Happy Sunday!  I walked by this lovely yard recently…not sure why the empty pots are stored there on the fence like that…(?)…but their yard sure was gorgeous!

For a short Sunday sermon, here’s a quote from a talk I listened to a while back.  I think it is very true.

Margaret D. Nadauld taught: “The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity.

Here’s the FULL TALK where that was quoted.  (Just in case you’d like a longer Sunday sermon :o)  Have…

Watching Old Man River

Something very relaxing about setting on the bank of a river and watching the world go by.

Croatian presidential candidate
Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic
on “Sunday at 2” TV program 21 September 2014
Photo: Screen shot

Rushed, half-baked backroom deals that are doomed to wither away into economic impact nothingness, slow chipping away at corruption by processing “top dogs” instead of building anti-corruption monitoring in all places of public office, or measures of nationalistic pride will not save Croatia from economic bankruptcy and social disintegration. Leadership will!

Presidential Candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is a leader; she has proven that and she commands respect as such. What’s more important is that she is a champion of democratic thought and action – something Croatian society needs.

The fact that she is widely perceived as a leader is reflected in the campaign of smears against her, evidently waged, either directly or indirectly through the control of the media by the current president Ivo Josipovic’s camp. A campaign of smears is usually associated with…

My apologies for the hiatus. The past week has been very busy, and I have been doing quite a bit of writing elsewhere! See below…

Police vehicles parked in August Town near where Constable James Grant was shot dead on Monday. (Photo: Michael Gordon/Jamaica Observer)

The death of a policeman: I once knew August Town quite well. It’s at the end of a road that passes by the University of the West Indies campus. So close is it to the ivory towers of academia that there have been well-meaning efforts over the years (spearheaded by the late Professor Barry Chevannes) to “uplift” the community. Nevertheless, it continues to struggle with a legacy of politically-instigated violence. It is now mainly gang violence, while the politicians mostly do some posturing. It has been relatively peaceful for a while, but yesterday a policeman was shot dead in African Gardens, one of the less…