From My Email Bag Tonight

2 TOUGH QUESTIONS.... INTERESTING

 
Question 1:
If you knew a woman who was pregnant, who had 8 kids already, three who were deaf, two who were blind, one mentally retarded, and she had syphilis, would you recommend that she have an abortion?


Read the next question before looking at the response for this one.



Question 2:
It is time to elect a new world leader, and only your vote counts.
Here are the facts about the three candidates.


Candidate A:
Associates with crooked politicians, and consults with astrologists.  He's had two mistresses. He also chain smokes and drinks 8 to 10 Martinis a day.


Candidate B:
He was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks a quart of whisky every evening.


Candidate C:
He is a decorated war hero. He's a vegetarian, doesn't smoke, drinks an occasional beer and never committed adultery.


Which of these candidates would be our choice?

Decide first... No peeking, and then scroll down for the
response.
















Candidate A is Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Candidate B is Winston Churchill.
Candidate C is Adolf Hitler.

And, by the way, on your answer to the abortion question:
If you said YES, you just killed Beethoven.

Pretty interesting isn't it?
Makes a person think before judging someone.

Willie Smits

This video was made in 2009.   There is also and excellent TED talk by Willie Smits that I have posted on another site and is available on YouTube.  I think Willie Smits has a really interesting program going on his land preserve  that solves many issues. 

Book For The Week - 7/16/11

Stones Into Schools

by

Greg Mortenson



The Following is from the Author's Website:

Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace Through Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan (www.stonesintoschools.com). Over the past seventeen years, Greg Mortenson, through his nonprofit Central Asia Institute (CAI), has worked to promote peace through education by establishing more than 171 schools, most of them for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The story of how this remarkable humanitarian campaign began was told in his bestselling 2006 book, Three Cups of Tea. Mortenson’s philosophies about building relationships, empowering communities, and educating girls have struck a powerful chord. Hundreds of communities and universities, as well as several branches of the U.S. military, have used Three Cups of Tea as a common read.
Just as Three Cups of Tea began with a promise—to build a school in Korphe, Pakistan—so too does Mortenson’s new book. In 1999, Kirghiz horsemen from Afghanistan’s Wakhan Corridor rode into Pakistan and secured a promise from Mortenson to construct a school in an isolated pocket of the Pamir Mountains known as Bozai Gumbad. Mortenson could not build that school before constructing many others, and that is the story he tells in this dramatic new book. Picking up where Three Cups of Tea left off in late 2003, Stones into Schools traces the CAI’s efforts to work in a whole new country, the secluded northeast corner of Afghanistan. Mortenson describes how he and his intrepid manager, Sarfraz Khan, barnstormed around Badakhshan Province and the Wakhan Corridor, moving for weeks without sleep, to establish the first schools there.
Those efforts were diverted in October 2005 when a devastating earthquake hit the Azad Kashmir region of Pakistan. Under Sarfraz’s watch the CAI helped with relief efforts by setting up temporary tent schools and eventually several earthquakeproof schools. The action then returns to Afghanistan in 2007, as the CAI launches schools in the heart of Taliban country and as Mortenson helps the U.S. military formulate new strategic plans as a road map to peace. As the book closes, the initial promise to the Kirghiz is fulfilled.
Stones into Schools brings to life both the heroic efforts of the CAI’s fixers on the ground—renegade men of unrecognized and untapped talent who became galvanized by the importance of girls’ education—and the triumphs of the young women who are now graduating from the schools. Their stories are ones you will not soon forget.

(I finished listening to Stones Into Schools last pm on my way home from work.   As most people know,  60 minutes did a negative program on Greg Mortenson in April which has resulted in law suits being filed against Greg.   It is my hope that even if adjustments are needed to be made (and I am not saying that there are adjustments that need to be made as I am still waiting on the outcome of all this to make a judgement)   that it is all resolved and Greg and the CAI are able to continue their very important work.  Please follow the links at the title and the author's name to learn more about Greg and the CAI.    In the past I have posted the 60 minute video about Mr Mortenson so I am not re-posting it at this time.    I am going to post a video about the CAI which I hope will help people understand how important the work of the CAI is.   A friend and I hope to get tickets to hear Greg Mortenson speak in October as he is scheduled to be in Chicago.  Since he had open heart surgery last month I do hope he can make it to his Chicago presentation.)

Unstoppable Movie Trailer Official (HD)

After dinner and fixing the dishwasher's kinked drainage hose Mark and I settled down and watched a movie. This one will keep you on the edge of your seat!

Moving Windmills: The William Kamkwamba story

http://movingwindmills.org/story

I was reading through my app on my Ipod of Al Gore's Our Choice and got to about the middle of chapter four and found this gem of info. How cool is this??!!

A Poem

It has been a long time since we have had our Poetry Wednesday Group.  And while I miss it,  there isn't time in my life for it right now.  But occasionally I still come across a poem that I really like.  Here is one of them.  And don't forget to follow the link to learn more about Naomi Shihab Nye.

Before You Know What Kindness Really Is
by Naomi Shihab Nye


Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.

Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.

Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
    purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

--Naomi Shihab Nye, from The Words Under the Words