your top game right there. By the time you get to the eighth state dinner, it’ll be a lot less important.”

The gargantuan tent affords a bigger crowd than could fit in the State Dining Room, which holds 140.

State dinners generally draw administration officials and members of Congress, the Cabinet and the diplomatic corps. Obama donors and corporate titans, Hollywood glamour, athletic greats and leading artists are bound to be thrown into the mix, possibly joined by some academics and journalists.

And the morning after, hotheads left off the list are bound to let off steam.

Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh

“There’s always a few angry calls,” Myers said, “because people read the guest list” in the morning papers.

But until the dinner takes place, the heat is on, perhaps for no two people more than Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, and Cristeta Comerford, the White House’s top chef.

Myers was a guest at a few state dinners put on by Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is another guaranteed attendee Tuesday. As Secretary of State, she hand-delivered the invitation to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in July.

Tented parties for state dinners aren’t entirely new. In President Clinton’s final year in office, he had about 700 guests under a tent for an earlier Indian prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

More @

President Obama and Prime Minister Singh Press Conference | The White House

Obama State Dinner Challenges, Real & Imagined: A Vegetarian Guest of Honor, A Scarcity of Vegetables…

“Vegetable veracity: The garden is low on crops, Mr. Singh is fond of fish, and about that beehive gift for dinner guests…“

Please visit our friends at Obama Foodorama. They have more pictures and details about the tent, menu, chef, etc…they are a great source for anything food related at the Obama White House.

Jennifer Hudson to Perform Tonight

Oscar Winner Jennifer Hudson will perform at the Obama administration's first state dinner Tuesday.

Hudson, a Chicago native who performed at the Democratic National Convention in August 2008, will perform for 320 guests at the black tie affair.

The Obamas have had several soul singers perform at the White House. For the Governor’s Dinner, they drew on their Chicago connection and had funk band Earth, Wind and Fire perform for guests.

Hudson suffered a major family tragedy in 2008 when her mother, brother and nephew were killed. Obama, who was campaigning at the time, sent condolences to Hudson.

Hudson got her start as a contestant on American Idol and has been a winner at the Oscars and Grammys. She was recently tapped to play Winnie Mandela in a forthcoming biopic.

First Lady Michelle Obama Discusses State and Official Visits

As the White House prepares for tonight’s State Dinner in honor of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Mrs. Gursharan Kaur of India, First Lady Michelle Obama hosts young women from the White House Leadership and Mentoring Program to discuss the history and protocol that surround State and Official Visits. The First Lady discusses how protocol and hospitality can help foster good relations and build strong friendships.

Couple slips though security to crash state dinner
WASHINGTON – The Secret Service says it’s looking into its own security procedures after determining that two people crashed Tuesday night’s state dinner at the White House.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan says that President Barack Obama was never in any danger. Donovan says the party crashers went through the same security screening as the 300-plus people actually invited to the dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

source:

Inanity, Intrigue and Inigo Montoya

November 20th, 2009

In the promos for the season finale of Season Six of Project Runway, Lifetime uses dramatic music and a deep-voiced announcer to try to build suspense for the big reveal. However, in their language, they have something wrong: they create anticipation for the reveal of who is “the next big name in fashion,” and my immediate response is “who cares?”

See, what works about Project Runway is that it transfers the aesthetics of the fashion industry into terms that are unrelated to the fashion industry. I know nothing about fashion, but I know a lot about what Nina Garcia likes to see in fashion, or what the series values in terms of creativity. It’s created an audience that, even if they have no knowledge of the fashion industry, have gained knowledge of what Project Runway considers fashion. As such, rather than caring about what these young designers do in the context of the fashion industry, we care about how they situate themselves within the show’s cast of characters from seasons past. For a viewer like me, Bryant Park is the setting of the finale of Project Runway, not a global fashion event, which is why Lifetime language is demonstrative of the season’s failures: I don’t care if they’re a big name in fashion, I want them to be a big name for Project Runway.

And I can confirm that Irina, Althea and Carol Hannah will not be names to remember, a fact which has more to do with the way the show treated them than it does with their individual personalities and talent. And while we’ll never know if this season would have been more interesting if it were in New York, and if the production company hadn’t changed, what we do know is that Season Six failed to provide both the next big name in fashion and a single memorable name for this franchise.

[A few more thoughts on Project Runway, and then some thoughts on both Top Chef and Survivor, with spoilers after the jump...]

I won’t spend any more time identifying what went wrong this season, as Linda Holmes at NPR has pretty much done that for me, but I want to say that Irina is about the perfect winner for the season. She had the most sense of character and the most interesting point of view, but was still ultimately uninteresting and lacking in identity, fitting the season perfectly. I didn’t think her collection was actually that interesting, but compared to Carol Hannah’s (which lacked cohesion) and Althea’s (which lacked clarity – there’s a difference) it was about as close to a winning collection the season could get.

And while some eliminations this season have been impossible to predict thanks to the confusing mismatch of judges, this one was really easy to see coming based on the judges’ deliberation. You could sense the judges were struggling to come up with something to say about each designer: these final critiques are always more positive than negative, and yet you could sense that the positives were all more dull than you could imagine. You could sense the judges trying to pretend as if there was ever a sense of consistency in the design aesthetics: my favourite was Heidi describing Carol Hannah, which I’ll now quote for you.

“You do see Carol Hannah, you see her point of view, and she loves dresses, and she’s impeccable in her tailoring…I mean that’s…what has…made her get this far, because she’s always been very good at that.”

So her point of view is dresses and impeccable tailoring, and the reason she got this far is because she was very good at it. Right there, with all the stammering pauses intact, you have the problem: she had no point of view except making acceptable clothes decently. Michael Kors had a similarly laughable moment when he described Althea as “very plugged into the street,” which made me guffaw. None of these designers could possibly be street-smart, and it was as if they were so desperate to distinguish these designers from one another that they needed to pigeonhole them into one idea. It made for a really hilarious sequence as you could sense things unraveling, and yet they could do nothing but plug on through and pretend that this really was the most dramatic finale of all time.

What’s interesting about Survivor (yep, this is a segueway) this season is that, for a show that often creates drama where there is none in an effort to make the final tribal council interesting, the producers have been able to sit back and watch people self-destruct over the past three weeks. Never before has a merge created quite this much chaos, and I’m sure Mark Burnett is giddy about the whole thing: I’m not sure I can remember the last time I’ve sat through the last quarter of this many episodes in a row. I fell into a pattern a while ago that I would effectively stop watching the show in its entirety after the immunity challenge, knowing that (because of how common pecking orders are, and because of how rarely the immunity idol was in play) the result was inevitable, and there were only a few occasions where something surprising happened during my fastforwarding that would result in me going back to see how it went down.

But after the merge, the self-destruction within the Galu tribe (who were dominant early on) has been a joy to watch – as Erik, sitting on the jury after being the victim of the first set of bizarre circumstances, said last night, “Man, this is some good shit.” After last week saw the Galu tribe fail to listen to Monica and plan some sort of contingency in case Russell managed to find the hidden immunity idol (which he did), resulting in Kelly leaving the game, this week was all about the Galu tribe running around like chickens with their heads cut off. When things finally get to tribal council, the sides are tied at 5, and when John eventually switches sides in order to avoid the drawing of rocks (which could send himself or anyone else home) it’s yet another moment where Galu realizes that they are not, in fact, a tribe anymore. What’s interesting about John is that he is really part of the problem here: I think that Galu would have simply picked off a Foa Foa member in that first week if he hadn’t first suggested taking off Monica, which was the information Erik got burned on as a messenger, so he’s sort of the one who set this all in motion. As such, it’s fitting he puts the final nail in the coffin in what was a really engaging final tribal council. The first merge episode had the frantic switchover that got rid of Eric, last week had Russell’s cagey Idol play, and this week saw John kill Galu for good – a very eventful, and very strong, period for Survivor.

Top Chef, meanwhile, sort of had an off week. This isn’t to suggest that I didn’t like the end result, which has the always likely Final Four come together after Jennifer manages to throw off her demons to win the Quickfire and place respectably in the Elimination Challenge in earning a spot in the Napa Valley finale, which sees Eli sent home. The episode was about the camaraderie of the chefs, as they seemed to all get along and there was a whole lot of emotion to be found in the final sequence was Eli basically admits that he’s okay going home at this stage considering the people who are going on instead (which was especially sad after Eli had turned himself into an Inigo Montoya figure for his mentor Richard Blais earlier in the episode). I didn’t particularly like Eli, but the rest of the chefs did and as a result I found his departure interesting.

However, I think that (to bring this all full circle) the actual challenge suffered because I really had no idea what this supposed “Culinary Olympics” was really about, and more problematically the show couldn’t actually judge based on that sort of criteria considering the amount of time given to the chefs. I understand that they wanted to try to capture the spirit of the event, but while Project Runway has turned Bryant Park into a life long goal that everyone aspires to this competition came out of nowhere and had too little meaning for me to be all that excited about. It also created a strange scenario where the judging was supposed to be based on who best captured the spirit of the event, and yet because nobody really went wild with zucchini baskets or anything similar it ended up coming down to whose food tasted the best, which is why Kevin was ultimately named the winner even when many judges felt Bryan had the most potential within the context of this type of competition. I don’t doubt Kevin deserved to win based on some criteria, but considering the nature of this competition he himself admitted he didn’t show enough technique, so the judges seemed to ignore that aspect of the challenge in favour of simply feeling Kevin best-executed “food” and thus wins the $30,000.

It just goes to show you that there’s only so much you can do in an hour of reality television: sometimes you try to make an exciting season sound interesting, sometimes you have everything go perfectly and barely need to touch a thing, and in another instance you have a big idea that just never translates well into the competition (unless my lack of knowledge of Thomas Keller in some way destroyed my ability to see the challenge as a really big deal).

Cultural Observations

• My favourite thing about the Runway finale was that we had the prior knowledge of the fact that, since this was taped during the period of legal limbo for the show, nobody knew who the designers were and thus they couldn’t actually be seen by the crowd and the media. What this means is that any time you saw any of the contestants watching the show, or saw the families, or saw the designers on the runway, that was all staged either before or after the fact (note how no one but the other designers comment on any contestant by name). What I loved is how, even if I hadn’t known that, the awkwardness of the introductions would have tipped me off: they were clearly uncomfortable with the charade.
• Does anyone have any verdict on Models of the Runway? I stopped watching after about two weeks, and I found that the models were total non-entities for me as a result – I can’t imagine watching another 30-minutes of this terrible season every week, but I did miss not caring about Irina’s model in any capacity when she won.
• My one complaint with Survivor is that they “gamed” the game too much in terms of trying to turn the “Immunity Idol” scavenger hunt that Russell invented into an actual part of the gameplay setup. It was way too easy to find when they were given a visual clue, and while it resulted in the “chase through the woods sequence” and got a good moment out of Dave being oh-so-close to finding it, I thought that it was a bit cheap and sort of took the spontaneity out of Russell’s genius.
• I’ve had no issues with Kevin’s beard on Top Chef this season, as I believed it to be awesome, but then this week we saw what happens when he doesn’t spike his hair at all. It totally makes the beard look about 5x mangier, and the longish greasy hair he had in the preview for next week made it look even more ridiculous. The different hair at Napa (Padma had bangs, Jennifer’s was curly) totally took me out of the show, which really does say something about me, doesn’t it?

Ok, c++ tuples, here is quick and dirty:

// g++ 4.1
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <tr1/tuple>
using std::tr1::tuple;
using std::tr1::tie;
using std::tr1::make_tuple;

tuple<std::string,int> parse_url(const std::string& url){
    return make_tuple("127.0.0.1",9000); //Cheat for parsing
}
int main(){
    std::string host;
    int port;
    tie(host,port) = parse_url("127.0.0.1:9000");
    std::cout << "Host: "<<host<< ":"<<port<<"\n";
}

At the first look, returning several values from a function/method in C++ may look awkward and contrary to the C++ way, being more usual in languages like python or perl.
However the fact is that template metaprogramming gives us the ability to do such good tricks and renders the rest for us in compile-time. This tuple templates are part of the TR1 and thats why we need to include them from <tr1/tuple> and use them from std::tr1 namespace, but they’ll be part of the next standard c++0x.

The logic behind the metaprogramming is simple, by the time you compile a tuple the compiler knows perfectly the size of the new type because you supply the template parameters.

tie() for example is a template that gets the given parameters and put references to them in an lvalue obj that can be assigned to, so its a painless way of getting results from a tuple_returning method.
make_tuple() goes the same way but creates a new tuple with copies of the provided parameters, so it is a quick way of creating tuples of any size, its like the current make_pair() but for tuples.

2 out of 3 men in this picture look Presidential wearing a red tie

(Bill Clinton and Barack Obama)

Here are a couple that look a little lacking

Picture by: nyheter.no Caption by: dunno source via Our LOL Builder

» Recaption This!

» View All Captions

Today there are an abnormal amount of Egyptian flags blowing in the wind, hanging from car windows and painted on children’s faces.

It’s around 4:30 p.m., 3 hours pre-game time and the horns in the streets are already louder than I’ve heard to date….maybe they’re trying to be heard in Sudan, where the game is taking place.

Here’s what our beloved Tahrir looked and sounded like after the game Sunday. Egypt won 2-0 but needed to win by at least 3 in order to proceed to the cup.

Today’s the much anticipated final shot!

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Sybase 365 Marty Beard bullish on the mobility market, but not mobile advertising

When I hear Sybase, I naturally think large databases and perhaps analytics software but certainly not mobile messaging.

But as I learned last night, I was dead wrong: Sybase, through its mobile subsidiary Sybase 365 is the world’s largest inter-operator mobile messaging company.

This year, Sybase 365 expects to reach $200 million in revenues (up 14% from last year) or about 1/5 of the company overall revenues.

“We connect virtually all the 900+ mobile operators in the world and reach over 4 billion mobile phone users [out of 7 billion worldwide],” explains to me Sybase 365 President Marty Beard, speaking yesterday at TiE’s first entrepreneur week in Santa Clara, Calif.

For Beard, the closest competitors are Syniverse – which recently acquired Verisign’s mobile messaging business for $175 million in cash – and Ericsson IPX solution.

Mobile advertising has not lived up to its promise

By being at the centre of the world’s SMS and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) traffic, Sybase 365 can spot early trends in mobile commerce around the globe including hot areas like mobile CRM, mobile banking and mobile money transfer. Surprisingly, mobile advertising is not one of them.

“Most of the mobile advertising business has been around messaging, sending SMS or MMS to consumers and not banners or even ads inside these messages. Pure advertising on mobility has just not lived up to its billing at this point,” adds Beard.

Sybase saw traffic surge after Apple enabled MMS on iPhone

Another new trend in the mobility market is the uptake of videos transferred on mobile networks using MMS. This is especially true since Apple added the MMS feature to its latest iPhone 3GS device. ”When Apple enabled MMS, the traffic spiked 600% and video is a huge part of that,” said Beard.

Follows are excerpts of our video interview with Beard at the TiE event. First on Sybase 365’s business:

And then on mobile advertising:

Sudanese police are out in force ahead of Wednesday’s football World Cup play-off between Egypt and Algeria…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: english football fixtures. The blog is also related to: england football.

Sudanese police are out in force ahead of Wednesday’s football World Cup play-off between Egypt and Algeria…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: euro soccer. The blog is also related to: soccer archive.

Nothing much happened today.

There was the ORC, which I did on I, Claudius, which was essentially a failure, because I forgot pretty much everything that I had read. So many names…I couldn’t remember them at all. And the names are so similar…with Julia and Julilia…Livia, Livilla, and maybe a Livillia? or something…Agrippa, Agrippina, Germanicus x2, Urganilla, Urganilalla? no…that’s not it…but yeah. I was like 0.0 oh dears.

Math was interesting, health, ok, Japanese, I can’t believe we have two quizzes and a test! this week. Wow.

Band was normal, I’m awfully sharp. At least, I think I am. If I’m flat, that’s worse, because then I thought I was sharp when I was flat, which is really just…not right. Oh yeah, so I’m always out of tune, which, naturally, sounds horrible.

Science was actually fun, I  managed to finish half of my english homework, haha.

~~~

The last football game of the year, which was also our most complicated fieldshow, was a mess.

Well, not the band; they looked very orderly…well, more orderly than us. I though we weren’t that bad, really, until I watched the flags do the march. Then I watched the new flags (a.k.a. the shields plus a few original flag members), and it was really, really, not coordinated. So sad….

It was also freezing.

There was also condensation on…everything, really, including the bleachers, the shields, and the flags, all of which were wet.

yay.

Oh, I forgot to add, our football team managed to tie with the other team by the end of the second quarter, so the score was 7 to 7. You wouldn’t believe it, everyone was so happy! And again, they were taking pictures with their cell phones. Haha.

Unfortunately, by the end of the game, the score was 7 to 24, with Mission scoring 7. Ah well, it was interesting to watch.

And we were so hopeful for the first two quarters.

It was really cold though.

♪ E mesmo assim, queria te contar,

que eu talvez tenho aqui comigo,

eu tenho alguma coisa pra te dar.

Tem espaço de sobra no meu coração.

Eu vou levar sua bagagem

e o que mais estiver à mão. ♪

.tiê.

November 15, 2009

Where Do We Get New Tuxes For Our Event?

Because of the current economic downturn and the lingering effects of 9/11, the men’s rental formal business continues to shrink down to a lessening demand for tuxedo rentals and events that require Black Tie. Since 2002, the number of stores that actually own and maintain their own merchandise has eroded, yielding to drop stores that order through a catalog.

Chances are good that when you walk into a neighborhood store, you will be asked to look at a book and select items that could come from across town– or across the nation. From talking with experts in many areas of event planning, we’re finding this less and less favorable, knowing that a lady would never order through a book and not try on her outfit until a few days before the event. We’re being interviewed and quoted on many web sites and publications that feel it’s important to get that message across. The quotes and web sites can be found in past articles and other areas of this blog.

Many of you have contacted and thanked us for confirming what has been suspected for some time. But you also wanted to know what new styles can we look forward to and where they may be found? We are sorry to report that since the selling season ended last month, there are no significant new styles and purchases in any great degree. What this means is, there will be no new 2010 new styles available, however, some stores are updating current basic and fashion styles.

Currently in our trade portion of E- Formal News, we are covering the possible merging of some of the remaining suppliers that are struggling to survive. For this reason, it is likely that any of the few orders that were place may never be executed.

Please feel free to contact us, we are happy to assist you in any way we can in getting you the best value for your dollar and finding the best tuxedo that will compliment your event.

Call 516-312-0090 or mailto:News@eformalnews.com

Also, follow us for daily updates and direct questions on www.twitter.com/1800mytuxes or join our Face Book Fan page 1800mytuxes . 

The rain continues to fall
Drowning out all that’s forgotten to the surface
Emotions are numbed by such bitter winds
The sound of droplets falling echoes through the scenery
For a brief moment, the clouds parted
But no light shined through

A parading line of black marched along a familiar road
Suits and ties to the right,
Dresses and lace on the left
Each held a lily, and paid their respect
As if the skies has taken all their pain
No one shed a tear

The rainy season brings forth a nostalgic smell,
As ripples form once more
A smell I do not want to recall
If wishing is not enough, what more must be done
Just a little bit more time, allowing to regain what was taken
Something was missed, yet only a blank is drawn

Leftover is a smile
Promises that binds us each
On frozen time, each year this day
It shall rain; that is written
The group will continue to gather until world’s end
That night, the sky continued to cry for the lost

Last night when we were in the Walgreen’s store
I found myself getting a bit hungry
Though I bought gummy worms, I would need more
To feel full, so I walked past the sundries

My wallet was light with bills for a meal
Channeled my watching Top Chef episodes
Contestants cooked only banana peel
And created complex pie a la mode

Myself a gal of the creative sort
Considered buying tuna and crackers
Stove Top, dry Ramen, hot sauce and canned corn
Decided instead I’ll be a slacker

Crossed the night street to the Restaurant Thai
Boxed steamed rice noodles with plastic bag tie

Quando eu olhei pra cima e não te vi, não sabia o que fazer, fui contar praquele estranho que eu gostava de você. Ai, ai, será que foi assim? Que foi o tempo que tirou você de mim? E ele num momento hesitou, mas depois não resistiu, me contou que mil balões voando foi o que ele viu. Pensei: não é possível que eu não tenha reparado. Eu devo estar completamente avoada. Dei quase 5 passos e parei, não podia andar pra trás, mas confesso não cabia enxergar tantos sinais. Alô, eu sei, se chega até aqui, tão no limite não dá mais pra desistir. Amor, porque eu te chamo assim, se com certeza você nem lembra de mim.

Mikä on totuus? Kysymys on vaivannut ihmiskuntaa vähintäänkin Pilatuksen päivistä. Aivan samoin kuin Pilatukselta aikoinaan, meiltäkin voi jäädä totuus löytämättä, vaikka se seisoisi edessämme. Totuutta on etsitty tieteellisen tiedon maailmasta, löytymättä. Tiede tunnustaa itsekin, että se on kykenemätön määrittämään totuutta. Se selvittää tietoa ja tyytyy pitämään tuloksiaan teorioina, jotka näyttäisivät sopivan parhaimmin kulloinkin tunnettuihin ”tosiasioihin”.  Tieteellisen tiedon olemus, itseään korjaavana teoretisointina, estää sitä muodostumasta totuuden lähteeksi. Tosin vastaukseksi ongelmaan on esitetty totuuden suhteellisuutta. Mikään, mikä voi muuttua tai suhteellistua olosuhteiden mukaan ei voi olla totuus. Totuuden on oltava universaali, muuttumaton.

Meidän ongelmamme on siinä, että me etsimme totuutta kaikkialta muualta paitsi sieltä, mistä sen ainoastaan voimme löytää. Jopa monet uskovat kristityt ovat lähteneet pyörittämään tieteellisen tiedon myllyä uhraten Jumalan sanan uskottavuuden tieteen alttarille, kunkin muuntuvan teorian kulloisenkin tulkinnan mukaan. On jopa väitetty, että juuri tieteen auktorisoiminen olisi sitä rakkautta totuuteen, jota ilman ihminen eksyy, kuten Raamattu opettaa.

Jeesus opettaa meille Raamatussa jotain häkellyttävää totuudesta ja todellisuudesta. Totuus ei olekaan dogmaattinen oppi, tieteellisen tutkimuksen tuottama tieto tai mikään vastaava inhimillisen ponnistelun avulla tuotettava lopputulos. Totuus on persoona. Totuus on Jeesus Kristus itse personoituneen keskuuteemme, siksi Pyhä Henki, jonka Jeesus lähetti lupauksen sanan mukaisesti, tunnetaan myös nimellä Totuuden Henki. Totuus, joka on sama kuin todellisuus kreikan kielessä, jolla Uuden Testamentin kirjoitukset ovat alun perin kirjoitettu, on persoona. Rakkaus totuuteen on meille lahjoitettu ominaisuus. Se tulee Pyhän Hengen mukana. Totuuden rakastaminen on Jeesuksen Kristuksen rakastamista sillä rakkaudella, joka on vuodatettu sydämiimme Pyhässä Hengessä. Mikäli emme rakasta Jeesusta, me eksymme. Jumalan sana opettaa, että Jumala lähettää väkevän eksytyksen niille, jotka eivät ole ottaneet vastaan rakkautta totuuteen, eli Jeesukseen. Rakkaus Jeesukseen, ei teologiaan, varjelee meidät eksymiseltä.

Se, mitä me erehdymme usein pitämään totuutena, on jotain, mitä Pyhä Paavali nimittää Raamatussa tämän maailman valtiasten ja riivaajien kukistuvaksi viisaudeksi. Se on viisauden ja valhetiedon nimissä kulkevaa eksytystä, joka pyrkii kääntämään ihmisten sydämet pois totuudesta, Jeesuksesta Kristuksesta.

Jeesus on tie, totuus ja elämä. Häneen kätkettynä olen sisällä todellisuudessa, totuudessa ja hänessä löydän tien joka vie sisälle elämään.  Kun opin tuntemaan Jeesuksen, löysin vastauksen kaikkiin kysymyksiini, koska kohtasin hänessä totuuden. Ja totuus teki minut vapaaksi.

Kaada vesi pois. Lakkaa käsien pesusta, kuivaa ne ja tunnista totuus, joka seisoo vaieten edessäsi, Jeesus Kristus. Uskaltaudu kohtaamaan hänet Tuomaksen lailla ja saat kuulla hämmästykseksesi huutavasi: ”Minun Herrani ja minun Jumalani!”. Ja etsintä on vihdoin päättynyt.

A couple of aldermen commented about me wearing a tie at a Remembrance Day ceremony on Wednesday.

It was a nothing remarks, but what surprised me was they actually didn’t notice that I wear a tie every day I’m at the city hall except on Fridays.

It’s one change that I had to take when I moved to Calgary and clearly remember my then future boss, giving me a quick e-mail after I’ve accepted the job about the dress code at work.

“I hope it’s not a deal breaker,” he said.

At that time I only had about a dozen tie. Now I own about three dozens, mostly bought by my partner.

From hindsight, the aldermen’s comment made me think.

Am I a sloppy dresser that these politicians took notice when I was dressed well with a tie?

I don’t think so.

I had several comments from some city hall employees about my ties.

“Oh I love that green tie,” one said.

“It complements your skin colour,” she giggled.

If I were being ultra-sensitive, I would have thought she’s being racist. But I know her comment was really how my brown skin goes well with green. Although I sometimes call my skin colour to be olive from my fantasy ethnic origin of Italian.

When I approached the aldermen that day, I was hoping to do an interview for a story, which they both declined.

I respected that, and they explained to me why they were not commenting.

What put me off a little was this: “Renato, don’t assume that I read certain newspaper,” said one of the two politicians.

I already know that this politician hates the Sun. He doesn’t hide it.

And obviously he wasn’t being a good politician, otherwise he wouldn’t have said what he said to my face.

On the other hand, I also respect that he was upfront about his opinion on my paper.

“I’m not assuming that you read our paper. I actually know that you don’t like us, but I’m just telling you that I’m doing a follow up on a story I wrote yesterday.”

The conversation was interrupted when another journalist butt in and I just politely said goodbye to the two politicians.

I know who among the city politicians are friendly to our paper and who care that I call them whenever I’m writing a story that concerns their constituents.

I also know who could care less they’re quoted in a story even when it directly involves their ward.

Will I still talk to this politician? Of course, why not. Do I begrudge him? I’d be lying if I say no.

That’s the joy of doing this job, you get to talk to a lot of people, some you like a lot, some you don’t and others you really prefer not even to look at.

I can’t wait to wear my most fabulous tie tomorrow and read the Calgary Sun while listening to technical budget briefings.

Wait, there won’t be any alderman there. They’d be hiding perusing the budget adjustment that Calgarians will use to nail them in the next election.

Nov. 11, 2009

By Annie

Did I mention that I love it when people crochet the most ridiculous things? This definitely falls into that category. In honor of Thanksgiving, why not make yourself (or a loved one) this extremely elaborate and large hat that looks like a turkey is sitting on your head?

Photo: Angelicacatrina

My favorite part is the feet that tie under your chin, because I think the hat might fall over if those weren’t there.