Spot the difference

Recognise this picture?

The world according to: Land Area

And this one?

The world according to: Wealth (GDP 2002)

Something wrong?

The world according to: HIV/Aids prevalence

I recently found a wonderful website: WorldMapper -"The world as you have never seen it before". The map of the world is 'redrawn' according to various themes and data. Have a look around - its rather scary at times. Very telling are the maps of wealth, Aids, military spending and child-deaths. Very telling indeed!
These type of statistics always seem to bring to mind George Orwell's words from his political satire masterpiece Animal Farm:

"All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others."

now you see me, now you don't

Help!! The thesis is sucking me back in... aaarggghh. Nooooo!
Sorry about that - got a few deadlines (like FINAL draft deadlines) looming, so i'm going fly under the blogosphere radar for a few more days.

To give a brief update, in between thesis-ing, i have:

• recovered from the cricket loss to Australia (we beat Sri Lanka on Tues though)
• been to a great puppet show (The Vertigo of Sheep) at the Centre for Puppetry Arts. It was really good - sort of a Midrash on Genesis! You can watch a brief clip here.
  
• taken some more city pictures
• played frisbee, tennis and American Football (the touch version)
• celebrated Amy's 29th (or was it 31st) bday with Margaritas
• had a great lunch with David Bartlett again
  
• and.. bought a ticket to Chicago for next weekend. Its spring break and I'm going with Sarah to see a friend of her's in a theatre production (as well as explore the city of course!)

Back to work...

ouch

SA vs Australia UPDATE:
ouch! Australia batted first and scored 377 for 6. Even Pollock got hit for more than 8 an over. The players are having tea/lunch now. When they come back SA will have to bat amazingly to reach their target. It will be a thriller!
Live scorecast of the match here. General cricket rules here.

(and yes, i went to play frisbee. Now for the cricket. It's great to have my cake and eat it)

Ouch again! FINAL SCORE: Graeme Smith and AB DeVilliers gave us an explosive start, but when they lost their wickets, things started to slow down and fall apart. Pants! We were all out for 294 in the end. SA goes through to the next round anyway, but losing to Australia is never fun.

A to the T to the L

= ATLANTA!After a wonderful party on the rooftop of a building in downtown Atlanta last Saturday, I've decided to (in my two remaining months) properly explore this city I find myself in.
Exploration no. 1: Bicycle. This morning i went on a fabulous cycle from Decatur to Piedmont Park with Pomo-Adam and Serene-Sarah. It was a glorious day, made all the better by being outside expending energy. The park itself is not that impressive, but you can see the city skyline nicely. The best part (apart from the shower when i got home) was cycling through wonderful little obscure ATL suburbs, and cruising down fast hills. There is also 3 miles of bike path that does some cool winds and turns. One proper cycle and I'm beginning to get a feel for this city. Exploration no.1: Complete!Photo shoot - i'm also beginning to document this whole experience with my camera. I mentioned a few days back that spring is here, and the colours are wonderful. Here is my collage of some of the blossoms and leaves from today's cycle:
As they say in SA: Pragtig, né?

cricket or frisbee?

YES! I found a place that is showing the World Cup Cricket! It's a neat little pub in Little5. Just in time for the crucial SA- Australia game tomorrow morning! There are two problems though:
1. Spring league Ultimate is starting this week, and i have games tomorrow at 10:00 and 11:30. Urgh - cricket or frisbee? Tough one!
2. If I decide to go watch SA get some revenge over the Aussies, I can't go alone. I'm not sure if my friends here love me enough to spend 6 hours watching a strange game. Any takers, wonderful Atlanta people? I'll explain the rules, i promise!

Anyways, at least i now have a place to watch. Reading a live scorecard on the internet just doesn't conjure up the same excitement.

accents

I used to take people confusing me for a Brit as an offense. After reading what Stephen Fry has to say here, I'll let them think I'm British anyway. Apparently the strange accent lets me get away with stuff I shouldn't be able to, as well as give off a false sense of intelligence.

And all this time I thought my positive sermon feedback was because I did thorough exegesis.

recapping time

Yeah i know... where have I been?

Around! Time to recap the last two weeks which passed by really fast. Too fast in fact that I couldn't write about my journeyings, and I even missed my lent add/fast for a week. I'm doing the opposite of a fast this year: adding something instead of giving something up. But back to the silence:
Thesis: A lot of late nights, coffee at Java monkey and hours in front of the computer = thesis. And... i finished it! Handed in my first draft on Thursday to my adviser. I'm waiting to see what he thinks, I hope there wont be too many changes required. I actually enjoyed writing it and thinking about some guidelines for being church. Moltmann's ideas on the church are waaaay better and relevant than Rick's Purpose Driven Church stuff. And Peter Berger has some neat insights about marginal situations. Good stuff. Glad i got to come here and research some of my questions. Next deadline: 15 April: Final printing.
Ultimate: Then, as usual, there was a LOT of frisbee. Even though I'm on a record 12 game loosing streak, I'm not giving up just yet. Frostbreaker was a great experience. Gainesville, Florida reminded me of White River where my Oupa lives. The weather was great, the frisbee was fun, and our team (Death and Taxes) was the best worst team there. I taught the guys Freeze-master and Shoe-master, and they enjoyed these games so much they invented Pants-master. If you know the -master games, the new one is self explanatory. If not, ask me. Included in the weekend were an Irish pub, a keg on the field, Mexican food, the 'Yeehah' game, WaHo, sunshine, 2x great 5hr conversations in the car, and plenty of laughs all the time.
This weekend was Terminus. Again, we lost all of our games. This time the weather was awful! Freezing cold and strong wind. Not the best frisbee conditions at all. I was really impressed by a young team from Philly - Amp. They won Terminus, and their spirit on the field was very inspiring. 'Good on yer mate'!

Umm... yeah that's about it. Class and frisbee! There were a whole lot of other things going on, not least to mention some thoughts on next year, a St Patrick's day celebration on top of a building in downtown ATL, SA beating Holland in the cricket, and the spring blossoms that continue to look beautiful, but more of that later. For now, i need to find some supper.

Springtime!

Daylight savings changed last week, so the evenings are light until 7pm. Students are sitting on the quad, the weather is warm, birds are singing and trees are budding. Yay for spring!
All over Atlanta there are these trees with beautiful white flowers. They look like cotton wool or snow covered trees. Quite a sight. Reminds me of the Jacaranda trees in Pretoria. I still haven't found out what they are though: some say Dogwoods, others say some type of Pear. The flowers look like the African Wild Pear blossoms.

ultimaaaaate...

Off to Gainesville Florida to play some Ultimate and give my brain a rest. Frostbreaker - '72 hour revenge therapy' they say. I need it!
See you later... alligator. (haha - get it? Gainesville is the home of University of Florida who are also called the Gators. Enough.. i'm off)

.... breathe ....

I'm hanging in there. Have to remind myself to come up for air now and then.

I have 61 out of the 50 pages i need for my thesis. I can't relax just yet. Quantity doesn't guarantee quality.

I'll resurface on blogspot in a while. For now... back to the grindstone.

justice in the making

My theories of justice class has been going really well. Stimulating readings, and great discussion. We started class yesterday with this poem from Judy Chicago. We were talking about tradition, gender and religion as sources for theorising about justice. Marcia's term is 'leaning into justice' - it is a place we will never really arrive at, but we need to lean into it without quick reconciliation that hurries over the many differences and injustices. The poem has Isaiah-type languages, and is filled with seemingly irreconcilable opposites.

“Untitled Poem from ‘The Dinner Party’”
Judy Chicago

And then all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both women and men will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And then all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And then all will live in harmony with each other and the Earth
And then everywhere will be called Eden once again

As reprinted in Cries of the Spirit edited by Marilyn Sewell
Beacon Press (1991)