Submitted by Crusoe (as a comment on the Haiti We Are Sorry blog
You list some good ideas for the structural retransformation of Haiti [Responding to Commenter Dictionary on the Haiti We Are Sorry blog]. Each in of themselves they do not depend on improved education but do depend on improved technical training (farming etc). However, for all, the long-term success of those initiatives individually and collectively leading to a successful Haiti will certainly also depend on improved education, if as we have been informed, the literacy level is so low.
This has two implications.
Firstly, immediately after initial search, rescue, medical, temporary (short and medium term) and security issues have been addressed as priority, the early reformation must include an immediate education programme, for adult and youth, such that the transformation of Haiti can begin with the active participation of her people, not as ‘serfs’ but as active individuals and communities with an understanding of the reasoning behind the methods and the aim of the methods.
I must add, that ‘transformation’ in this context is not meant to refer to bringing Haiti to the same philosophical outlook as anyone other specific group. In this context it is meant to refer to bringing Haiti to a level of self-capability and self-determination. Now, to expect say a three or four year ‘crash course’ in education and technical skills may seem either impossible or unrealistic, but unfortunately, if this is not done as one of the foundations of the rebuilding (in the context of not only structural, but as a nation of people), than all else may eventually prove futile.
This is obviously along the lines of the old phrase of teaching a man to fish instead of giving him the fish. Merely putting up structures, farms etc may certainly alleviate some misery, but while in the short term foreign contractors etc may gain much from the aid given for this purpose, the long-term goal should be to have Haitians and not only elite, but the everyday Haitian, benefit from money flows and thus create an independent people and a vibrant economy.
It is my view therefore Caricom leaders, should address the education of Haiti, as a priority, as much a priority as any other redevelopment effort.
To reinforce a point, the initial effort must not only be to set up an improved schooling system, but implement as an interim measure, an ’emergency education programme’, with the help of international authorities and the Haitian authorities. If one wants a long-term Haiti, this is essential.
We must give thanks yet again, that Errol Barrow saw the necessity of education as a developmental tool. And, we must forever resist ANY attempts to take free education from Barbadians. Indeed, those of us who wish for an improved world, must seek the furtherance of a sound even if basic education, for all peoples, as a necessity for development.
1,421 responses to “The Reconstruction And Transformation Of Haiti: A Global-Moral Imperative”
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/202250-Imperial-propaganda-Ordinary-Haitians-beg-the-US-empire-to-take-over-and-run-their-country
The Truth About the god of the Mormons!
Joseph Smith, Brigham Young and other Mormon ‘prophets’ created such a deranged, confused, irrational, crazed concept of God, listen to the nonsense they believe and teach, as taken from ‘The Kingdom of The Cults.’
1. “In the beginning, the head of the Gods called a council of the Gods; and they came together and concoted a plan to create the world and people it” (Teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 345).
2. ” God himself was once as we are, and is an exalted man…” (teaching of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p.235).
3. “The Father has a body of flesh and bones as tangible as man’s: the Son also; but the Holy Ghost has not a body of flesh and bones, but is a personage of Spirit…” (doctrine and Covenants 130: 22).
4. ” Gods exist, and we had better strive to be prepared to be one with them” (Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 238).
5. “As man is, God once was: as God is, man may become” (Prophet Lorenzo Snow, quoted in Milton R. Hunter, The Gospel through the Ages, pp. 105, 106).
6. “Each of these Gods, inculding Jesus Christ and His Father, being in possession of not merely an organized spirit, but a glorious immortal body of flesh and bones…” (Parley P. Pratt, Key to the Science of Theology, ed. 1965, p. 44).
7. “And then the Lord said: Let us go down, And they went down at the beginning, and they, that is the Gods, organized and formed the heavens and the earth” (Abraham 4:1).
8. “Remember that God, our heavenly Father, was perhaps once a CHILD, and MORTAL like we ourselves, and rose step by step in the scale of progress, in the school of advancement; has moved forward and overcome, until He has arrived at the point where He now is” (Apostle Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 123).
9. “Mormon prophets have continuously taught the sublime truth that God the Eternal Father was once a MORTAL MAN who passed through a school of earth life similar to that through which we are now passing. He became God-an exalted being – through obedience to the same eternal Gospel truths that we are given opportunity to obey” (Hunter, op. cit., p. 104).
10. “Christ was the God, the Father of all things…Behold, I am Jesus Christ. I am the Father and the Son” (Mosiah 7:27 and Ether 3: 14, Book of Mormon).
11. “When our father Adam came in the garden of Eden, he came into it with a celestial body, and brought Eve, one of his wives, with him. He helped to make and organized this world. He is MICHAEL, the Archangel, the ANCIENT OF DAYS! about whom holy men have written and spoken – HE is our FATHER and our GOD, and the only God with whom we have to do” (Brigham Young, in the Journal of Discourses, Vol. 1, p. 50).
12. “Historically this doctrine of Adam-God was hard for even faithful Mormons to believe. As a result, on June 8, 1873, Brigham Young stated: ‘How much unbelief exist in the minds of the Latter-day Saints in regard to one particular doctrine which I revealed to them, and which God revealed unto me – namely that Adam is our father and our God…
” ‘Well,’ says one, ‘Why was Adam called Adam?’ He was the first man on the earth, and its framer and maker. He with the help of his brethren, brought it into existence. Then he said, ‘I want my children who are in the spirit world to come and live here. I once dwelt upon an earth something like this, in a mortal state. I was faithful, I received my crown and exhaltation’ ” Deseret News, June 18, 1873 p. 308). (Ibid., pp. 202, 203) emphasis added.
I have never read such NONSENSE, but, this is what these deluded prophets of Mormonism teach; any thing that comes to mind, they put down as doctrine, completely twisting and violating the Word of God, the Bible.
Dr. Walter Martin then says:
“It would be quite possible to continue quoting sources from many volumes and other official Mormon publications, but the fact is well established.”
Let us hear a bit more from Joseph Smith, and his concocted view of God.
“First, God himself, who sits enthroned in yonder heavens, is A MAN like unto one of yourselves…if you were to see him today, you would see him in all the person, image and very form AS A MAN…
“I am going to tell you how God came to be God. We have imagined that God was God from all eternity. These are incomprehensible ideas to some, but they are the simple and first principles of the gospel, to know for a certainty the chaaracter of God, that we may converse with him as one MAN with another, and that God himself; the Father of us all dwelt on an earth the same as Jesus Christ himself did…what did Jesus say? (mark it elder Rigdon;) Jesus said, as the Father hath power in himself, even so hath the Son power; to do what? Why what the Father did, that answer is obvious…Here then is eternal life, to know the only wise and true God. You have got to learn how to BE GODS yourselves; to be kings and priest to God, the same as ALL GODS have done; by exaltation to exaltation, until you are able to sit in glory as do those who sit enthroned in everlasting power…” (Ibid., p.204).
Satan the arch deceiver, and *father* of ALL LIES has had a field day with the Cults, Mornonism IS one of the most classic examples of this DECEPTION of the devil.
Martin then gives a most accurate description of Mormon theology:
“Mormon theology then is POLYTHEISTIC, teaching in effect that the universe is inhabited by different gods who procreate spirit children which are in turn clothed with bodies on different planets, “Elohim” being the god of this planet (Brigham’s teaching that Adam is our heavenly Father is now officially denied by Mormon authorities, but they hold firm to the belief that our God is a resurrected, glorified man). In addition to this, the ‘inspired’ utterances of Joseph Smith reveal that he began as a Unitarian, progressed to TRITHEISM and graduated into full fledged POLYTHEISM, in direct contradiction to the revelations of the Old and New Testaments as we have observed. The Mormon doctrine of the Trinity is a GROSS misrepresentation of the Biblical position, though they attempt to veil their evil doctrine in semi-authodox terminology. We have already dealt with this problem, but it bears constant repitition lest the Mormon terminology go unchallenged.” (Ibid., p. 204) emphasis added.
When you see the pairs of young men from the LDS church walking around, they are cleverly trained to USE what sounds like orthodox Christian terminology, this IS to deceive YOU, don’t fall for it! If you have a brackground knowledge of their utterly perverted theology, and a sound grounding in God’s Word, the Bible, you can put them in a *fix*, as they are like *robots* can’t think outside of what they have been ‘brainwashed’ to say!
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
By Mervyn Claxton
No country endowed with the outstanding creativity, originality, and inventiveness of Haitian culture – its world-class art, its world-class literature and the astonishing technological/scientific/medical knowledge embedded in its voodoo culture – can be considered poor, let alone “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere”.
Those who hold such an absurd opinion evidently suffer from an acute form of cultural myopia. The missing element in the international debate on development is “creativity” – a term one would not find in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, in UNDP’s Human Development Reports, or in its Human Development Index. I have always argued that the single most important factor in development is not a country’s balance of payments, or its level of national indebtedness, or the surplus or deficit in its export trade, or any other economic indicator. That all-important factor is creativity. It is the factor that provides the inspiration, the dynamism, and the capacity to adapt, initiate, innovate, invent and re-invent, qualities that are absolutely essential to sustainable development. For, in the absence of creativity, new challenges would continue to be met with old remedies or with imported ones originally developed for different needs and different circumstances.
Creativity is the oxygen of a dynamic society. Indeed, one could define “developed” or “underdeveloped” (no longer politically correct, but refreshingly unambiguous) purely in terms of creativity – the difference between a “developed” and an “underdeveloped” country being the difference in the degree to which a given society exploits or leaves unexploited, for development purposes, the sources of creativity in its culture. If that more appropriate criterion is used to measure the poverty or the wealth of nations, Haiti would be transformed overnight into, potentially, one of the richest countries in the world, if not the richest.
One may well ask why, with such a creative, dynamic and resourceful culture and, given the central importance of creativity (with which Haiti is so richly endowed) in successful development, Haiti remains one of the most “underdeveloped” countries in the world. The quality of a given society’s creativity cannot be judged by the current state of that society’s development, or of the adequacy of its responses to the challenges of modern development. The creative power of a culture does not develop in isolation. It develops in response to challenges it is called upon to meet. Unfortunately, for most of the period since the country’s glorious revolution, the tremendous creative possibilities of Haiti’s culture have been totally ignored in the choice of solutions for Haiti’s daunting problems of development and of governance. Haiti’s culture has never really been put to the challenge.
When a society’s creativity is not utilized in its development action, the links between the society’s cultural creativity and the search for the solutions to the problems it faces are broken, productive outlets for cultural creativity are blocked, with the result that cultural creativity remains restricted to artistic expression. That has happened in Haiti, as it has in the vast majority of countries in the South. The indigenous cultures of most countries in the South possess considerable development potential but, with the notable exception of India, China, and South-East Asian countries, the creativity embedded in their indigenous cultures have not been exploited for their development potential.
There is no hiatus between the productive processes, in countries of the North, and the cultural sources of creativity in their societies. The built environment, the design and manufacture of the goods and objects of everyday life, and the technical solutions to the problems with which the particular Northern society is confronted are all linked to its own sources of creativity and its own aesthetic norms. By contrast, in Haiti, as in virtually all countries of the South, it is external sources of creativity and external aesthetic standards which have influenced the built environment and the vast majority of manufactured goods and articles to be found in everyday life.
India is a striking example of the strategically important contribution a country’s indigenous culture can make to its modern development. In many areas of its development, notably, health, education, agriculture, environmental protection, and computer technology, India has made successful use of the extraordinary creativity embedded its very rich indigenous culture. Ayurveda, India’s traditional health care system which dates back an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 years, is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. Instead of discarding or sidelining its indigenous health care system in favour of modern Western medicine, India has preserved and utilized it in conjunction with its modern medical system. Ayurveda is the health care system of choice for 70% of India’s population.
There are over two hundred Ayurvedic hospitals in India and some 400,000 Ayurveda practitioners. Furthermore, there are faculties of Ayurveda in more than 50 Indian universities, to which 100 Ayurvedic colleges are affiliated. The proven effectiveness of Ayurveda as a complementary and alternative medicine has encouraged an increasing number of people in the West to have recourse to it, particularly in the United States. The Ayurvedic remedy for mental illness, a substance obtained from a local root plant which has been used in India for many centuries, is the source for the development of the first major tranquilizer in the 1950s. The active substance in India’s traditional remedy was synthesized by Western medical science to create reserpine, the molecule used in the first tranquillizers.
That Western medical “discovery” heralded the development of a whole new field of medicine, psychopharmacology, which revolutionized the treatment of mental and psychological disorders. India has built on the ages-old medical knowledge embedded in its indigenous culture to develop a dynamic pharmaceutical industry, becoming one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of generic drugs. In 2006, India accounted for 20 percent of all generic drugs approved for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration. In the field of agriculture, another indigenous Indian technology, a biopesticide derived from the neem tree which is a centuries-old Indian technique used to protect crops against insect pests, is considered by entomologists to be the most effective pesticide known to man.
A leading American multinational paid that indigenous Indian technique the highest possible compliment by making it an object of biopiracy. Vetiver grass, another agricultural technique from India’s rich traditional culture, has been used for centuries in India as a vegetable mechanism for the control of soil erosion and for moisture conservation. Both FAO and the World Bank have recognized its superior effectiveness over modern, engineered systems in those two respects. (D. Michael Warren, Using Indigenous Knowledge in Agricultural Development, World Bank, 1991; Nikos Alexandratos (ed), World Agriculture: Towards 2010 – An FAO Study, 1995).
Indian mathematics, whose roots lie in the early Vedic period (circa 1900-1500 B.C.), has always had an important place in Indian culture, having originally been developed for religious purposes – the construction of sacrificial altars and astronomical calculations for religious observances. Mathematical principles and formulae were incorporated, in verse form (sutras), into the Vedas, the world’s oldest spiritual texts, to facilitate their memorization. Indian mathematicians were the first in the Old World to formulate such key mathematical concepts and techniques as zero, algorithms, algebra, square root, cube root, among many others. Indian mathematicians derived the concept of zero from the Hindu cultural concept of sunya – the philosophical notion of the void or blank space. It was because the void existed in Indian philosophy that a symbol was conceived for it.
India’s Vedic system of mathematics which had long been “lost”, having fallen into disuse well before the modern era, was rediscovered around the beginning of the twentieth century by Sanskrit scholars who deciphered the mathematical sutras in the ancient Vedic texts. They were subsequently collected and published in book form in 1965. The Vedic system of mathematics was a simple, rather unique one based on simple rules and principles which could be used to solve mathematical problems in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, mentally.
The Vedic system has been described as “perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.” When “Vedic mathematics” was made known to the world in 1965, it aroused the interest of mathematics teachers who had been looking for a better approach to teaching the subject. A number of schools in India, England, and other countries subsequently introduced the Vedic system of mathematics into the school curriculum, with impressive results. They found that it stimulated creativity in intelligent students while helping slow-learning students to obtain a better grasp of the basic concepts. (K. Williams, Discovering Vedic Mathematics, 1988).
http://www.hinduism.co.za/vedic.htm
Although India did not make use of its traditional mathematical knowledge to develop science and technology in the manner and at the time Europe did so, its ancient mathematical knowledge and traditions subsequently gave the country a huge advantage with the new information technologies, helping to make it a world leader in computer technology. Algorithms are a key mathematical technique used in the design of computer software programmes. The fact that that particular technique of calculation not only originated in Ancient India but, like other Indian mathematical knowledge was also an integral part of its indigenous culture, cannot be unconnected to India’s outstanding achievements in computer technology.
When the opportunity presented itself, modern India was able to draw upon the outstanding mathematical knowledge and creativity embedded in its ancient culture which had lain fallow for so many centuries, in terms of its use for development purposes. India has also made excellent use of its traditional culture to render its modern governance structures more in keeping with Indian cultural values and more responsive to the aspirations of its people.
The Indian term panchayat (government by a body of competent men) came into general use in medieval times as a term for the local government institution which managed public affairs at the village level. Panchayats possessed substantial administrative powers, India’s central government having traditionally accorded them considerable autonomy. They flourished up to the eighteenth century when their powers were abolished by the British colonial administration. Alexis de Tocqueville considered the panchayat an ideal democratic model and planned to devote a comprehensive study to it, similar to his Democracy in America, but he had to abandon the project because of ill health. (Guy Sorman, La Nouvelle Richesse des Nations, 1987). After it won its independence, India re-established village panchayats as a valued instrument of local government.
In its 2002 Human Development Report, UNDP suggested that India’s panchyati raj (local government policy based on the traditional panchyat) is an excellent example of how decentralization can promote democracy at the local level.
In stark contrast to India, Africa, whose traditional culture is also mathematically rich, has not made use of that very rich cultural resource in its development action. Paulus Gerdes, Director of the Center for Ethnomathematics at Mozambique’s Pedagogical University has demonstrated that many African objects used in everyday life embody mathematical concepts and a mathematical knowledge of forms, shapes, and symmetries.
They also reveal knowledge of the properties and relations of circles, angles, rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones, pyramids and cylinders. (Geometry From Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations, 1999). If properly exploited by African countries, that strategically important cultural knowledge has the potential for developing technologically-savvy societies in Africa.
Gerdes rightly considers that “…the African cultural heritage should be the starting point in the development of the mathematics curriculum in order to improve its quality, to augment the cultural and social self-confidence of all pupils, both girls and boys.” http://www.maa.org/reviews/wagsa.html . In his Geometry From Africa (pages 111-125), Gerdes demonstrates how weaving techniques, such as that shown in this YouTube video, could be used in mathematics education to study trigonometric functions, finite designs and polyhedra, among others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tqiDoHXbc . Further information on Africa’s cultural mathematical treasures and Gerdes’ brilliant pioneering work can be accessed at these two weblinks: http://www.maa.org/reviews/gerdes.html ; http://plus.maths.org/issue19/features/liki/index.html .
Haiti’s indigenous culture, in particular the creativity embedded in it, constitutes its most important development capital and its most important development potential. It is an invaluable strategic resource from which Haitians can draw inspiration for creating new, culturally-compatible, more effective governance institutions. It is also an invaluable resource from which an alternative development approach could be formulated – one that would be capable of harnessing and mobilizing the cultural energies of the Haitian people and channelling them in directions which respond to their deepest aspirations.
Within a little more than a generation, India has transformed itself from an international basket case to being well on the way to becoming, by some estimates, one of the world’s two most important economic powers within the next few decades. A major reason for India’s striking development success is that it exploited to the full the development potential of its immensely rich indigenous culture.
A major reason for Africa’s striking development failure is that it failed to do so. Haiti can choose to follow India’s example or it can choose to follow Africa’s. The choice that Haiti makes – a choice that requires enlightened leadership – will largely determine the Haiti’s development future or its economic fate, in the medium and the long term. Haitians do not need a crystal ball to divine the outcome of either choice. All they need to so is compare India’s present situation with that of Africa.
Mervyn Claxton
Webmaster’s
If this is true why would sane sensible people follow such nonsense.
I must entertain the pairs of young men from the LDS church walking around and see if I can fix them. Might be fun.
I will ask them where I can get a few wives and how to establish a harem. ha ha
Mormonism!
The utter maze of theological perversion, coming from the writings of Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and other prophets of Mormonism, is described by Dr. Walter Martin, in his great work, ‘Kingdom of the Cults’ as follows:
“Far from asserting their ‘beliefs’ and allegiance to the true and living God of Scripture and revelation, as Talmage represents Mormonism, Mormons indeed have sworn allegiance to a *polytheistic* PANTHEON of gods which they are striving to join, there to enjoy a polygamous eternity of progression toward godhood. One can search the corridors of *pagan* mythology and NEVER equal the complex structure which the Mormons have errected and MASKED under the terminology and misnomer of orthodox Christianity, as previously demonstrated.”
“After carefully persuing hundreds of volumes on Mormon theology and scores of pamphlets dealing with this subject, the author can quite candidly state that never in over a decade of research in the field of cults has he EVER seen such MISAPPROPRIATION of terminology, DISREGARD of context, and UTTER abandon of scholastic principles demonstrated on the part of non-Christian cultists than IS evidenced in the attempts of Mormon theologians to APPEAR orthodox and at the same time UNDERMINE the foundations of historic Christianity. The intricacies of their complex system of *polytheism* causes the careful researcher to ponder again and again the ethical standards which these Mormon writers practice and the BLATANT attempts to rewrite history, Biblical theology, and the laws of scriptural interpretation that they might support the theologies of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. Without fear of controdiction, I am certain that Mormonism CANNOT stand investigation and wants NO part of it unless the results can be controlled under the guise of ‘broadmindedness’ and ‘tolerance.’”
Dr. Martin, was a scholar of impeccable integrity, given to great detail in his research, being a lawyer and a theologian par excellence, he did not write without facts and evidence. In this regard to Momornism, he states:
“On one occasion when the Mormon doctrine of God was under discussion with a young woman leaning in the direction of Mormon conversion, I offered in the presence of witnesses to retract this chapter and one previous effort (Mormonism, Zondervan Publishing House, 1958), IF the Mormon elders advising this young lady would put in WRITING that they and their church REJECTED polytheism for monotheism in the tradition of the Judeo-Christian religion. It was a BONA FIDE offer; the same offer has been made from HUNDREDS of platforms to ten of thousands of people over a TWENTY-YEAR period. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints IS well aware of the offer. To the unwary, however, they imply that they are monotheists, to the INFORMED they defend their polytheism, and like the veritable *chameleon* they change color to accommodate the surface upon which they find themselves.”
“G. B. Arbaugh, in classic volume, ‘Revelation in Mormonism’ (1932), has documented in exhaustive detail the progress of Mormon theology from Unitarianism to Polytheism. His research has been invaluable and available to interested scholars for FIFTY YEARS, with the full knowledge of the Mormon Church. To this date they have NEVER refuted Arbaugh’s evidence or conclusions: in fact they are significantly on the DEFENSIVE where the peculiar origins of the ‘sacred writings’ are involved or when verifiable evidence exists which REVEALS their polytheistic perversions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is extremely difficult to write kindly of Mormon theology when they are so obviously deceptive in their presentation of data, so adamant in their condemnation of all religions in favor of the ‘restored gospel’ allegedly vouchsafed to the prophet Joseph Smith.”
“Mormonism then, for all its complexities and want of conformity to the revelation of God’s Word, indeed contradicts the Word of God repeatedly, teaching in place of the God of pure spiritual substance (John 4:24), a flesh-and-bone deity and a pantheon of gods in infinite stages of progression. For He cannot be incomprehensible, though Scripture indicates that in many ways, He most certainly IS. ‘My thoughts are NOT your thoughts, neither are your ways MY WAYS, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’ (Isaiah 55: 8, 9). Mormon theology complicates and confounds the simple declarations of Scripture in order to support the polytheistic pantheon of Joseph Smith. It is obvious, therefore, that the God of the Bible and the “god” of the Mormons, the “Adam-god” of Brigham Young, and the flesh-and-bone deity of Joseph Smith, are NOT one and the same; by their nature all monotheistic and theistic religions stand in opposition to Mormon polytheism. Christianity in particular repudiates as FALSE and DECEPTIVE the multiplicity of Mormon efforts to *masquerade* as ‘ministers of righteousness” (2 Corinthians 11: 15). (Ibid., 206, 207, 211) emphasis.
NOTE: I have omitted a great deal more detailed information from Dr. Martin’s ‘Kingdom of The Cults’ in the chapter on Mormonism, i.e., ‘The Holy Spirit in Mormonism,’ ‘The Virgin Birthy of Christ,’ ‘Salvation and Judgment in Mormonism,’ ‘The Mormon Savior,’ ‘Salvation by Grace?’ and ‘Mormon Eschatology,’ all of which Martin deals with in detail, once again, demonstrating, with clarity and scholarship, the falsity and polytheistic heresy of Mormonisn!
Anon // February 5, 2010 at 10:35 AM
If this is true why would sane sensible people follow such nonsense.
*************************************
The same can be said for any religion, after all, look at the numbers.
I must entertain the pairs of young men from the LDS church walking around and see if I can fix them. Might be fun.
I will ask them where I can get a few wives and how to establish a harem. ha ha
*************************************
..and how would this help you in your search for truth. Dont you even realise how this would make you look?
You know Anon, for one who ‘claims’ to be searching, you are too quick to jump on others beliefs.
Have you sorted all others and sifted carefully through them to find the truth or is this that premeditated, indoctrinated mentality which is embedded deep in all of us from young, that is pointing you in (what would obviously then be seen as) a biased direction?
Now, before you jump on me and call me a mocker and a scoffer, just realise that I am speaking to you regarding what you posted on this thread, the claim that you are searching for the truth.
On reading your post, I can only come to the conclusion , that you have indeed found your truth, therefore you are no longer searching..I commend you, for me the search continues.
Zoe
Could yo kindly post on the things you mention above for my education and the education of those who may be silent and fearful to rock the boat by opining.
man it seems that hood gone away because like the SDA man last week , you cant defend the indefensible i heard somebody say once.
i can see that they dont like you on this blog or your message, but i learning a lot from you, yuh hear? a real lot, man.
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
Excerpt from a paper by By Mervyn Claxton
No country endowed with the outstanding creativity, originality, and inventiveness of Haitian culture – its world-class art, its world-class literature and the astonishing technological/scientific/medical knowledge embedded in its voodoo culture – can be considered poor, let alone “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere”.
Those who hold such an absurd opinion evidently suffer from an acute form of cultural myopia. The missing element in the international debate on development is “creativity” – a term one would not find in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, in UNDP’s Human Development Reports, or in its Human Development Index. I have always argued that the single most important factor in development is not a country’s balance of payments, or its level of national indebtedness, or the surplus or deficit in its export trade, or any other economic indicator. That all-important factor is creativity. It is the factor that provides the inspiration, the dynamism, and the capacity to adapt, initiate, innovate, invent and re-invent, qualities that are absolutely essential to sustainable development. For, in the absence of creativity, new challenges would continue to be met with old remedies or with imported ones originally developed for different needs and different circumstances.
Creativity is the oxygen of a dynamic society. Indeed, one could define “developed” or “underdeveloped” (no longer politically correct, but refreshingly unambiguous) purely in terms of creativity – the difference between a “developed” and an “underdeveloped” country being the difference in the degree to which a given society exploits or leaves unexploited, for development purposes, the sources of creativity in its culture. If that more appropriate criterion is used to measure the poverty or the wealth of nations, Haiti would be transformed overnight into, potentially, one of the richest countries in the world, if not the richest.
One may well ask why, with such a creative, dynamic and resourceful culture and, given the central importance of creativity (with which Haiti is so richly endowed) in successful development, Haiti remains one of the most “underdeveloped” countries in the world. The quality of a given society’s creativity cannot be judged by the current state of that society’s development, or of the adequacy of its responses to the challenges of modern development. The creative power of a culture does not develop in isolation. It develops in response to challenges it is called upon to meet. Unfortunately, for most of the period since the country’s glorious revolution, the tremendous creative possibilities of Haiti’s culture have been totally ignored in the choice of solutions for Haiti’s daunting problems of development and of governance. Haiti’s culture has never really been put to the challenge.
When a society’s creativity is not utilized in its development action, the links between the society’s cultural creativity and the search for the solutions to the problems it faces are broken, productive outlets for cultural creativity are blocked, with the result that cultural creativity remains restricted to artistic expression. That has happened in Haiti, as it has in the vast majority of countries in the South. The indigenous cultures of most countries in the South possess considerable development potential but, with the notable exception of India, China, and South-East Asian countries, the creativity embedded in their indigenous cultures have not been exploited for their development potential.
There is no hiatus between the productive processes, in countries of the North, and the cultural sources of creativity in their societies. The built environment, the design and manufacture of the goods and objects of everyday life, and the technical solutions to the problems with which the particular Northern society is confronted are all linked to its own sources of creativity and its own aesthetic norms. By contrast, in Haiti, as in virtually all countries of the South, it is external sources of creativity and external aesthetic standards which have influenced the built environment and the vast majority of manufactured goods and articles to be found in everyday life.
India is a striking example of the strategically important contribution a country’s indigenous culture can make to its modern development. In many areas of its development, notably, health, education, agriculture, environmental protection, and computer technology, India has made successful use of the extraordinary creativity embedded its very rich indigenous culture. Ayurveda, India’s traditional health care system which dates back an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 years, is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. Instead of discarding or sidelining its indigenous health care system in favour of modern Western medicine, India has preserved and utilized it in conjunction with its modern medical system. Ayurveda is the health care system of choice for 70% of India’s population.
There are over two hundred Ayurvedic hospitals in India and some 400,000 Ayurveda practitioners. Furthermore, there are faculties of Ayurveda in more than 50 Indian universities, to which 100 Ayurvedic colleges are affiliated. The proven effectiveness of Ayurveda as a complementary and alternative medicine has encouraged an increasing number of people in the West to have recourse to it, particularly in the United States. The Ayurvedic remedy for mental illness, a substance obtained from a local root plant which has been used in India for many centuries, is the source for the development of the first major tranquilizer in the 1950s. The active substance in India’s traditional remedy was synthesized by Western medical science to create reserpine, the molecule used in the first tranquillizers.
That Western medical “discovery” heralded the development of a whole new field of medicine, psychopharmacology, which revolutionized the treatment of mental and psychological disorders. India has built on the ages-old medical knowledge embedded in its indigenous culture to develop a dynamic pharmaceutical industry, becoming one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of generic drugs. In 2006, India accounted for 20 percent of all generic drugs approved for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration. In the field of agriculture, another indigenous Indian technology, a biopesticide derived from the neem tree which is a centuries-old Indian technique used to protect crops against insect pests, is considered by entomologists to be the most effective pesticide known to man.
A leading American multinational paid that indigenous Indian technique the highest possible compliment by making it an object of biopiracy. Vetiver grass, another agricultural technique from India’s rich traditional culture, has been used for centuries in India as a vegetable mechanism for the control of soil erosion and for moisture conservation. Both FAO and the World Bank have recognized its superior effectiveness over modern, engineered systems in those two respects. (D. Michael Warren, Using Indigenous Knowledge in Agricultural Development, World Bank, 1991; Nikos Alexandratos (ed), World Agriculture: Towards 2010 – An FAO Study, 1995).
Indian mathematics, whose roots lie in the early Vedic period (circa 1900-1500 B.C.), has always had an important place in Indian culture, having originally been developed for religious purposes – the construction of sacrificial altars and astronomical calculations for religious observances. Mathematical principles and formulae were incorporated, in verse form (sutras), into the Vedas, the world’s oldest spiritual texts, to facilitate their memorization. Indian mathematicians were the first in the Old World to formulate such key mathematical concepts and techniques as zero, algorithms, algebra, square root, cube root, among many others. Indian mathematicians derived the concept of zero from the Hindu cultural concept of sunya – the philosophical notion of the void or blank space. It was because the void existed in Indian philosophy that a symbol was conceived for it.
India’s Vedic system of mathematics which had long been “lost”, having fallen into disuse well before the modern era, was rediscovered around the beginning of the twentieth century by Sanskrit scholars who deciphered the mathematical sutras in the ancient Vedic texts. They were subsequently collected and published in book form in 1965. The Vedic system of mathematics was a simple, rather unique one based on simple rules and principles which could be used to solve mathematical problems in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, mentally.
The Vedic system has been described as “perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.” When “Vedic mathematics” was made known to the world in 1965, it aroused the interest of mathematics teachers who had been looking for a better approach to teaching the subject. A number of schools in India, England, and other countries subsequently introduced the Vedic system of mathematics into the school curriculum, with impressive results. They found that it stimulated creativity in intelligent students while helping slow-learning students to obtain a better grasp of the basic concepts. (K. Williams, Discovering Vedic Mathematics, 1988).
http://www.hinduism.co.za/vedic.htm
Although India did not make use of its traditional mathematical knowledge to develop science and technology in the manner and at the time Europe did so, its ancient mathematical knowledge and traditions subsequently gave the country a huge advantage with the new information technologies, helping to make it a world leader in computer technology. Algorithms are a key mathematical technique used in the design of computer software programmes. The fact that that particular technique of calculation not only originated in Ancient India but, like other Indian mathematical knowledge was also an integral part of its indigenous culture, cannot be unconnected to India’s outstanding achievements in computer technology.
When the opportunity presented itself, modern India was able to draw upon the outstanding mathematical knowledge and creativity embedded in its ancient culture which had lain fallow for so many centuries, in terms of its use for development purposes. India has also made excellent use of its traditional culture to render its modern governance structures more in keeping with Indian cultural values and more responsive to the aspirations of its people.
The Indian term panchayat (government by a body of competent men) came into general use in medieval times as a term for the local government institution which managed public affairs at the village level. Panchayats possessed substantial administrative powers, India’s central government having traditionally accorded them considerable autonomy. They flourished up to the eighteenth century when their powers were abolished by the British colonial administration. Alexis de Tocqueville considered the panchayat an ideal democratic model and planned to devote a comprehensive study to it, similar to his Democracy in America, but he had to abandon the project because of ill health. (Guy Sorman, La Nouvelle Richesse des Nations, 1987). After it won its independence, India re-established village panchayats as a valued instrument of local government.
In its 2002 Human Development Report, UNDP suggested that India’s panchyati raj (local government policy based on the traditional panchyat) is an excellent example of how decentralization can promote democracy at the local level.
In stark contrast to India, Africa, whose traditional culture is also mathematically rich, has not made use of that very rich cultural resource in its development action. Paulus Gerdes, Director of the Center for Ethnomathematics at Mozambique’s Pedagogical University has demonstrated that many African objects used in everyday life embody mathematical concepts and a mathematical knowledge of forms, shapes, and symmetries.
They also reveal knowledge of the properties and relations of circles, angles, rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones, pyramids and cylinders. (Geometry From Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations, 1999). If properly exploited by African countries, that strategically important cultural knowledge has the potential for developing technologically-savvy societies in Africa.
Gerdes rightly considers that “…the African cultural heritage should be the starting point in the development of the mathematics curriculum in order to improve its quality, to augment the cultural and social self-confidence of all pupils, both girls and boys.” http://www.maa.org/reviews/wagsa.html . In his Geometry From Africa (pages 111-125), Gerdes demonstrates how weaving techniques, such as that shown in this YouTube video, could be used in mathematics education to study trigonometric functions, finite designs and polyhedra, among others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tqiDoHXbc . Further information on Africa’s cultural mathematical treasures and Gerdes’ brilliant pioneering work can be accessed at these two weblinks: http://www.maa.org/reviews/gerdes.html ; http://plus.maths.org/issue19/features/liki/index.html .
Haiti’s indigenous culture, in particular the creativity embedded in it, constitutes its most important development capital and its most important development potential. It is an invaluable strategic resource from which Haitians can draw inspiration for creating new, culturally-compatible, more effective governance institutions. It is also an invaluable resource from which an alternative development approach could be formulated – one that would be capable of harnessing and mobilizing the cultural energies of the Haitian people and channelling them in directions which respond to their deepest aspirations.
Within a little more than a generation, India has transformed itself from an international basket case to being well on the way to becoming, by some estimates, one of the world’s two most important economic powers within the next few decades. A major reason for India’s striking development success is that it exploited to the full the development potential of its immensely rich indigenous culture.
A major reason for Africa’s striking development failure is that it failed to do so. Haiti can choose to follow India’s example or it can choose to follow Africa’s. The choice that Haiti makes – a choice that requires enlightened leadership – will largely determine the Haiti’s development future or its economic fate, in the medium and the long term. Haitians do not need a crystal ball to divine the outcome of either choice. All they need to so is compare India’s present situation with that of Africa.
Mervyn Claxton
Webmaster’s
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
Excerpt from a paper By Mervyn Claxton
No country endowed with the outstanding creativity, originality, and inventiveness of Haitian culture – its world-class art, its world-class literature and the astonishing technological/scientific/medical knowledge embedded in its voodoo culture – can be considered poor, let alone “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere”.
Those who hold such an absurd opinion evidently suffer from an acute form of cultural myopia. The missing element in the international debate on development is “creativity” – a term one would not find in the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, in UNDP’s Human Development Reports, or in its Human Development Index. I have always argued that the single most important factor in development is not a country’s balance of payments, or its level of national indebtedness, or the surplus or deficit in its export trade, or any other economic indicator. That all-important factor is creativity. It is the factor that provides the inspiration, the dynamism, and the capacity to adapt, initiate, innovate, invent and re-invent, qualities that are absolutely essential to sustainable development. For, in the absence of creativity, new challenges would continue to be met with old remedies or with imported ones originally developed for different needs and different circumstances.
Creativity is the oxygen of a dynamic society. Indeed, one could define “developed” or “underdeveloped” (no longer politically correct, but refreshingly unambiguous) purely in terms of creativity – the difference between a “developed” and an “underdeveloped” country being the difference in the degree to which a given society exploits or leaves unexploited, for development purposes, the sources of creativity in its culture. If that more appropriate criterion is used to measure the poverty or the wealth of nations, Haiti would be transformed overnight into, potentially, one of the richest countries in the world, if not the richest.
One may well ask why, with such a creative, dynamic and resourceful culture and, given the central importance of creativity (with which Haiti is so richly endowed) in successful development, Haiti remains one of the most “underdeveloped” countries in the world. The quality of a given society’s creativity cannot be judged by the current state of that society’s development, or of the adequacy of its responses to the challenges of modern development. The creative power of a culture does not develop in isolation. It develops in response to challenges it is called upon to meet. Unfortunately, for most of the period since the country’s glorious revolution, the tremendous creative possibilities of Haiti’s culture have been totally ignored in the choice of solutions for Haiti’s daunting problems of development and of governance. Haiti’s culture has never really been put to the challenge.
When a society’s creativity is not utilized in its development action, the links between the society’s cultural creativity and the search for the solutions to the problems it faces are broken, productive outlets for cultural creativity are blocked, with the result that cultural creativity remains restricted to artistic expression. That has happened in Haiti, as it has in the vast majority of countries in the South. The indigenous cultures of most countries in the South possess considerable development potential but, with the notable exception of India, China, and South-East Asian countries, the creativity embedded in their indigenous cultures have not been exploited for their development potential.
There is no hiatus between the productive processes, in countries of the North, and the cultural sources of creativity in their societies. The built environment, the design and manufacture of the goods and objects of everyday life, and the technical solutions to the problems with which the particular Northern society is confronted are all linked to its own sources of creativity and its own aesthetic norms. By contrast, in Haiti, as in virtually all countries of the South, it is external sources of creativity and external aesthetic standards which have influenced the built environment and the vast majority of manufactured goods and articles to be found in everyday life.
India is a striking example of the strategically important contribution a country’s indigenous culture can make to its modern development. In many areas of its development, notably, health, education, agriculture, environmental protection, and computer technology, India has made successful use of the extraordinary creativity embedded its very rich indigenous culture. Ayurveda, India’s traditional health care system which dates back an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 years, is widely considered to be the oldest form of health care in the world. Instead of discarding or sidelining its indigenous health care system in favour of modern Western medicine, India has preserved and utilized it in conjunction with its modern medical system. Ayurveda is the health care system of choice for 70% of India’s population.
There are over two hundred Ayurvedic hospitals in India and some 400,000 Ayurveda practitioners. Furthermore, there are faculties of Ayurveda in more than 50 Indian universities, to which 100 Ayurvedic colleges are affiliated. The proven effectiveness of Ayurveda as a complementary and alternative medicine has encouraged an increasing number of people in the West to have recourse to it, particularly in the United States. The Ayurvedic remedy for mental illness, a substance obtained from a local root plant which has been used in India for many centuries, is the source for the development of the first major tranquilizer in the 1950s. The active substance in India’s traditional remedy was synthesized by Western medical science to create reserpine, the molecule used in the first tranquillizers.
That Western medical “discovery” heralded the development of a whole new field of medicine, psychopharmacology, which revolutionized the treatment of mental and psychological disorders. India has built on the ages-old medical knowledge embedded in its indigenous culture to develop a dynamic pharmaceutical industry, becoming one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of generic drugs. In 2006, India accounted for 20 percent of all generic drugs approved for marketing by the US Food and Drug Administration. In the field of agriculture, another indigenous Indian technology, a biopesticide derived from the neem tree which is a centuries-old Indian technique used to protect crops against insect pests, is considered by entomologists to be the most effective pesticide known to man.
A leading American multinational paid that indigenous Indian technique the highest possible compliment by making it an object of biopiracy. Vetiver grass, another agricultural technique from India’s rich traditional culture, has been used for centuries in India as a vegetable mechanism for the control of soil erosion and for moisture conservation. Both FAO and the World Bank have recognized its superior effectiveness over modern, engineered systems in those two respects. (D. Michael Warren, Using Indigenous Knowledge in Agricultural Development, World Bank, 1991; Nikos Alexandratos (ed), World Agriculture: Towards 2010 – An FAO Study, 1995).
PART 2 NEXT POST.
Clearly Technician in the search one ought to have some parameters or factors to use to distinguish truth from error.
Now since all these reliogions say that they are protestant, and since the protestants all say that they are following the bible only, then i tend to use the bible as the standard for my judgements.
i think this makes sense. What do you think, man.
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
Part 2 of an excerpt from a paper By Mervyn Claxton
Indian mathematics, whose roots lie in the early Vedic period (circa 1900-1500 B.C.), has always had an important place in Indian culture, having originally been developed for religious purposes – the construction of sacrificial altars and astronomical calculations for religious observances. Mathematical principles and formulae were incorporated, in verse form (sutras), into the Vedas, the world’s oldest spiritual texts, to facilitate their memorization. Indian mathematicians were the first in the Old World to formulate such key mathematical concepts and techniques as zero, algorithms, algebra, square root, cube root, among many others. Indian mathematicians derived the concept of zero from the Hindu cultural concept of sunya – the philosophical notion of the void or blank space. It was because the void existed in Indian philosophy that a symbol was conceived for it.
India’s Vedic system of mathematics which had long been “lost”, having fallen into disuse well before the modern era, was rediscovered around the beginning of the twentieth century by Sanskrit scholars who deciphered the mathematical sutras in the ancient Vedic texts. They were subsequently collected and published in book form in 1965. The Vedic system of mathematics was a simple, rather unique one based on simple rules and principles which could be used to solve mathematical problems in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, mentally.
The Vedic system has been described as “perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.” When “Vedic mathematics” was made known to the world in 1965, it aroused the interest of mathematics teachers who had been looking for a better approach to teaching the subject. A number of schools in India, England, and other countries subsequently introduced the Vedic system of mathematics into the school curriculum, with impressive results. They found that it stimulated creativity in intelligent students while helping slow-learning students to obtain a better grasp of the basic concepts. (K. Williams, Discovering Vedic Mathematics, 1988).
http://www.hinduism.co.za/vedic.htm
Although India did not make use of its traditional mathematical knowledge to develop science and technology in the manner and at the time Europe did so, its ancient mathematical knowledge and traditions subsequently gave the country a huge advantage with the new information technologies, helping to make it a world leader in computer technology. Algorithms are a key mathematical technique used in the design of computer software programmes. The fact that that particular technique of calculation not only originated in Ancient India but, like other Indian mathematical knowledge was also an integral part of its indigenous culture, cannot be unconnected to India’s outstanding achievements in computer technology.
When the opportunity presented itself, modern India was able to draw upon the outstanding mathematical knowledge and creativity embedded in its ancient culture which had lain fallow for so many centuries, in terms of its use for development purposes. India has also made excellent use of its traditional culture to render its modern governance structures more in keeping with Indian cultural values and more responsive to the aspirations of its people.
The Indian term panchayat (government by a body of competent men) came into general use in medieval times as a term for the local government institution which managed public affairs at the village level. Panchayats possessed substantial administrative powers, India’s central government having traditionally accorded them considerable autonomy. They flourished up to the eighteenth century when their powers were abolished by the British colonial administration. Alexis de Tocqueville considered the panchayat an ideal democratic model and planned to devote a comprehensive study to it, similar to his Democracy in America, but he had to abandon the project because of ill health. (Guy Sorman, La Nouvelle Richesse des Nations, 1987). After it won its independence, India re-established village panchayats as a valued instrument of local government.
In its 2002 Human Development Report, UNDP suggested that India’s panchyati raj (local government policy based on the traditional panchyat) is an excellent example of how decentralization can promote democracy at the local level.
In stark contrast to India, Africa, whose traditional culture is also mathematically rich, has not made use of that very rich cultural resource in its development action. Paulus Gerdes, Director of the Center for Ethnomathematics at Mozambique’s Pedagogical University has demonstrated that many African objects used in everyday life embody mathematical concepts and a mathematical knowledge of forms, shapes, and symmetries.
They also reveal knowledge of the properties and relations of circles, angles, rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones, pyramids and cylinders. (Geometry From Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations, 1999). If properly exploited by African countries, that strategically important cultural knowledge has the potential for developing technologically-savvy societies in Africa.
Gerdes rightly considers that “…the African cultural heritage should be the starting point in the development of the mathematics curriculum in order to improve its quality, to augment the cultural and social self-confidence of all pupils, both girls and boys.” http://www.maa.org/reviews/wagsa.html . In his Geometry From Africa (pages 111-125), Gerdes demonstrates how weaving techniques, such as that shown in this YouTube video, could be used in mathematics education to study trigonometric functions, finite designs and polyhedra, among others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tqiDoHXbc . Further information on Africa’s cultural mathematical treasures and Gerdes’ brilliant pioneering work can be accessed at these two weblinks: http://www.maa.org/reviews/gerdes.html ; http://plus.maths.org/issue19/features/liki/index.html .
Haiti’s indigenous culture, in particular the creativity embedded in it, constitutes its most important development capital and its most important development potential. It is an invaluable strategic resource from which Haitians can draw inspiration for creating new, culturally-compatible, more effective governance institutions. It is also an invaluable resource from which an alternative development approach could be formulated – one that would be capable of harnessing and mobilizing the cultural energies of the Haitian people and channelling them in directions which respond to their deepest aspirations.
Within a little more than a generation, India has transformed itself from an international basket case to being well on the way to becoming, by some estimates, one of the world’s two most important economic powers within the next few decades. A major reason for India’s striking development success is that it exploited to the full the development potential of its immensely rich indigenous culture.
A major reason for Africa’s striking development failure is that it failed to do so. Haiti can choose to follow India’s example or it can choose to follow Africa’s. The choice that Haiti makes – a choice that requires enlightened leadership – will largely determine the Haiti’s development future or its economic fate, in the medium and the long term. Haitians do not need a crystal ball to divine the outcome of either choice. All they need to so is compare India’s present situation with that of Africa.
Mervyn Claxton
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
Part 2 of an excerpt from a paper By Mervyn Claxton
Indian mathematics, whose roots lie in the early Vedic period (circa 1900-1500 B.C.), has always had an important place in Indian culture, having originally been developed for religious purposes – the construction of sacrificial altars and astronomical calculations for religious observances. Mathematical principles and formulae were incorporated, in verse form (sutras), into the Vedas, the world’s oldest spiritual texts, to facilitate their memorization. Indian mathematicians were the first in the Old World to formulate such key mathematical concepts and techniques as zero, algorithms, algebra, square root, cube root, among many others. Indian mathematicians derived the concept of zero from the Hindu cultural concept of sunya – the philosophical notion of the void or blank space. It was because the void existed in Indian philosophy that a symbol was conceived for it.
India’s Vedic system of mathematics which had long been “lost”, having fallen into disuse well before the modern era, was rediscovered around the beginning of the twentieth century by Sanskrit scholars who deciphered the mathematical sutras in the ancient Vedic texts. They were subsequently collected and published in book form in 1965. The Vedic system of mathematics was a simple, rather unique one based on simple rules and principles which could be used to solve mathematical problems in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and trigonometry, mentally.
The Vedic system has been described as “perhaps the most refined and efficient mathematical system possible.” When “Vedic mathematics” was made known to the world in 1965, it aroused the interest of mathematics teachers who had been looking for a better approach to teaching the subject. A number of schools in India, England, and other countries subsequently introduced the Vedic system of mathematics into the school curriculum, with impressive results. They found that it stimulated creativity in intelligent students while helping slow-learning students to obtain a better grasp of the basic concepts. (K. Williams, Discovering Vedic Mathematics, 1988).
http://www.hinduism.co.za/vedic.htm
Although India did not make use of its traditional mathematical knowledge to develop science and technology in the manner and at the time Europe did so, its ancient mathematical knowledge and traditions subsequently gave the country a huge advantage with the new information technologies, helping to make it a world leader in computer technology. Algorithms are a key mathematical technique used in the design of computer software programmes. The fact that that particular technique of calculation not only originated in Ancient India but, like other Indian mathematical knowledge was also an integral part of its indigenous culture, cannot be unconnected to India’s outstanding achievements in computer technology.
When the opportunity presented itself, modern India was able to draw upon the outstanding mathematical knowledge and creativity embedded in its ancient culture which had lain fallow for so many centuries, in terms of its use for development purposes. India has also made excellent use of its traditional culture to render its modern governance structures more in keeping with Indian cultural values and more responsive to the aspirations of its people.
The Indian term panchayat (government by a body of competent men) came into general use in medieval times as a term for the local government institution which managed public affairs at the village level. Panchayats possessed substantial administrative powers, India’s central government having traditionally accorded them considerable autonomy. They flourished up to the eighteenth century when their powers were abolished by the British colonial administration. Alexis de Tocqueville considered the panchayat an ideal democratic model and planned to devote a comprehensive study to it, similar to his Democracy in America, but he had to abandon the project because of ill health. (Guy Sorman, La Nouvelle Richesse des Nations, 1987). After it won its independence, India re-established village panchayats as a valued instrument of local government.
In its 2002 Human Development Report, UNDP suggested that India’s panchyati raj (local government policy based on the traditional panchyat) is an excellent example of how decentralization can promote democracy at the local level.
In stark contrast to India, Africa, whose traditional culture is also mathematically rich, has not made use of that very rich cultural resource in its development action. Paulus Gerdes, Director of the Center for Ethnomathematics at Mozambique’s Pedagogical University has demonstrated that many African objects used in everyday life embody mathematical concepts and a mathematical knowledge of forms, shapes, and symmetries.
They also reveal knowledge of the properties and relations of circles, angles, rectangles, squares, regular pentagons and hexagons, cones, pyramids and cylinders. (Geometry From Africa: Mathematical and Educational Explorations, 1999). If properly exploited by African countries, that strategically important cultural knowledge has the potential for developing technologically-savvy societies in Africa.
Gerdes rightly considers that “…the African cultural heritage should be the starting point in the development of the mathematics curriculum in order to improve its quality, to augment the cultural and social self-confidence of all pupils, both girls and boys.” http://www.maa.org/reviews/wagsa.html .
Mervyn Claxton
PART 3 NEXT POST.
Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource
Part 2 of an excerpt from a paper By Mervyn Claxton
In his Geometry From Africa (pages 111-125), Gerdes demonstrates how weaving techniques, such as that shown in this YouTube video, could be used in mathematics education to study trigonometric functions, finite designs and polyhedra, among others. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7tqiDoHXbc . Further information on Africa’s cultural mathematical treasures and Gerdes’ brilliant pioneering work can be accessed at these two weblinks: http://www.maa.org/reviews/gerdes.html ; http://plus.maths.org/issue19/features/liki/index.html .
Haiti’s indigenous culture, in particular the creativity embedded in it, constitutes its most important development capital and its most important development potential. It is an invaluable strategic resource from which Haitians can draw inspiration for creating new, culturally-compatible, more effective governance institutions. It is also an invaluable resource from which an alternative development approach could be formulated – one that would be capable of harnessing and mobilizing the cultural energies of the Haitian people and channelling them in directions which respond to their deepest aspirations.
Within a little more than a generation, India has transformed itself from an international basket case to being well on the way to becoming, by some estimates, one of the world’s two most important economic powers within the next few decades. A major reason for India’s striking development success is that it exploited to the full the development potential of its immensely rich indigenous culture.
A major reason for Africa’s striking development failure is that it failed to do so. Haiti can choose to follow India’s example or it can choose to follow Africa’s. The choice that Haiti makes – a choice that requires enlightened leadership – will largely determine the Haiti’s development future or its economic fate, in the medium and the long term. Haitians do not need a crystal ball to divine the outcome of either choice. All they need to so is compare India’s present situation with that of Africa.
Mervyn Claxton
That last post should be part 3
Fair enough Anon, had to ask though.
@ Anon
“man it seems that hood gone away because like the SDA man last week , you cant defend the indefensible i heard somebody say once.”
…………………………………………………..
The hood ain’t gone a place. However it seems to me that you like you hearing a lot of “voices in yuh head”!
There is a place down Black Rock for peeps in ypur position, yuh know!
Hood are you saying that one can defend the indefensible?
I see you are a psychiatrist too……..or this mormonism turned you into a patient at Jenkins?
Rok, Feb, 2010 @1:25PM
“Haitian culture is Haiti’s most important development resource.”
Excerpt from a paper By Mervyn Claxton.”
“No country endowed with the outstanding creativity, orginality, inventiveness of Haitian culture its world-class art, its world-class literature and astonishing technological/scientific/medical knowledge EMBEDDED in its VOODOO CULTURE – can be considered poor, let alone “the poorest country in the Werstern hemisphere.”
emphasis added.
Sorry, but Mervyn Claxton, like others, have it all up-side-down, inverted as it were; claiming that Haiti’s ‘…creativity, orginality, inventiveness…its world-class art, its world-class literature and outstanding tecnological/scientific/medical KNOWLEDGE embedded in its VOODOO *culture*-can be considered poor, let alone “the poorest country in the Western hemisphere.”
Man, this IS the fundamental reason, the very *foundation* upon which Haiti’s poverty, rest, as the CULTURE, the heartbeat, of the Haitian people IS, “…EMBEDDED in its VOODOO Culture…”
My God, why are people so blinded to this reality? And stop making excuses, skirting around the central issue, the very CULTURE of the Haitian people, IS inextricably, interwoven, daily in their deep-seated belief in Voodoo, which prevents them from being FREE to be all that Almighty God wants for them!
“Patrick Bellegrade-Smith descends from a long line of Haitian philosophers and statesmen. He is a scholar of Africology and a Vodou priest. In this 2006 conversation, he shed clarifying light on the INNER LIFE of the Haitian people. Listening anew, we find historical and CULTURAL context for watching Haiti’s current struggle and contemplating its long process of rebuilding ahead.” (Speaking of Faith, News Letter, SOF: Living Vodou (4 Feb 2010).
BTW, this ‘Speaking of Faith, News Letter, is not a Christian forum, not at all, very eclectic, embracing and entertaining all spiritual views.
“Disassociating my idea of Vodou from the notion of sticking pins into dolls was simply the first of many perceptions my original conversation with Patrick Bellegarde-Smith dismantled. It help me see beyond the tag line that always comes with the mention of Haiti in the news and it is there again now: ‘the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere.’ I gained a sense of the heroic and tumultuous in the history, culture, and INNER LIFE of the Haitian people. This is ALL ENCOMPASSED in the complex fact, as Patrick Bellegarde-Smith reminds us, that they are 60% Catholic, 40% Protestant, but 100% Vodou.”
“As Patrick Bellegarde-Smith tells it, ancient spiritual riches lie beneath the surface of terrible poverty in Haiti, not defeating it but meeting and transcending it in daily, private lives. Haitian elites like him are navigating a 21st-century paradox – of finding tools for modernity and imagining a better post-colonial future by reclaiming the ancient roots and RESOURCES they have in VODOO.”
“He is navigating that with a new intensity now as he considers Haiti’s future. And he is finding an immediate solace IN VODOU as he grieves in the present.”
Bellegarde-Smith, says:
“I…come from a well-connected family whose story parallels Haitian history over the last two centuries. Every corpse is mine; every body is mine. Their spirit fuses with mine and that of all Haitians. Spirits live beyond death – and before birth. The dead are not dead, but alive in new dimensions. I gain solace from that ancestral thought.”
Here one can see clearly, the connecting ‘spiritual’ concept, idea, perception, of Mervyn Claxton, and Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, for the Haitian people, both rooted in the CULTURAL , cemented, factual reality of Vodou, as part and parcel of their very existence, which HAS NOT worked for them over 200 years! Why not?
Because it is idolatry, no matter WHO practices it, it brings a curse upon the nation, the Jewish people, Isreal, historically, throughout the Old Testament, whenever they WENT BACK into any form of Idolatry, worship other than to the One True and Living God, they FELT His judgment on their land, crop, and PERSON; as Almighty God IS NO respector of persons, regardless of colour, ethnic origin, etc. He CANNOT bless and prosper ANY people who WILL NOT listen to Him, and His Word, the Bible!
The historic legend, of the Vodou ceremony at Bwa Kayiman on August 14, 1791, which historians are not in agreement on, that presumably launched the Haitian Revolution, which resulted in the abolition of slavery and an independent Haiti in 1804, whether this ceremony actually took place or not, the fact IS, that Haitians STILL celebrate this in their Vodou practices and beliefs, up until today.
“The event of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony forms an important part of Haitian national *identity* as it relates to the very GENESIS of Haiti. Moreover, the Vodou constituent of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony, or ethnic, dimension of the Haitian Revolution and the ensuing declaration of the Republic of Haiti. Thus, it is not surprising that the EVENT is taught at school, referred to in public debates and appears in popular songs (vf. CHAR, 2007; cf.AHP, 2007; cf. Fombrun, 1980), References to the evolutionary birth of the Haitain nation are also heard in Vodouisant discourse.” (Our Government is in Bwa Kayiman:”A Vodou Ceremony in 1791 and its Contemporary Significations, p. 75).
“In 2007, I heard the ‘Boukman prayer’ proclaimed to the gathered media at the opening of a press conference organized by the Vodou organization Association, Vodouisants Sud-Ets. The Catholic bishop heading the Conference epis-copale d’Haiti, also used elements from the “Boukman prayer” in his speech at the nationwide celebrations of 65th anniversary of Haiti’s consecration to ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ (Kebrau, 2007: 36). The bishop’s rhetorical twist, or open-mindedness, outraged some of my Vodouisant acquaintances who saw it as a Catholic attempt to appropriate the events at Bwa Kayiman.” (Ibid., p. 78).
This Catholic nonsense, of consecrating Haiti to ‘Our Lady of Perpetual Help’ only brings further demonic activity upon the Haitian people, more *Idolatry* six of one and half dozen of the other!
“The account of the Bwa Kayiman ceremony is today definitely widespread among the ranks of Vodouisants and has been integrated into Vodou’s lore (for example, see Davis, 1988: 266). The issue of the ceremony, as well as the general importance of Vodou to liberate Haiti, was often raised when I spoke with people about Vodou. By portraying Vodou as a CULTURAL and religious heritage inextricably merged with the history and independence of Haiti, practitioners also legitmize Vodou and its place in Haitian society. In 2006 and 2007, for example, I attended three press conferences with Vodou representatives and the issue of Bwa Kayiman was mentioned at each of those occasions (cf. Platfom Milokan, 2007). (Ibid., p. 79).
Note, neither of the sources quoted above, are Christian oriented, they are both journalistic, investigative, and research based, on historical aspects of Haitian Culture and religion.
It is both sad and unfortunate, that neither Mervyn Claxton, nor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, (A Vodou priest and scholar) understand the ‘spiritual’ reality of ‘Vodou’ and the serious, devastating consequences such practices have brought upon Haiti and its people, which IS still deeply embedded TODAY in its Culture and daily life!
@Zoe
“neither Mervyn Claxton, nor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, (A Vodou priest and scholar) understand the ’spiritual’ reality of ‘Vodou’”
Only Zoe understands? After years of practice to become a voodoo priest, a scholar does not understand?
I guess that you have it all up-side-down. There is obviously something that they know that you don’t know. Oh Holiest of Holiest! God himself!
Exactly who are you? You working for the illuminati, either wittingly or unwittingly.
Oh lawd now Zoe.Who tell you to write dat boy? You gwine get murdah now. How can your read stuff like that and go against the flow on BU boy. You mad or what?
I think that rok doent not understand what zoe is saying or he playing he dont understand what zoe saying or he dont want to accept what zoe saying.
@Rok, “…After years of practice to become a Voodoo priest, a scholar does not understand?”
Secular scholarship DOES NOT enlighten one to ‘spiritual’ LIGHT, TRUTH, as IS blatantly evident with this Voodoo priest, who is obviously STILL in Vodooistic DARKNESS!
All this VOODOO devil worship has brought Haiti…is devastation, ruination, and untold suffering!!!
@Zoe
“Secular scholarship DOES NOT enlighten one to ’spiritual’ LIGHT, TRUTH, as IS blatantly evident with this Voodoo priest, who is obviously STILL in Vodooistic DARKNESS!”
That is the biggest bunch of BS I have ever seen. You think you dealing with little children or what. What foolishness you telling me about secular scholarship?
You just like the white man, trying to shift the goal posts so you alone have monopoly on god. Well let me tell you that you can’t pull wool over nobody’s eyes, because you of yourself do not have spiritual enlightenment as you have demonstrated with you long dose of salts about other religions/denominations. You have not been able to take the beam out of your eyes.
You are a religious misfit coming with all your childish nonsense. This reminds me of the stupid explanations we used to get as children, trying to drive fear into our hearts so we would obey. You just ain’t get past the fairy tale yet.
Certainly all you have is a belief. When one believes there is no truth and there is no proof. You do not have anything on anybody; whether they believe in a god or not.
Right now the only devil I seeing here on BU is you. Eyes red and full of fire; stark raving mad. That is what you are. Worshiping the devil with all your attacks on people’s intelligence; amounting to no more than terrorism.
You can terrorise those who don’t know any better but you cannot terrorise me with your foolishness. I leave you to fry in hell. For your information, the guiding book for Voodoo is the bible just like you. You interpret it one way; they have gone far past you in your ignorance. You are the one in darkness. Your evil heart has no bounds.
“I think that rok doent not understand what zoe is saying”
I think Zoe is the one who does not understand what he/she is saying and you even less. You are inebriated by the toxic fumes he is letting off. You need to sleep it off or smell some coffee and stop imbibing such poisonous effluent. No man of spiritual awareness is at war with the rest of the world and by implication, himself along with it.
He is worse that a commercial break, selling christianity by debasing all other religions. This amounts to nothing more than persecution… but when we see Israel committing genocide against the Palestinians, we ought to be lucky that our secular government does not allow people to carry ak47s otherwise it would not be a bombardment of words, it would have been a bombardment of bullets. Birds of a feather. You shall know them by their fruit. What is Zoe’s fruit? Not sure, but certainly it is a bitter, poisonous and evil fruit.
“All this VOODOO devil worship has brought Haiti…is devastation, ruination, and untold suffering!!!”
Here he is spreading the white power propaganda. He knows nothing about Voodoo besides the foolishness that whitie tells him. He has not gone and done any research for himself; not even a wiki search, and therefore he is putting out lies. At no time do Voodoo priests call on the devil, but just like all christians rebuke evil spirits.
Voodoo is simply different. While christianity seeks to prevent man from finding his inner self, Voodooism embraces the inner self and recognises the spirit in everything and that spirits are everywhere. It is an old African religious concept which you could do with a dose of.
Voodoo cannot imagine that anything exists without the Creator. There can be nothing without the Creator. The Creator is in everything. You Zoe lack this respect. You are very, very materialistic in your outlook while Voodoo is very spiritual.
Try to do the research my friend. It will open your eyes. Have a read from not the best of sources and you will see that even here with the most sketchy of facts, what you saying is pure BS. What devil worship what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_Vodou
Who practices more Voodoo, Haiti or New Orleans?
New Orleans does lead you to believe VooDoo and even satanism will be practiced at … Sad the poor were forgotten in the New Orleans flood. …
Maybe you got to read between the lines..
A person filled with an eager appetite for all matters of mind and logic. The gathering of information through unfaltering vigilance, careful examination, and subtle spycraft. The use of reason or eloquent speech to penetrate the veil of confusion and cut to the heart of the matter.
“Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath *understanding* BUT that which is in the midst of FOOLS is made MANIFEST” (Prov.14: 33)
“RIGHTEOUSNESS exalteth a NATION: but SIN (Vodoo, etc, etc) IS a reproah to ANY people” (Prov. 14: 34) emphasis added.
“The tongue of the WISE useth knowledge aright: BUT the MOUTH of FOOLS poureth out FOOLISHNESS” (Prov. 15:2)
“The sacrifice (Voodoo sacrifices, etc) of the wicked IS an ABOMINATION to the Lord: BUT the prayer of the upright IS His delight” (Prov. 15: 8).
“The way of the wicked IS an abomination unto the Lord: BUT He loveth him that followeth after righteousness” (Prov. 15: 9)
“The Lord is far from the wicked: BUT He heareth the prayer of the righteous” (Prov. 15: 29)
No secular scholar nor *pinhead* dimwit, birdbrain, can understand such wisdom of the Lord; for IT IS *foolishness* to them, who continue to walk in their FOLLY!
@Zoe
“Wisdom resteth in the heart of him that hath *understanding* ”
What part of anything that you have been writing “hath understanding”?
“but SIN (Vodoo, etc, etc)”
You keep lying by calling Voodoo sin and devil worship. It is universally accepted by christians that to lie is to sin. Are you therefore referring to yourself?
“The tongue of the WISE useth knowledge aright…”
And exactly who are the wise, since you are clearly not?
“the MOUTH of FOOLS poureth out FOOLISHNESS”
Such as you have demonstrated. Yes, I can agree with you there.
“No secular scholar nor *pinhead* dimwit, birdbrain, can understand such wisdom…”
Because you say so. You have a mere belief in a god. How much smaller that a pinhead you want yours to shrink?
“The Lord is far from the wicked: BUT He heareth the prayer of the righteous”
He is certainly not hearing yours as you are full of wrath, hatred, spite, lies, deceit and all that can be attributable to the devil.
Whose world is it?
The World Is Yours
“It’s yours!” –> [T La Rock]
[Chorus: Nas, Pete Rock]
[PR] Whose world is this?
[Nas] The world is yours, the world is yours
[PR] It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine
Whose world is this?
“It’s yours!”
It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine
Whose world is this?
[Nas] The world is yours, the world is yours
[PR] It’s mine, it’s mine, it’s mine
Whose world is this?
Now children lets hear what the Reverend Run from Run DMC has to
say for the pop charts:
Run DMC
nope, shut him down, the king with a crown
’cause all you wanna be is dicky down
[CL Smooth]
two years ago, a friend of mine
asked me to say some MC rhymes
so I said this rhyme I’m about to say
the rhyme was meeca, and it went this way
wrecka lecka mecca mic check on the windmill skills
Mac distracts, wearing Godfather hats
it’s okay to parlay to fortee better
tell ’em my n—- made a sweater tougher than leather
swing another Rodney King thing in our right
but just like the white one I get no respect
Zoe you must not quote the Bible on BU or interpret it correctly or you will have to deal with the almighty all wise alknowing rok.
Only his beliefs are acceptable. Not yours
remember the faces in all types of places
look Ma, no shoelaces
and I’m….
BU is a rokrocracy. Its roks way or no way. roks way or the high way
Mormonism!
Salvation and Judgment in Mormonism.
Here is another look at the perverted theology of Mormonism, as Dr. Martin outlines in ‘The Kingdom of The Cults.’
“Personal salvation in Mormonism is one of the doctrines most heavily emphasized, and since Christianity IS the Gospel or ‘Good News’ of God’s redemption in Christ, it is inevitable that the two should come into conflict.”
“The mormon doctrine of salvation involves not only faith in Christ, but baptism by immersion, obedience to the teaching of the Mormon Church, good works, and ‘keeping the commandments of God (which) will cleanse away the stain of sin” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p.4). Apparently Brigham Young was ignorant of the Biblical pronouncement that “without the shedding of blood there is no remission [of sin]” (Hebrews 9:22).
“The Mormon teaching concerning salvation is, therefore, quite the opposite of the New Testament revelation of justification by faith and redemption solely by grace through faith in Christ (Ephesians 2: 8-10).
“Brigham Young, an authoritative Mormon source by any standards, was quite opposed to the Christian doctrine of salvation which teaches that a person may at any time sincerely repent of his sins, even at the eleventh hour, and receive forgiveness and eternal life. Wrote Brigham:”
“Some of our old traditions teach us that a man guilty of atrocious and muderous acts may savingly repent on the scaffold; and upon execution will hear the expression – “Bless God! he has gone to heaven, to be crowned in glory, through the all-redeeming merits of Christ the Lord! This is all nonsense. Such a character will never see heaven” (Journal of Discourses, Vol. 8, p.61).
“Prophet Young never did explain the words of the Lord Jesus Christ addressed to the thief on the cross who had repented of his sins at the last moment, so to speak, crying: “Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kinhdom ” (Luke 23:42). The answer of our Savior was unequivocal: “Today shalt thou be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).
“The parable of the laborer (Matthew 20:1-16) which presents Christ’ teaching that God agrees to give to all who will serve Him the same inheritance, i.e., eternal life, was also ignored by Brigham Young, who would most likely have been numbered among the voices which ‘murmured’ against the good man of the house, saying: these last have worked but one hour and you have made then equal with us, who have borne the burden and the heat of the day” (verses 11 and 12).
“The answer of the Lord is, however, crystal clear: “Friend, I do thee no wrong: did you not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine, and go thy way: I will give unto the last workers, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own” Is thine eye evil, because I am good? (verses 13-15),
“Our Lord was obviously teaching, to use a modern illustration, that the ‘base pay’ given to all laborers in the Kingdom is the same; namely, eternal redemption. But the rewards are different for length and content of services rendered, so whoever comes to Christ for salvation receives IT, whether at the first hour or the eleventh hour. The ‘gift of God,’ the Scripture tell us, IS ‘eternal life,’ and although rewards for services may be earned as the believer surrenders himself to the power of the Holy Spirit and bears fruit for the Lord, God IS NO respector of persons. His salvation IS equally dispensed without favor to ALL who will come.”
“According to the Mormon scheme of salvation the gods who created this earth actually planned that Adam, who was to become ruler of this domain, and his wife, Eve, were predestined to sin so that the race of man who now inhabit this earth might come into being and eventually reach GODHOOD. The fall in the Garden of Eden was actually the means ‘by which act Adam and Eve became mortal, and could beget mortal children” (J. Widtsoe, A Rational Theology, Deseret Publishing Company, p. 47).
“Since Mormons believe in the preexistence of the human soul, it is part of their theology that these preexistent souls must take on human forms since it is necessary, in order to enjoy both power and joy, that bodies be provided. This was the early Mormon justification for *polygamy* which accelerated the creation of bodies for these preexistent offspring of Joseph Smith’s galaxy of gods. A careful reading of the ‘Book of Abraham’ will reveal that life on this earth was designed by the *gods* to discipline their spirit children and at the same time provide them with the opportunities to reproduce and eventually inherit *GODHOOD* and individual kingdoms of their personal possessions.”
“According to Mormon revelation, the great star Kolob was the site for the conception of these plans, and it will come as no surprise to the sudents of Mormonism to learn that Lucifer, who was a spirit brother of Jesus prior to His incarnation, fell from heaven because of jealousy of Christ. Christ was appouinted by the *gods* to become the redeemer of the race that would fall as a result of Adam’s sin, and it was this office to which Lucifer aspired, hence his antipathy.”
“Lucifer is even quoted as saying: ‘Behold, here am I, send me, I will be thy son, and I will redeem all mankind, that one soul shall not be lost, and surely I will do it; wherefore give me thin honour” (Chapter 4 of the Book of Moses, found in the Pearl of Great Price, catalogs all of these events, including the fall of Satan and the establishment of the Garden of Eden, Chapter 6, which Joseph Smith elesewhere ‘revealed’ was really located in Missouri and not the Mesopotamian area!)”
“The Book of Mormon also records the fact that Cain, the first muderer, was the progenitor of the Negro race, his black skin being the result of a curse by God. On this basis the Mormons for years avoided and ignored blacks in their missionary work, believing that preexistent souls which were considered less than valiant assigned in the ‘war in heaven’ between Christ and Satan were punished by being assigned to black bodies during their mortality. Until 1978 they were denied all of the ‘blessings’ and ‘privileges’ of the priesthood, but a revelation of convenience gave them full access to these glories and neatly removed the last major obstacle to the Mormon ‘evangelization’ of Africa and the rest of the world.”
“The Indians, who are supposedly the descendants of the Book of Mormon’s wicked Lamanites, have allegedly been cursed by the Mormon deity with dark skins as a punishment for their misdeeds of their forefathers. Mormonism, then, is clearky a religion with a shameful history of white supremacist doctrine and practices.”
“These and many other interesting factors comprise the background of the Mormon doctrine of salvation, but it is also important to understand the Mormon’s teaching concerning their redeemer, one of the main areas of their controversy with historic Christianity.”
Can any rational, intelligent person, believe that such GROSS, crass, Satanically inspired NONSENSE, could actually be accepted, as it is, and then walk around, seeking to ensnare others with all of this *GODHOOD* crap, and have the gall, to call themselves, the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints”?
But, we are clearly warned in God’s Word, the Bible, that such demonic deception would, in fact, happen!
“Now the Spirit speaketh *EXPRESSLY*, that in the latter times, some shall depart from the *faith* (doctrinal Truth) giving HEED to seducing spirits (demons) and doctrines of devils.” ( 1 Timothy 4: 1) emphasis added.
Can we have some emotional rants about this article from the NATION?
by SANKA PRICE
IT COULD COST CARICOM $25.2 million to provide medical support to Haiti for the next ten-and-a-half months.
The big question however is where the money will come from.
This is the principle issue being dealt with this weekend as CARICOM health ministers meet in Trinidad to decide the community’s ongoing support for their earthquake ravished member.
The talks have taken on even more urgency as Jamaica, the CARICOM member to send personnel into Haiti within 48 hours after the earthquake on January 12, has began pulling them out as they can no longer afford to fund the initiative.
According to the Jamaica authorities they were spending JAM$773 000 (BDS$16 992.40) a day, and had already racked up a bill of JAM$40 million (BDS$879 296) which they cannot afford, given the financial crisis there.
The ministers will have before them a document, Defining The Nature And Scope Of The Caribbean Community’s Intervention – A Plan For Intervention In The Health Sector which looks at a three-phase approach.
According to the document acquired by the SATURDAY SUN, the essential structure of the intervention is proposed as follows:
“Phase 1: Maintenance of the emergency and specialised care being provided to date with the necessary supporting context for a 21-day period following the event (up to February 5, 2010); and
“Phase 2: A transitional period from emergency and specialised care to primary health care services (duration 30 days) February 6 to March 5, 2010;
“Phase 3: The provision of primary health care services, for a period to be determined based on the options presented. (duration options –
six months or 10.5 months).”
That is, March 6 – August 31, 2010, or March 6 – January 15, 2011.
The document noted: “It is anticipated that financing of the initiative will be
a combination of contributions from member states and external sources.
“Costs are therefore estimated at US$6.29 million (BDS$12.58 million)
for a three-phase intervention over nine months, inclusive of US$1.7 million (BDS$3.4 million) in in-kind contributions and US$10 million (BDS$20 million) for a three-phase intervention over a year inclusive of US$2.6 million (BDS$5.2) in in-kind contributions.
“Both estimates are inclusive of emergency support and other expenditures. There will be a need to indicate how any gaps in costs of operations to date will be supported.
“Financing of the larger intervention, that is beyond the emergency side will require an indication of participating states commitment to this initiative, if adopted. Discussion with Haiti on the incorporation of this into their reconstruction plan will be important
for sustainability.”
Each country will be required to pay the salaries of, and insurance coverage for, the personnel they send to work in Haiti, termed in-kind contributions in the document.
@Pinhead, Keep making a daily contribution to the CESS-PIT of IGNORANCE and utter stupidity!
After all, ‘Ignorance does have something to be said for it; IT gives about 9/10th to the conversational OUT-PUT of the world.’
Hear all Hear the Mighty ROK on February 6, 2010 at 7:40 AM responding to Zoe
“All this VOODOO devil worship has brought Haiti…is devastation, ruination, and untold suffering!!!”
Here he is spreading the white power propaganda. He knows nothing about Voodoo besides the foolishness that whitie tells him.
Is rok not spreading the black power propaganda? What does Rok know about Voodoo besides the foolishness that blackie tells him. Does rok practice voodoo, and so knows all about it.
Rok says and I quote “He has not gone and done any research for himself; not even a wiki search, and therefore he is putting out lies. At no time do Voodoo priests call on the devil, but just like all christians rebuke evil spirits.”
How does the omniscient rok know that zoe has not done any research and is putting out lies. Is roks opinion based on the fact that zoes research does not gel with his opinion?
Is it true that all Christians rebuke evil spirits? Is rok equating Christianity to voodoism?
Rok says and I quote “Voodoo is simply different. While christianity seeks to prevent man from finding his inner self, Voodooism embraces the inner self and recognises the spirit in everything and that spirits are everywhere. It is an old African religious concept which you could do with a dose of.”
Where dis rok get the idea that christianity seeks to prevent man from finding his inner self, and does not thebible teach Christians to test or prove the spirits and why must anyone need a dose of any old African religious concepts. Is rok a witch doctor? Who gives him de right to prescribe anything for anyone?
How does rok come to the confusion that Zoe is materialistic in outlook and not spiritual.
Is zoe not entitled to an opinion without getting a dose of roc bashing.
Roc throwing rocs at zoe all the time. Its so funny
Why do we have to see roks ugly face with every post though?
“Who practices more Voodoo, Haiti or New Orleans?”
There is not only the practice of Voodoo in New Orleans, BUT, rampant Homosexuality, among other degrading, immoral debauched decadence, behaviour!
And what happened to New Orleans?
Hear all Hear the Mighty ROK again
Certainly all you have is a belief. When one believes there is no truth and there is no proof.
Does this jackass think before he shits on BU?
Does this statement make sense I ask you ……………….When one believes there is no truth and there is no proof.
I believe that my chair wont fall out from under me
I believe that the bus will come on time
Ibelieve that i will have a job on monday and churches around the world will have services tomorrow
I believe that rok is an ass lokking for a soap box to promote himself and his ego Ah lie ha ha ha
I believe he will be here again soon ranting and raving and spouting more shit on BU AGAIN! What wunnuh think?
I think his thinking stinks!
New Orleans got devastated by flooding from a hurricane that didnt hit them directly.
New Orleans got hit by a roc-ket of water ha ha
I learning to bull shit like roc.
I get it now
BU is like the Warcraft franchise of video games, novels and other media.
All games in the series have been set in and around the world of Azeroth, a high fantasy setting covering a wide range of the timelines of the universe.
what is the nature of
terrorist cyber threat
“Does this jackass think before he shits on BU?”
The only jackass shiting is you. See how much times you put down the word.
@Zoe
Quoting Zoe :-“Because it is idolatry, no matter WHO practices it, it brings a curse upon the nation, the Jewish people, Isreal, historically, throughout the Old Testament, whenever they WENT BACK into any form of Idolatry, worship other than to the One True and Living God, they FELT His judgment on their land, crop, and PERSON; as Almighty God IS NO respector of persons, regardless of colour, ethnic origin, etc. He CANNOT bless and prosper ANY people who WILL NOT listen to Him, and His Word, the Bible!”
…………………………………………………..
Therefore, according to this reasoning, Mr. Zoe & Mr. Anon, why aren’t the Mormons suffering real bad then??
On the contrary, they seem to be prospering real good more & more every day! Obviously, that would be BLESSINGS from heavenly powers!!
What’s happening on da
⇩
Underground, Pusherman ?
“Does this statement make sense I ask you ……………….When one believes there is no truth and there is no proof.”
Only to you it makes no sense. If you believe it means that you have no proof, you simply believe. One can believe based on principles. It is only when one has facts that one has proof.
When one sits on a chair, one does so based on an assessment of whether it can hold your weight or not. If you sit in a chair that is rocking and shaking and merely believe that you won’t fall, chances are the chair will crash.
You can say I have sit in a chair of this strength before and it did not cave in. On the other hand the chair may seem strong but still cave in because it is actually weak. No amount of belief will stop it from caving in so you would be believing in vain.
You or your sidekick Zoe, have no proof that your prayers are answered. Any chance happening may lead you to that belief but that is all it is; a belief.
All religion purports to explain the unknown, but it remains just that, “The Unknown” and none of you have been able to prove anything. Even a lie can be very convincing. It goes to show how fallacy plays on the mind.
With all the pontification about his rightness, exactly who is insisting that it is their way or the highway? I certainly have not come here trying to prove anything “divine” or telling people how thy should worship. Actually, the very ploy you are using you are trying to accuse me of.
All I am saying is that as much as you have a belief which you expect to be respected, it will not be respected if you show no respect for the beliefs of others.
Again, all I say is that you have a belief and that is a universal fact. There is no proof and has never been any proof; oh ye of little faith.
Pusherman 1972 Original
The highlight of blogging on BU is reading the BS by rok getting his rocks off by bashing Zoe.
Listen to this recent rant
1- You do not have anything on anybody; whether they believe in a god or not.
2- Right now the only devil I seeing here on BU is you. Eyes red and full of fire; stark raving mad. That is what you are. Worshiping the devil with all your attacks on people’s intelligence; amounting to no more than terrorism.
===========================================================
ZOE is here said to be a TERRORIST & A DEVIL. But I cant see could be worshipping the devil by explaining the bible and showing people how some religions deviate from the bible though they say that they follow the bible.
Seeing that all protestant churches are supposed to be based on the bible only, is Zoe not making sense when he points out that some religions or church groups blatantly according to their info on the internet admit that the writings of their founders are just as much scripture as the scripture? Certainly there is a contradiction somewhere that he is pointing out. No? Ah lie?
3- You can terrorise those who don’t know any better but you cannot terrorise me with your foolishness. I leave you to fry in hell. For your information, the guiding book for Voodoo is the bible just like you. You interpret it one way; they have gone far past you in your ignorance. You are the one in darkness. Your evil heart has no bounds.
=========================================================
ZOE is here said to be a TERRORIST
And rok has become a judge that can banish Zoe to hell to fry.
Is it really true that the guiding book for Voodoo is the bible? I real confuse now. Cause is a man of the people. A big shite in buhbados. So he must be know wuh he taking bout. I mean he got a white beard too so maybe dat mek he wise too.Right?
4- I think that rok doent not understand what zoe is saying”
I think Zoe is the one who does not understand what he/she is saying and you even less. You are inebriated by the toxic fumes he is letting off. You need to sleep it off or smell some coffee and stop imbibing such poisonous effluent. No man of spiritual awareness is at war with the rest of the world and by implication, himself along with it.
Now he lef of Zoe and on pun me. He say I need to sleep and smell coffee
Zoe is here said to be letting off toxic fumes and poisonous effluent
He say that Zoe at war with the world and himself because he quotes scripture and just tell the sheeple wuh de bible say.
I missing something or rok gone starring stark mad? People have been quoting scripture for years and dem gone Jenkins is the parroos and other drugies.
5 He is worse that a commercial break, selling christianity by debasing all other religions. This amounts to nothing more than persecution… but when we see Israel committing genocide against the Palestinians, we ought to be lucky that our secular government does not allow people to carry ak47s otherwise it would not be a bombardment of words, it would have been a bombardment of bullets. Birds of a feather. You shall know them by their fruit. What is Zoe’s fruit? Not sure, but certainly it is a bitter, poisonous and evil fruit.
Now Zoe selling Christianity/? Ah wonder how much he charging and if I should give up my black pudding money today for what ever um is he selling.
TERROSISM NOW PERSECUTION?
Wait how Israel get in this?
SO WHO gwine be shooting the ak47s? rok or BANGO?
Who will be bombarding any body wid bullets? I didn’t know Zoe was a bullet man.
Rok say he don’t know what Zoe fruit is and then in the next breath he say CERTAINLY it is a bitter, poisonous and evil fruit.
Rok can you teach me how to rant and rave like a mad man like you?
Why are we killing each other?
colors?
shall we call a truce?
@ ROK
Would you believe that all this bovine excrement from Mr. Anon & Bro. Zoe started because I sent you a link showing that the LDS church members were personally volunteering to to work on the ground in Haiti not only before but after the EQ crisis!!