My bro and sis-in-law recently gave me a lovely boxed version of The New Yorker on CD-- every issue and article that has ever come out since the 1920s. This of course is tens of thousands of articles and I will never come close to reading them all-- but tonight, as I am getting ready to go to Nigeria in a week, I decided to search for articles on Nigeria. Which brought up some interesting stuff, as these factoids from a 2000 article about the famous meeting between Bono and Jesse Helms. (Before the serious stuff, I just have to share the NY's rich little description of "Helms, whose enthusiasm for mononymic rock stars had hitherto passed unremarked". Ha!)
But here's the important bit:
In 1962, roughly three percent of the federal budget was devoted to development aid. This year, the share going to economic aid for poor countries is less than one percent, which is just twenty-nine dollars per American. (The typical developed country gives about seventy dollars per person.) The entire aid budget for sub-Saharan Africa would just about pay for one new destroyer.
--"Comment: They Are the World", John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 9 October 2000
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Friday, March 12, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
bad news from Nigeria
As I'm headed to Nigeria in a week, this article caught my eye:
Nigerian massacre victims buried in mass grave (LA Times, 8 March 2010)
This isn't even the most disturbing thing I have read today. I guess reading about all the sick and incredibly broken stuff in the world is one of my occupational hazards (I have been reading about Kinsey tonight)-- but seriously, some days the world just seems so dark. Tonight I can't sleep. And just want to weep.
The last couple weeks I have been clinging to Jesus' words about His peace that is not like the world's peace, about not letting my heart be troubled or afraid (John 14:27). What verse do you cling to when the world seems dark?
Something else for sad and/or weary souls (we sang it yesterday at church):
P.S. I have to add that after writing this, who popped up in my Skype chat but my dear friend who is living/working in Darfur. It's nice to have a friend who is also up in the wee hours, which of course are the late morning hours there. And she has shared my depressing-field-of-public-health world like no one else, and I am so glad that God has given me such a friend to walk with me. And that tonight, she understands my heartache (good grief, she works in Darfur!), and can remind me that God is still the Healer and Restorer and Fixer, at work in the world, all the time. This was her verse for me tonight (Isaiah 5:11): "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
Nigerian massacre victims buried in mass grave (LA Times, 8 March 2010)
This isn't even the most disturbing thing I have read today. I guess reading about all the sick and incredibly broken stuff in the world is one of my occupational hazards (I have been reading about Kinsey tonight)-- but seriously, some days the world just seems so dark. Tonight I can't sleep. And just want to weep.
The last couple weeks I have been clinging to Jesus' words about His peace that is not like the world's peace, about not letting my heart be troubled or afraid (John 14:27). What verse do you cling to when the world seems dark?
Something else for sad and/or weary souls (we sang it yesterday at church):
P.S. I have to add that after writing this, who popped up in my Skype chat but my dear friend who is living/working in Darfur. It's nice to have a friend who is also up in the wee hours, which of course are the late morning hours there. And she has shared my depressing-field-of-public-health world like no one else, and I am so glad that God has given me such a friend to walk with me. And that tonight, she understands my heartache (good grief, she works in Darfur!), and can remind me that God is still the Healer and Restorer and Fixer, at work in the world, all the time. This was her verse for me tonight (Isaiah 5:11): "The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail."
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