Thank you, Anna for adding my name to the little note and rose you brought to the Blue Stone in Bergen yesterday.

You have probably all heard of the recent events in Norway. A 32 years old Christian (or so he called himself) nationalist killed 7 people in a bombing in central Oslo and shot dead 85 teenagers at a youth camp on the island of Utøya, not far from Oslo.

A Christian. He called himself a Christian.

But he probably had no idea of what being Christian means. He must have skipped that lesson about love. The word love is repeated innumerable times in the Old Testament and the New Testament both. He must have skipped almost half the New Testament, especially the passages where Jesus is speaking about His new commandment, “that ye love one another”, which is cited many times in John, Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, 1 Thessalonians, Hebrews, 1 Peter, 1 John, 2 John. Which Bible was he reading? Did he even read any Bible? Or was he just another anti-immigration, disillusioned, angry young man with poor education and too much time on his hands? A Christian nationalist. Maybe his Bible was misprinted without Deuteronomy 10:19 “Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

I am also 32 years old and I am a Christian. But I abhor all sort of blind extremism. What happened in Norway is utterly disgusting, unbelievably horrible. I am deeply saddened by the loss of so many young lives to the act of a crazy man who thought that being Christian meant killing those who don’t share your same political views. My friends come from a very wide range of religious backgrounds (Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Shinto, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist, Anglican, Catholic, Jehovah’s Witness, Unitarian) and some don’t believe in anything at all, in terms of spirituality. However, what brings us together is, I believe, the same principle, “that you love one another”, from whichever book we’ve read it or even if we don’t think we need any book to convince us to follow this very simple rule.

The impromptu tea ceremony

My friend Masumi organised a stand at college to collect donations for people hit by the recent terrible earthquake in Japan. Being the only Japanese student on the RAC campus, it was a great opportunity for the rest of us to help her and also get to know more about her beautiful country. She also served some delicious Japanese green tea and we enjoyed the tea ceremony.

Here’s a little message from Masumi:

The leaflet

Dear RAC friends,
Thank you very much for coming, your time to sit in and talk with me and donation! 3 hours passed so quickly, because many people came and talked with me. It was also a great chance for me to get to know people and to talk about Japan. Your donation will be sent to Japan through the British Red Cross. Thank you very much once again and I will update more information through the college email.
Masumi

Masumi is also part of the WA project. You can read more about it here.

That's what Google Maps shows today of Port-au-Prince. The white/blue spots are tents. It would be interesting to know ow long ago exactly this satellite photo was taken

It’s been 1 year since a devastating earthquake hit Haiti. I’m sure we all remember the images on TV and the news cover.
I will not talk about the money that was supposed to be invested in helping Haiti or about the hundred, thousands of words of hope and encouragement said, the help promised and never delivered. I will just post a few links to remind ourselves how lucky we are and how much good we could do, we can do.

Some images on this page are not for the light hearted: Médecins Sans Frontières

This is a very informative blog from Michael Deibert, a British journalist.

Some news from UNICEF on the current situation in Haiti and some striking pictures that show how much has not been done in 1 year.

Beorn

I was following the updates on The Hobbit and I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the role of Beorn has been given to one of my favourite Swedish actors. YAY! Grattis Micke! That’s good news… less English speaking actors in the cast.

But then I read that the film is likely to be released in 3D. What the heck! Or I could list you some Swedish swear phrases here, but I’ll spare you that. My point is: why everything now has to be filmed in 3D??? I watched a couple of films in 3D and besides feeling a little dizzy for the first 15-20 minutes, I think they would have been equally enjoyable even in regular HD. Honestly, I don’t see the need for such technology, just like I don’t see any need for splitting the story in 2 parts. The same thing happened with the latest Harry Potter. No comment.

Making The Hobbit was a good idea in the first place, but then I believe “business constraints” stepped in: 3D, 2 parts… oh, and Cate Blanchett is back too. Weird, as her character is not in The Hobbit, if I remember correctly. So… blah, I just hope they will think twice, thrice etc… before destroying the story. Fy fan…

Convinced that many unpaid internships violate minimum wage laws, officials in Oregon, California and other states have begun investigations and fined employers. Last year, M. Patricia Smith, then New York’s labor commissioner, ordered investigations into several firms’ internships. Now, as the federal Labor Department’s top law enforcement official, she and the wage and hour division are stepping up enforcement nationwide.

Many regulators say that violations are widespread, but that it is unusually hard to mount a major enforcement effort because interns are often afraid to file complaints. Many fear they will become known as troublemakers in their chosen field, endangering their chances with a potential future employer.

The Labor Department says it is cracking down on firms that fail to pay interns properly and expanding efforts to educate companies, colleges and students on the law regarding internships.”

read the entire article Growth of Unpaid Internships May Be Illegal, Officials Say – NYTimes.com.

I read a lot of news, studies and reports on the Livestock Revolution. Still some support it, some never did it, some don’t support it anymore. I believe we should have learned by now that extreme measures are not the answer. Use moderation.
But no, we still want it all. Or nothing. It’s either black or white, never grey. It’s either “pushing the sector to its limits” or “not developing at all”. We should have noticed by now, that there always are limits to whatever we do. Let’s try to find an optimum that doesn’t break those limits and start doing us harm, instead of improving our lives. When did we started believing that we should eat meat every single day, maybe even twice a day?

The astonishing thing is that Italians still think he’s some kind of victim / martyr of the country… Poor thing, why nobody loves him??

This is just one of a series of articles on milk and the dairy industry. The things we don’t know…

Watch this interesting video and then think of what to put in your next shopping list…