Spirituality and the rest of us.

As Pennsylvanians went to the polls in April,perhaps the most recent of the big topics in this never-ending democratic nomination battle would play heaviest in voters' consciousness.
Senator Barrack Obama's "bitter" comment on guns and faith amongst small town/rural americans hangs over his candidacy like the sword of Damocles.
Many have opined that the senator from Illinois' greatest strength may also be his weakness:the pledge to move away from how politics is done in washington...the tendency to say not what the people want to hear,but what they need to hear.
An absolute avalanche of angst and reactions have trailed this political earthquake.I doubt if even the senator ever bargained for the scale of reaction to his off-the-sleeve comment.

Now let's move away from presidential politics for a moment and focus on the raging legal/custody battle emanating from Texas where several hundreds of underage children are POW's in the complicated Polygamist sect case.
Some of us recent immigrants were quite unimpressed by the whole Warren Jeff case about a year ago(the sect prophet now serving federal jail term) partly because bigamy/polygamy at least in the larger African society is hardly a civil offence.In fact,most 'big men' in the African context have several wives.The trend has only started to shift with the newer generation,not because of any legal responsibilities,but more to do with economic reasons in an increasingly westernized society.

This next point may be more controversial,but I will make it nonetheless.In several parts of Africa,an old tradition that has refused to go away is the bethrothing of young girls to be married to older men.The belief is they are better taken care of and become less promiscuous since they are less vulnerable to the turpsy turvies of hormonal changes at puberty.Needless to say that a predictable drawback to this practice is the high incidence of vesico-vaginal fistulae(VVF) and other obstetric complications in these juvenile mums.

Having said that,the first thing I learnt upon first arriving in the UK several years ago was that many acceptable practices where I was coming from were actually punishable offences in the west,bigamy not the least of them.I have had no problems resetting my psyche since then and have managed to stay out of trouble subsequently.

This is why the aggreived mothers of these sect children will have a tough case under the law.The leaders and prophet of this sect were well aware of the laws of the land together with the prescribed punishments for flouting them...yet,they continued to perpetrate their practices.
We must leave the determination of guilt to the courts.

We may also have to leave the determination of rights and wrongs to individuals and whatever supreme being their faiths prescribe...especially in a pluralistic society like the USA where the separation of church and state had long been entrenched in the constitution.

The recent papal visit to the US was such a draw for mainstream media not least because they were eager to see how his holiness Benedict XVI would approach the scandal of priest child sex abuse.He did not disappoint them.He spoke about this at every turn and confronted the issue head-on.
There are those that have suggested renouncing celibacy as a way out of future scandals,but many catholics believe the vatican would not compromise on this age-l0ng virtue.

In the end,individual spirituality had always been and will remain a touchy but very important issue.What I hope is that we as a people will demonstrate enough tolerance and open mindedness towards one another's spiritual beliefs-or lack of one-so that each might concentrate on how to make himself a better being and offer service to mankind in his/her own little way.

We will achieve nothing by running away from talking about this issue,and I strongly believe that opening lines of communication would protect the likes of those sect children who might slip under the radar otherwise.On the other hand,we may continue to worship political correctness and block off all discussions.
I am about to submit this article for my departmental journal.If this gets published,we have opted for the former.If it doesn't make it to press,then the latter sadly would have been the case.

Twisted.

The premiership run-in has never been this intriguing since the premiership rose from the ashes of the barclays league.

Today,the red devils arrived at ewood park with loads of arrogance peppered with a sense of foreboding.They were lucky to avoid defeat as Roque Santa Cruz reminded them that the league was not over yet.

A lot of people have written about the relative run-ins of both title contenders;but I feel chelsea have got a job to do first on the bridge if they are to make the permutations endure beyond next weekend.

Arsenal has surrendered a 12-point lead to the red devils in a run-in before...so fergie knows exactly how cruel the last set of games can be to complacent souls.Left to old trafford fans,the team from the north were already champions-elect since beating wenger's men at old trafford couple of weeks ago. Fergie has been doing his utmost best to dampen expectations..but the incurable inflated egos of MAN UTD fans worldwide typically show no let off until deflated in decisive fashion.

Man-utd winning the title would not be a headline....but surrendering the title in the last 2 games would certainly leave a ripple effect.

Looking at the lurking champions league games in mid week,I suspect Man-Utd would emerge the more tired of the 2 title contenders just by virtue of their different styles of play.

Man-utd run a lot with power over 90 minutes and come up against another flair team in Barca who by the way now have all their flair players back: deco,ronaldinho,messi,eto'o...only krkic and henry are doubts after the weekend liga games. The likes of ronaldo and rooney surely cannot be as fresh on saturday after running all tuesday.

Chelsea on the other hand play a more possessive kind of football and rely heavily on strong midfield display to wear teams down.Liverpool are very similar.I cannot imagine that chelsea would mind this tie very much..plus they get to stay in England while Man-Utd hop on a flight to spain.

This season has shown enough twists and turns already though to prove that logical analyses like this one count for absolutely nothing once the ref blows the whistle...it's why we all follow the game innit?...let the games begin!!

Louisiana memoirs(1)

I was half asleep midway through my latest Ludlum re-read('tristan betrayal') when the pilot's announcement woke me:"ladies and gentlemen,our agonizing wait is over and we have been cleared for take-off".An approving chorus of grunts greeted this welcome but patently overdue pronouncement.

Right at this moment,a middle aged lady decided it was time to answer the call of nature,making her way down the long aisle towards the toilet at the back of the boeing 737. One of the LSU pharmacy seniors in the row beside me with whom I'd earlier exchanged idle banter looked towards my direction in puzzlement that matched my own.

The next sound was that of the toilet doors slamming shut and then...silence.

Two minutes later,the dreaded follow-up announcement was made:"cabin crew to prepare for take-off".

Again,Rodney cast a furtive glance in my direction and we both erupted in uncontrollable laughter.

The girls sitting in front of us initially wondered what was so amusing,but then the plane took off and a sequence of loud thuds appeared to emanate out from the back of the plane.Rodney explained to one of the girls what was happening,and they,in turn laughed uncontrollably.By this time the rest of the passengers had realized what was happening and every one awaited the emergence of the unwitting actress at the center of this episode.

Finally,the plane was above the clouds and the "fasten seat belts" sign was turned off.
Our lady reluctantly emerged from the toilet after almost 7 minutes of being bounced around the tiny airport toilet to rapturous applause from all the passengers and the palpable embarrasment of the cabin crew.

Several questions arose:

Could one have expected the poor lady to hold her number 1 or 2 because the plane was about to take-off??What if she suffered one of those detrusor instability syndromes and loss of bladder control?

Did Rodney and I act immaturely by somehow drawing unnecessary attention to the poor lady's plight?

Had the airline staff/cabin crew failed in their duty to enforce safety protocol??

All,valid questions to which there may be no definite right answers....but for my part,I can say that I was less than proud of the role I played!