The Madman of Africa

"We are not going to give up our country for a mere X on a ballot. How can a ballpoint pen fight with a gun?"

ROBERT MUGABE, President of Zimbabwe, refusing to cede power to opponent Morgan Tsvangirai regardless of the results of the June 27, 2008 runoff election.

Meanwhile, America stand by silently as this paranoid madman holds hostage the lives of millions of people in Zimbabwe. Maybe things would be different if Zimbabwe had oil. Congo, Darfur, Somalia, and now Zimbabwe, when will American foreign policy care about black Africans? Hopefully policy will change January 2009.

Dalai Lama’s 18 rules for living

1. Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three Rs:
   1. Respect for self
   2. Respect for others
   3. Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great friendship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It’s a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.

"A Death in the Family"

For those of us who consider ourselves newsbuffs, we lost a family member today, with the passing of NBC Washington Bureau Chief, Tim Russert.

Russert was a man who came across as both hard-nosed and fair. He taught us how to be prepared for any debate and how to be a good listener. He taught us how to remain committed to your faith and your family amidst the pressures of the cutthroat lifestyle within Washington.

He was always passionate about politics and he exuded every time he was on air. We all knew how respected a newsman he was, but as we learn about his work and personal relationships behind the scenes, he apparently was a beloved friend, boss and mentor.

He was one of a kind in today's media and he will be missed.

What America Lost 40 Years Ago

• "What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black." Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968 Announcing to the crowd that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.

• "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly."

• "Few men are willing to brave the disapproval of their fellows, the censure of their colleagues, the wrath of society. Moral courage is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital, quality for those who seek to change a world which yields most painfully to change."

• "The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country."

• "Men without hope, resigned to despair and oppression, do not make revolutions. It is when expectation replaces submission, when despair is touched with the awareness of possibility, that the forces of human desire and the passion for justice are unloosed."

• "There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were and ask why not."

• "Few will have the greatness to bend history; but each of us can work to change a small portion of events, and in the total of all those acts will be written the history of this generation ... It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is thus shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

• "At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. "But suppose God is black", I replied. "What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?" There was no answer. Only silence." South Africa, June 1966

• "What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white or they be black." Indianapolis, Indiana, April 4, 1968 Announcing to the crowd that Martin Luther King had been assassinated.

• "Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it." From his last speech, June 5, 1968
• "Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws — but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted — when we tolerate what we know to be wrong — when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened — when we fail to speak up and speak out — we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice." June 21, 1961
  

Two Questions

Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was,

‘Did you bring joy?’

The second was,

‘Did you find joy?’