ambainny: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

God men

An interesting article by Sheela Reddy on Indian's love for God men.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

now that it is over

Here are the details. May the family recover soon from this awful drama.

Shameful!

Sad to see how often religious places are sites of violence.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Give me faith, oh Jah, I pray, oh Lord,
To face another day ohh, yeah.

Lord give me strength, to face another day.
Carry on life's road, carry all my load.
Give me strength, oh Jah, to carry on, oh my Lord.

Oh, Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,
Please hear me when I plead.
All help already pass and, all help for years to come,
Without who am I could not be, yeah.
Many are trying to leave, you outta their lives,
But I wouldn't be so unwise.
And so I promise to serve thee, oh my Lord,
And I beg thee some mercy.

Lord, give me strength to face another day.
To journey along life's road, to carry my heavy load.
Give me strength, oh Jah, to carry on, oh my Lord, yeah.

Life has become a burden, living in this evil system,
Oh Jah, please strengthen me.
I cannot make it along, I need you as my own,
Oh Jah, I call on thee, yeah.
Some are trying to leave, you out of their lives,
But I wouldn't be so unwise.
And so I promise to serve thee with all my all,
And I beg thee some mercy.

Lord give me strength to face another day.
Make it along life's road, carry all my load.
Give me strength, oh Jah, to carry on, oh my Lord, yeah.

Say, give me strength oh Jah to carry on,
And do thy holy word, whoo, yeah, yeah.
Give me strength that I can make my stand,
Above the sinking sand, ah, oh, yeah.

Many are trying to leave, you outta their lives,
But I wouldn't be so unwise.
And so I promise to serve thee with all my all,
And I'm begging thee mercy.

Lord give me strength to face another day.
To make it along life's road and carry all my load.
Give me strength, oh Jah, to carry on, oh my Lord.

Jah give me strength!

Friday, April 22, 2011

Crafting a chair

Working with hand to craft a chair.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

thought for today

Live within; be not shaken by outward happenings.

- Sri Aurobindo [p-114, White Roses, Sixth Edition, 1999]

Autism doctor

An interesting analysis of the autism doctor who claimed MMR vaccines lead to Autism.

Three cups of BS

I saw the 60 minutes segment on Greg Moretenson and his fake stories. His book is unreadable, it's sad how quickly so many schools adopted this book and perpetuated stereotypes.

THREE CUPS OF BS

Alanna Shaikh in Foreign Policy:

The world was shocked by a report on CBS's 60 Minutes this week that accused bestselling author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson of being a fraud. Not only were some of the stories from his book fabricated, 60 Minutes alleges, but the charity that Mortenson created to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan never built many of the facilities it has taken credit for. Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea didn't, as it claimed, bring education to rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Its finances are a mess, and the charity does not even seem to have kept track of how many schools it built or how many students attended them.

While much of the uproar has been over the lies Mortenson peddled, I can't help wondering: Why, exactly, did we ever think that Mortenson's model for education, exemplified in his Central Asia Institute (CAI), was going to work? Its focus was on building schools -- and that's it. Not a thought was spared for education quality, access, or sustainability. But building schools has never been the answer to improving education. If it were, then the millions of dollars poured into international education over the last half-century would have already solved Afghanistan's -- and the rest of the world's -- education deficit by now.

Over the last 50 years of studying international development, scholars have built a large body of research and theory on how to improve education in the developing world. None of it has recommended providing more school buildings, because according to decades of research, buildings aren't what matter. Teachers matter. Curriculum matters. Funding for education matters. Where classes actually take place? Not really.

The whole CAI model was wrong. But here's the truly awful thing: Looking back, it's clear that everyone knew that that CAI's approach didn't work. It was just that no one wanted to talk about it.