George Clooney in South Sudan - Part Three

Abyei - Perilous journey, border, oil, But Abyei is the South and the South is Abyei.

SPLA soldiers are taking care of Clooney and his group.

Abyei was destroyed by the northern soldiers two years ago. Pregnant women were burned to death, old women were raped. Endless stories of atrocities.

The people are ready fight and die for independence.
They will never surrender. They will never give up Abyei. They will die. Not run away.

Return to Juba. U.N. Security Council is coming in. Susan Rice arrives.

Salva!! He tells Ann Curry about the tanks of the north that are building up.

Clooney is using his fame to help Sudan.

Clooney and John Prendergast do a P.R. tour, "blanketing the air waves."
I hope he will reach out the conservative media, too, though.
Private audience with Obama. Long meeting.

Now Clooney is at the U.N. white House received 50,000 emails during the media blitz. Bashir says Clooney is "beating the drums of war." Pah.

George Clooney in South Sudan - Part two

According to his dad, George Clooney has always had heart, cared about people.

Sudan has become his life mission, says Ann Curry. First, to Darfur. Now to South Sudan.

They went from Juba to Malakal, where there has already been attacks by the north. They took a boat to a village where people had fled for refuge. John Prendergast is with them. He meets the elders, as well. The people hope that a new Southern government will protect them. They will vote for separation.

Will the U.S. and other countries come to the rescue?

Now they are flying to Marial Bai! That is where my friend, Fran Boyle's ministry works in Sudan. They are meeting with Valentino Deng, the former Lost Boy from Marial Bai. He tells of the attack on his village when the people were killed. Valentino was nine when this happened and he fled as did the tens of thousands of other children.

Wrote "What is the What" with Dave Eggars. And used the royalties to build schools, including a school for girls. George Clooney is impressed by the students hunger for education.

Fran's ministry in Marial Bai focuses on the orphans and others who have been redeemed, returned from slavery.

Live blogging Dateline with George Clooney

Winds of War: George Clooney in Sudan

Clooney is fighting to put the spotlight on Sudan. And thank God he is. Clooney can get Sudan more attention than most of us can.

Clooney and Prendergast landed in Juba. Not just financial and humanitarian, George. International security, too.

Very pleased with George Clooney. "Making it harder to kill people" shining daylight on the situation.

Malaria, stomach ailments. But he is committed to making a difference. Again I say, good for you, George Clooney. When you were speaking out about Darfur, I thought it was wonderful, but I wondered if you would do the same thing when the victims were Christians, and there was no getting away from the fact that this genocide was rooted in religious as well as racial causes. That it was a Holy War against those who resisted Sharia and Arabization. But you did it. You stepped up to the plate. You looked at the reality and you did not flinch from having your eyes opened to the truth about South Sudan.

Is it Still Islamophobia When a Muslim Burns the Mosque?

"A Muslim man charged with setting fire to a Marietta mosque may be in the country illegally, law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday.
Tamsir Mendy, 26, a native of Gambia, has been charged with first-degree arson and is being held without bail at the Cobb County detention center, said Scott Tucker, Marietta assistant fire chief."
...

“It’s obviously quite disturbing to hear that a member of the Muslim community is ACCUSED of this crime,” said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations."

Read the rest here.

Respite from austerity

Even in this shriven season there is grace, there is mercy, there is beauty.




Who knows what will come, but try to enjoy each day - your family and others who enrich life, a glimpse of floral splendor, the heady song of a mockingbird, the cheeky stare of a chipmunk or squirrel.

Blogging Through The World Turned Upside Down

I am going to try something that I have never tried before. Blogging my way through a book as I read it. At times I have kept journals of books that I was reading, but never with the thought that anyone except a professor would see it. Of course, that may be true of this blog! No one may see it. But I do want to record the experience of what I believe is a very important book that captures the insanity of the moment in which we are living.

"Much of public discouse has departed sharply from reality" says Melanie Phillips (or here) in the second sentence of the Preface of her wonderful new book, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth, and Power. By the way, if you have not yet read her previous book, Londonistan, you need to read it if you want to know what the heck has happened to England! I would add that much of public discourse has departed sharply from politeness, kindness, courtesy, reticence to use foul language, and many other signs of civilization. If you want an example of that, just look at poor Congressman Joe Barton's Facebook page! You've never seen such a bunch of vicious hyenas tearing away at him with either no understanding that he was NOT excusing BP for the Gulf region oil leak/catastrophe, or else understanding but determined not to let this mini-crisis (Barton's apology to BP for the shakedown by President Obama) go to waste. Ah, how much we have learned from Rahm Emmanuel. How much public discourse has changed in the Obama Administration!


Which brings me back to the subject at hand. The World Turned Upside Down.

Coincidentally, I recently read that at the end of the American Revolution, when General Cornwallis' troops surrendered their arms in Yorktown, 1781, it is suggested that their military band played a march (assuming they only surrendered their arms, and not their musical instruments!) called "The World Turned Upside Down." It was to the tune, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again." There is some debate about this, but even the debate is instructive and entertaining in this article by historian Dennis Montgomery.

Here's one of the verses, that describes a state of chaos and insanity that British troops may have felt surrendering to the Yankee Doodles, and that Melanie Phillips, and many with her, feel today:

If buttercups buzz'd after the bee
If boats were on land, churches on sea
If ponies rode men and if grass ate the cows
And cats should be chased into holes by the mouse
If the mamas sold their babies
To the Gypsies for half a crown
If summer were spring
And the other way 'round
Then all the world would be upside down!

Good old Wikipedia says that the song was a ballad, first printed on broadsides, to protest the solemnization of Christmas that was enforced by the Cromwellians. Not quite as drastic as the Taliban, or the Somali Islamic Court thugs, but for its day, a real downer.

By the way, if you'd like to sing along with "The World Turned Upside Down," here's the tune, along with its own words, "When the King Enjoys His Own Again."

So much for my first blog through The World Turned Upside Down. Maybe I'll stick more with the subject next time!

Insanity reigns in America...but in England, it rules without challengers. At least we have tea parties!

Ken Blackwell reveals the insanity in a column comparing the treatment of General Boykin and of Major Nidal Hasan by the U.S. government and by the media. Three guesses which man gets demonized!

But, an excellent talk by Melanie Phillips today at the American Enterprise Institute shows how much farther the insanity has spread in the United Kingdom. You can find her here and here. I am going to blog my way through her new book, The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle Over God, Truth, and Power. I can't wait to read it!

To Explain Me as I See Me

Subjective, but hopefully with nuance, and nuanced with hope, on topics which make my heart burst or the vein in my temple throb:
God, Africa, politics, people, human rights (Universal Declaration sense, not the "never met a desire that wasn't a right" sense), global jihad, Anglicanism, books, music, and many other things.

Continuing to Watch and Pray for Sudan

Confusion appears to be reigning. Not just in Sudan, but all over the world. Like the volanic ash that is devasting Europe. But God is in control. "We believe that His children will not be forsaken. . . we will choose to remember and never be shaken. There is no power above or beside Him, we know, God is in control."

Watch and pray. One thing we in America can do is DEMAND that our government respond with justice and not accept the results of a crooked election. Is anyone surprised by Jimmy Carter? If so, you must not know that Carter once called Bashir "a courageous and enlightened leader" for signing just one more worthless agreement.

From my friend Akol, this beautiful photo of TRULY courageous leaders. Too bad Jimmy Carter likes having cardomon tea with the Arabists instead of getting to know the REAL people of Sudan.



SPLA Oyee! New Sudan Oyee! God bless Sudan and give her freedom, justice, and peace. May God scatter the proud in their own deceit, put down the mighty from their throne(s), and lift up the meek and the lowly.