Category Archives: culture

February 22, 2012 · 19:04

promises to be a troubling film – no, its TERRIBLE

NO, NO, NO! DO NOT GO to this AWFUL movie. It is nothing more than an excuse to show rape, random killing, and sex and nudity. The story has so many factual problems that it is CONFUSING at best.

This movie is terrible and will only deepen the divisions against this already terribly divided nation.

This is, without a doubt the absolutely worst movie I have seen in a long time.

It was suitable, I suppose, that I went to see this film, here, in Sarajevo, the night before I travel to Srebrenica… where the worst European war crime since the Holocaust was committed… BUT that’s no reason to waste money on an awful movie.

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February 22, 2012 · 17:39

Sarajevo: important training

Little did I know that I would be receiving such important training here in Bosnia. You may be aware of my work: riding trains, drinking coffee and asking questions. Today, in the Bosnian capital, I received training on how to prepare and properly drink Bosnian coffee… from the proper boiling to measuring, serving and drinking…

careful measuring of the hand ground coffee is essential

at the completion of my course I received a diploma which will be framed and displayed in my study in the ‘ville…

here's the proof

…hmmm, I wonder how I can get a wallet size so as to identify myself as a tested and approved connoisseur?

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February 17, 2012 · 11:03

murder trial

Back home in the ‘ville, the trial of the century is ongoing. I have been following it on Twitter. It is interesting to read the perspective of the local and out-of-town reporters. One article made the ‘ville sound like a tiny burg with 40k people. UM, there are 20k students at UVa and 100k+ in Albemarle’s urban ring, HELLO! It’s not Gordonsville… but anyway… the trial has made the headlines and has even been heard of over here and people say: “that’s where you live?” … yup… wow, I can’t imagine what parking is like around downtown now… or the wait at Bizou or Christian’s…

This trial has also raised fresh questions about violence in America and why America is so much more violent than Europe (well, maybe England is catching up with USA in this respect) and other places…  But this is an old question for me as I travel around outside the USA… indeed, I was asked yesterday why we are so much more violent? availability of weapons? media? history? what? what do you think?

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February 16, 2012 · 21:06

check out this new blog of a former colleague

CHECK out “To Breathe Your Free Air” by John Wilsey

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February 8, 2012 · 17:21

sights from around Budapest today

 

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February 8, 2012 · 00:01

tragedy in the freezing night

I left the big city tonight and tagged along with some people who go out and visit to girls who work in the sex trade. These are girls who have gotten caught up in prostitution. They come from poor backgrounds and get caught up in the culture that holds them in. I went out with team of four three women and one man (and me). My job was to observe, learn what I could, but more importantly pray. I prayed for God to protect the women who went out 2 at a time to talk to the  girls. The girls paced on the side of this barren but lit two lane highway. Over the course of about a mile, there were twelve of them. Three of us sat in the car and prayed and kept a look out for  trouble from the pimps. The women on the team took hot tea, offered a sandwich and a Bible or a book, but mainly just spoke to these girls with the respect all humans deserve. Save your judgement. These women need Godly love. That’s what these women offered. When the pimps approach, the man on the team engages these men in conversation. The culture behind this whole industry is pretty complicated. The thing I observed in this team I was allowed to be a part of, is this, they care for the people who are caught in the tragedy in the freezing night (9 degrees F). For a moment, these people who are caught in a web of lies were allowed to experience the warmth of Jesus. Please pray as I did and will continue, that the words and the deeds of these disciples of Jesus will be used by God to cause these women to want to leave this life the are caught in behind and embrace a life of living in God’s love.

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