the suppliants

Operation Last Chance

According to an annual report released earlier this year by the Wiesenthal Center, there are 1,018 ongoing investigations of Nazi war criminals in 14 countries. The yearlong period ending March 31 saw 21 convictions, primarily in Italy, a statistic that is considerably higher than in past years, due to Operation Last Chance - a renewed interest in finding and arresting Nazi war criminals before they die natural deaths.

At left is Adolf Eichmann, probably the most notorious Nazi war criminal ever brought to justice.  He was captured in Argentina in 1960 by the Mossad and hanged two years later.  It's hard to believe these guys are still around.

Uexkülls & Umwelts

Semiotics...Saussure...this is complicated.  Ok, first, who was Uexkülls?   was a German biologist  What is an umwelt???  Glad you asked.  So here's some of his thought:

von Uexküll became interested in how living beings subjectively perceive their environment(s). Picture, for example, a meadow as seen through the compound eyes of a fly, continually flying through the air, and then as seen in black and white by a dog (with its highly efficient sense of smell), and then again from the point of view of a human or a blind tick. Furthermore, think of what time means to each of these different beings with their relative lifespans. Von Uexküll called these subjective spatio-temporal worlds "Umwelt". These Umwelts are distinctive from what von Uexküll termed the "Umgebung" which would be objective reality were such a reality to exist. Each being perceives its own Umwelt to be the objective Umgebung, but this is merely perceptual bias.

Von Uexküll's writings show a specific interest in the various worlds that exist ('conceptually') from the point of view of the Umwelt of different creatures such as ticks, sea urchins, amoebae, jellyfish and sea worms. This gives some of his writings a poetical quality.

The biosemiotic turn in von Uexküll's analysis occurs in his discussion of the animal's relationship with its environment. The Umwelt is for him an environment-world which is (according to Agamben), "constituted by a more or less broad series of elements [called] "carriers of significance" or "marks" which are the only things that interest the animal." Agamben goes on to paraphrase one example from von Uexküll's discussion of a tick, saying,

"...this eyeless animal finds the way to her watchpoint [at the top of a tall blade of grass] with the help of only its skin’s general sensitivity to light. The approach of her prey becomes apparent to this blind and deaf bandit only through her sense of smell. The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, works on the tick as a signal that causes her to abandon her post (on top of the blade of grass/bush) and fall blindly downward toward her prey. If she is fortunate enough to fall on something warm (which she perceives by means of an organ sensible to a precise temperature) then she has attained her prey, the warm-blooded animal, and thereafter needs only the help of her sense of touch to find the least hairy spot possible and embed herself up to her head in the cutaneous tissue of her prey. She can now slowly suck up a stream of warm blood."

Thus, for the tick, the Umwelt is reduced to only three (biosemiotic) carriers of significance: (1) The odor of butyric acid, which emanates from the sebaceous follicles of all mammals, (2) The temperature of 37 degrees celsius (corresponding to the blood of all mammals), (3) The (hairy typology of mammals).

Works by scholars such as Kalevi Kull connect von Uexküll's studies with some areas of philosophy such as phenomenology and hermeneutics. Von Uexküll is also considered a pioneer of semiotic biology, or biosemiotics. However despite his influence (on the work of philosophers Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (in their A Thousand Plateaus), for example) he is still not widely known, and his books are mostly out of print in German and in English, although a paperback French translation of Streifzüge durch die Umwelten von Tieren und Menschen [A stroll through the Umwelten of animals and humans] is currently in print.

La Recriminación

. . . facilis descensus Averno;

sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras,

hoc opus, hic labor est.

                                       - Virgil, Æneid

 

 . . .  easy is the descent to hell;

but to retrace one's steps, to escape once more to upper air,
that is difficult, that is the task.

 

 

Arms of the woman I sing

Of proud Jezebel's unrelenting hate:

Expelled and exiled,

We've fled Colcibolca's shore

and the pueblos blancos haven breeze

For parts north, like refugees, exiles from a crime

not quite uncommitted but resolutely denied;

set free from prison's grasp on the promise

of a ransomed virginity we fled

and like exiles in a stupor we left

the lush tropical green of our Nicaragua.

Sunt lacrimae rērum et mentem mortālia tangunt—

"There tears for the mortal way of the world brush our minds." (Aeneid I, 462)

An Ode to the Saxon-Eyed

(Una Oda a Ojos Sajones)

 

We are a race of conquerors

hunters and terrible riflemen

Saxon-eyed and with barbarous souls

We trample and conquer and pillage

and no we haven't forgotten about our

neighbors "South of the border."

We have tamed nine hundred and ninety-nine cubs of the Spanish lion;

  (There's one Cuban cub we can't seem to domesticate)

We are the warriors of Wall Street

and we are smashing through your borders

in a neoliberal CAFTA blitzkrieg. 

Yes, we do believe life is a fire and

progress an eruption and Saddam himself can confirm

that the future is exactly where

our bullet strikes.

 

We are an Alexander-Nebuchadnezzar,

one part Washington, four parts Bush

and we have seduced your Jesucristo

with a DaVinci smile -

We have purpose-driven(tm)  your Virgin

out of her royal throne.

We have forgotten church, we confess,

and replaced it with the Hercules-Mammon cult.

Yes, we still have everything, we know,

and yes, you will all be happy to know

we still lack that one thing.

And Latin America, if you know history,

perhaps you can find some pity for us.

The kind of man I want to be...

Simple Man

(Gary Rossington - Ronnie VanZant)

Mama told me when I was young
Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say.
And if you do this
It will help you some sunny day.
Take your time... Don't live too fast,
Troubles will come and they will pass.
Go find a woman and you'll find love,
And don't forget son,
There is someone up above.

(Chorus)
And be a simple kind of man.
Be something you love and understand.
Be a simple kind of man.
Won't you do this for me son,
If you can?

Forget your lust for the rich man's gold
All that you need is in your soul,
And you can do this if you try.
All that I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

(Chorus)

Boy, don't you worry... you'll find yourself.
Follow you heart and nothing else.
And you can do this if you try.
All I want for you my son,
Is to be satisfied.

(Chorus)

(Recorded by Lynyrd Sknyrd)

Bishop N.T. Wright's New Book - "Acts For Everyone"

Bishop N.T. Wright spoke at Soularize this past weekend.  Here are some notes from Jordon Cooper:

Bishop Tom spoke on Acts (his book Acts for Everyone is coming out in December) and began by saying how we need to read through Acts in large sections as opposed to a verse by verse study.  It is a story and must be read that way to understand the whole.  He also made the point that the book was probably written as a part of Paul's legal defense.

He spoke about the nature of Acts being a riot a day influenced by the actions of believers.  He also talked about how a fellow Bishop who remarked that when Paul spoke, the people rioted and when [the Bishop] spoke, people made tea.  Bishop Tom talked about how the Kingdom of God is the overlying theme of Acts. It begins in Acts 1 and extends after the 28th chapter. Acts is the story of the kingdom of God breaking into the world…living this Kingdom life will cause riots and those that will carry out this message will face persecution.

Acts 1-11 says nothing about going to heaven when you die. It is about the restoration of Israel but it looks different than the Jewish people originally thought.  The Kingdom of God looks like a community hanging with people from all worlds, with God living out his promises, as God claims the world as his own.  The Second Coming of Jesus is Jesus coming to earth to rule and reign and to ultimately renew it.  Not us being taken away to heaven which contradicts what most evangelicals believe and partly explains the lack of a theology of earth that has played a part of global warming.

Wright then spoke on the ascension which confuses many because it is not a literal ascension upward. It reminded me a story of my brother coming home from Sunday School and learning how Jesus went to heaven on a Popsicle stick.   Instead it is the place where heaven and earth intersect/overlap/interlock. Jesus didn’t go up, he went into God’s space. Jesus is at home in the space we call heaven. Jesus was already transformed and this ascension leads us through Acts.

To the Jew the temple was this overlap (inside the temple was heaven, and the temple was on earth). But Jesus was a human not a building and its for the whole world.

Acts 1-13 has a Jewish focus where we have Jesus community lived out in the temple in the outer courts attracting Jews. Jesus is announced as the Messiah.

Acts 13-28 Jesus is announced as the Lord of the world and Caesar is not. 

The early Christian community is the church the place where heaven and earth collide. Bishop Tom mentions 1 Kings 8 and Isaiah 6 = connected to Acts 2. It is the place where the spirit comes alive and the community is equipped to share to everyone in the culture and provided opportunities. the name of Jesus carries power.

Acts 7 has Steven preaching in the temple as a marker to Jesus and he is martyred. Acts 4-5 leads into this by sharing how we must obey God rather than men, not looking for trouble but allegiance brings trouble at times.

Jews see water, sea as dark and evil. Look at Noah, Jonah, Moses and the sea as the dark chaos of creation. In order to bring the message of hope Paul must go through the dark and evil sea.

Wright connects Luke to Acts through the crucifixion and the shipwreck Paul goes through. Jesus going to Jerusalem, Paul to Rome; climax of cross and shipwreck for the ultimate message to be declared. Luke’s theology is woven into narrative. People must go through fire and water (cross) in order to show Jesus as lord which happens over and over to Paul.

Paul utilizes Roman citizenship and political powers. It is not our job to get the right people in, it is to keep accountable the people in positions of power. Acts has been thought of as a document to help Paul on his trial at end of Acts.

Wright finished up with Luke having justification as a woven theology in his narrative. One day God will sort it out, and we should live in anticipation in the present for the the future. To be saved is to live out the Jesus way of life as heaven and earth intersecting. Jesus is powerfully present in Acts through faithful battered followers - Acts 2:42. 

Busted Tees

I found some really funny t-shirts (and a bit pricy) at www.bustedtees.com