I spent hours going through multiple pages of very sweet tourist photos from Lebanon posted on a Lebanese-American Baklava company's web site. Almost unbearable, for their obvious love of the place.
On this page, they are continuing to update the images of past reconstruction and current destruction.
Aside from my obvious sympathy for a population getting the shit bombed out of it, (for being hijacked by Hezbollah on behalf of a few neighbouring countries who couldn't care less about any population's well being) the fragility of Lebanon as a multicultural country relates to all of us lucky ones who live here.
It brings to mind a brilliant essay, THE USES AND ABUSES OF MULTICULTURALISM: Chili and Liberty by Amartya Sen, 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.
"One of the central issues concerns how human beings are seen. Should they be categorized in terms of inherited traditions, particularly the inherited religion, of the community in which they happen to have been born, taking that unchosen identity to have automatic priority over other affiliations involving politics, profession, class, gender, language, literature, social involvements, and many other connections? Or should they be understood as persons with many affiliations and associations, whose relative priorities they must themselves choose (taking the responsibility that comes with reasoned choice)? Also, should we assess the fairness of multiculturalism primarily by the extent to which people from different cultural backgrounds are "left alone," or by the extent to which their ability to make reasoned choices is positively supported by the social opportunities of education and participation in civil society? There is no way of escaping these rather foundational questions if multiculturalism is to be fairly assessed. "
This one drove me to my dad's old "Cruden's Concordance," and I looked up all the references in the Bible to cedars and Lebanon. And yes, the place is very old, and much beloved. At one point in Ezekiel they're putting together the perfect boat, and they use the cedars of Lebanon for the masts. It's very sad.
I just looked up Cruden's Concordance:
"Cruden's concordance was first published in 1737, one of the first copies being personally presented to Queen Carolina on November 3, 1737. Cruden began work on his concordance in 1735 whilst a bookseller in London. It had taken the assistance of 500 monks for Hugo to complete his concordance of the Vulgate. Cruden worked alone from 7am to 1am every day and completed the bulk of the work in less than a year. " Never would have had that in our house, being Catholics that preferred all biblical info second-hand. "Live of the Saints" was much more fun, especially Saint Stephen, patron saint of humour.
Cruden was as much a part of our household as the Better Homes and Gardens (plaid-covered) cookbook.
In the Preface to my edition (1930, which means my dad came by it when he was doing graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in NYC) it says:
"He [Cruden] was intended for the Presbyterian ministry, but ill-health, which for a time affected his mind, led him to take up teaching at the age of twenty-one."
That is very pertinent information about Cruden's state of mind, M. Jean, Sandra Rechico is a teacher too.
thank you Lorna
Yeah, but was she ever a Presbyterian minister?
|
I spent hours going through multiple pages of very sweet tourist photos from Lebanon posted on a Lebanese-American Baklava company's web site. Almost unbearable, for their obvious love of the place.
On this page, they are continuing to update the images of past reconstruction and current destruction.
- L.M. 8-05-2006 10:43 pm
Aside from my obvious sympathy for a population getting the shit bombed out of it, (for being hijacked by Hezbollah on behalf of a few neighbouring countries who couldn't care less about any population's well being) the fragility of Lebanon as a multicultural country relates to all of us lucky ones who live here.
It brings to mind a brilliant essay, THE USES AND ABUSES OF MULTICULTURALISM: Chili and Liberty by Amartya Sen, 1998 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.
- L.M. 8-06-2006 2:16 am
This one drove me to my dad's old "Cruden's Concordance," and I looked up all the references in the Bible to cedars and Lebanon. And yes, the place is very old, and much beloved. At one point in Ezekiel they're putting together the perfect boat, and they use the cedars of Lebanon for the masts. It's very sad.
- M.Jean 8-06-2006 4:14 pm
I just looked up Cruden's Concordance:
Never would have had that in our house, being Catholics that preferred all biblical info second-hand. "Live of the Saints" was much more fun, especially Saint Stephen, patron saint of humour.- L.M. 8-06-2006 8:55 pm
Cruden was as much a part of our household as the Better Homes and Gardens (plaid-covered) cookbook.
In the Preface to my edition (1930, which means my dad came by it when he was doing graduate work at Union Theological Seminary in NYC) it says:
"He [Cruden] was intended for the Presbyterian ministry, but ill-health, which for a time affected his mind, led him to take up teaching at the age of twenty-one."
- M.Jean 8-07-2006 2:39 am
That is very pertinent information about Cruden's state of mind, M. Jean, Sandra Rechico is a teacher too.
- L.M. 8-14-2006 8:33 am
thank you Lorna
- SR 8-14-2006 4:35 pm
Yeah, but was she ever a Presbyterian minister?
- M.Jean 8-14-2006 5:25 pm