Cold Saturday Morning in Pensacola
It is warming, but “warm” is relative. Compared to 19°F, 31°F is “warm.” In terms of hands and toes and cold tile floors, it is still very cold. I was reminded this morning of how very cold I was in Kuwait those few January days when it would get down to 0°C; when windows are not sealed tightly and all your floors are marble, it’s like having winter inside your home.
And that is how my doves must feel. Normally, they sleep under our rosemary bush, or snuggle down under the lavender. I think, now that we have pulled a lot of our larger potted plants in close to the house under the awning, they are sleeping under our plants. This morning, they know I am here, with my camera, and they don’t care. They want to catch a few more ZZZzzzz’s in the first few rays of the early morning sun.
They fluff up their wings to capture air and warm it with their bodies. Look how puffed up this one looks, about twice it’s normal size.
AdventureMan goes out every day and breaks the ice in the bird bath, and puts in fresh water. People are good about feeding birds, but forget how hard it can be for them to find water when outdoor temperatures fall into the freezing zone.
Saudi Blogger Flogged 50 Times For Criticizing Muttawa
This man, a father of three, had the nerve to criticize the arbitrary morality police in Saudi Arabia. He wasn’t criticizing Islam; he was criticizing the ignorance and irregular actions of the muttawa. When flogged, he did not make a peep. Another blow to freedom of speech.
Witness: Convicted Saudi blogger flogged in public 50 times
AYA BATRAWYJan 9th 2015 2:08PM
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – A Saudi blogger convicted of insulting Islam was brought after Friday prayers to a public square in the port city of Jiddah and flogged 50 times before hundreds of spectators, a witness to the lashing said.
The witness said Raif Badawi’s feet and hands were shackled during the flogging but his face was visible. He remained silent and did not cry out, said the witness, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity fearing government reprisal.
Badawi was sentenced last May to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes. He had criticized Saudi Arabia’s powerful clerics on a liberal blog he founded. The blog has since been shut down. He was also ordered to pay a fine of 1 million riyals or about $266,600.
Rights activists say Saudi authorities are using Badawi’s case as a warning to others who think to criticize the kingdom’s powerful religious establishment from which the ruling family partly derives its authority.
London-based Amnesty International said he would receive 50 lashes once a week for 20 weeks. Saudi Arabia’s close ally, the United States, had called on authorities to cancel the punishment.
Despite international pleas for his release, Badawi, a father of three, was brought from prison by bus to the public square on Friday and flogged on the back in front of a crowd that had just finished midday prayers at a nearby mosque. His face was visible and, throughout the flogging, he clenched his eyes and remained silent, said the witness.
The witness, who also has close knowledge of the case, said the lashing lasted about 15 minutes.
Badawi has been held since mid-2012 after he founded the Free Saudi Liberals blog. He used the blog to criticize the kingdom’s influential clerics who follow a strict and ultraconservative interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism, which originated in Saudi Arabia.
He was originally sentenced in 2013 to seven years in prison and 600 lashes in relation to the charges, but after an appeal, the judge stiffened the punishment. Following his arrest, his wife and children left the kingdom for Canada.
Rights groups argue that the case against Badawi is part of a wider crackdown on freedom of speech and dissent in Saudi Arabia since the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. Criticism of clerics is seen as a red line because of their prestige in the kingdom, as well as their influential role in supporting government policies.
According to Amnesty, the charges against Badawi mention his failure to remove articles by other people on his website. He was also accused in court of ridiculing Saudi Arabia’s morality police.
In a statement after the flogging, Amnesty called the flogging a “vicious act of cruelty” and said that Badawi’s “only ‘crime’ was to exercise his right to freedom of expression by setting up a website for public discussion.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has called the punishment an “inhumane” response to someone exercising his right to freedom of expression and religion.
In New York, Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, told reporters on Friday that the U.N. human rights office was “very concerned about the flogging” and that it has previously raised concerns about harsh sentences in Saudi Arabia for human rights defenders.
___
Associated Press writer Cara Anna contributed to this report from the United Nations.
Hummus Opens in Pensacola
One of the reasons we loved moving to Pensacola way back was the Mediterranean restaurant at the corner of Cervantes and Perry – long gone, and now the new addition to AK Suter Elementary School – and the we were delighted when we found it again over at the corner of 9th and Creighton, as Mediterranean Plus. The food was so good, so authentic, and every time our old Middle East hands would come into town, it’s where we would go for a nostalgic evening. We were desolate when Mediterranean Plus disappeared.
In December, as we drove down 9th from Cordova Mall toward Pensacola, we saw a sign saying “Hummus” and we checked it out. They were still renovating and getting ready for a grand opening. A week ago, our son called and said he had been there, it was open, and it was almost the same menu as Mediterranean Plus.
We went there as soon as we could. In a small strip mall with a gas station, under a red awning, Hummus is open. When you walk in, it is clean and bright, there are Middle East products on several tall white shelves, and a display case full of fabulous desserts – at reasonable prices. Three kinds of baklava! Kanafi! While they have a loyal support base among the local Muslims, the head waiter was quick to tell us that the specialities are truly Mediterranean, and that a local Jewish rabbi is one of their favorite patrons, too.
The dining room is serene in a Celadon green with framed botanical prints of palm trees, very quiet, very restrained, very welcoming.
Before we ordered our meals, we ordered mint tea, and when it arrived, it came with honey, a full pot of very hot water, which was generously refilled:
We started with falafel, perfectly delicious, home-made falafel.
I ordered the Chicken Curry Soup; AdventureMan ordered the Red Lentil Soup. He has always loved that soup, and greeted it with the delight you would greet an old friend.
I ordered my old favorite, the vegetable mezze for my main course, and AdventureMan ordered Chicken Shwarma. Total YUMMMM.
There was so much food. We packed up about half to take home, but could not resist finishing our mint tea with two of the pistachio baklava. It was the perfect ending for a wonderful celebration, the opening of a restaurant we can bring our friends to for long nostalgic Middle Eastern dinners in Pensacola.
Look for the signs along the road:
Hummus Restaurant (FaceBook)
3012 N 9th Ave
Pensacola, Florida
Freedom of Speech: Je Suis Charlie
In our country, in the West, open discussion is a part of life. Your point of view may be ignorant, or repugnant to me, but I will defend to the death your right to express your opinion. One of the great weapons of freedom of speech is humor. It’s hard to maintain a dignified moral high-ground when one of the cartoonists piques with a cartoon showing the emperor has no clothes. Or at least the emperor has flaws, as do we all.
Pensacola is blessed with such an editorial cartoonist, Andy Marlette. Andy Marlette is controversial, and in a state with lax gun laws and pistol-packin-mamas, he risks his life daily, skewering the pomposity of us all. Occasionally, he is outrageous. Occasionally, he is offensive. That’s OK. If an editorial cartoonist isn’t skewering someone, or all of us at once, he isn’t doing his job. His job is to elicit discussion.
I have lived for so long in Moslem world that I take a risk now, offending my Moslem friends, by printing the cartoon of Mohammed weeping. It’s the cartoon that touched me to the bone. I have listened and learned in the Moslem world, and I have never met with hatred. The Mohammed I have read about in the Qu’ran and in hadith, and heard about in legend and stories from my Moslem friends portrayed a prophet who, like Jesus, was all about loving and serving the one true God. He would weep at what has been done in his name, as Jesus weeps for us, when we kill others in his service.
10 Degrees Colder Than Juneau
We slept in this morning. It’s Thursday, the happiest day of my week, no water aerobics, no obligations, a day when I can plan, prepare and execute. It just gave me a laugh when I saw today’s temperatures, to see that we are colder than Alaska.
AdventureMan wrapped our lemon tree, and we dragged all our potted plants in near to the house, undercover but not inside. We thought we lost everything last January, when the same major temperature dip came – and stayed – but most of our things surprised us and struggled back, albeit a month or so later than usual. Note to Pensacola gardeners – don’t be in a hurry to dig out and toss after a hard frost, be patient. Your plants may be more resilient than you knew.
When Attacked
I think you have to be careful when seeking spiritual advisors, and Rick Warren has never led me down a wrong path. In his own life, he sets a fine example of what a walk with Christ looks like. He is humble, compassionate, and full of encouraging and challenging scriptural advice. Today’s Daily Hope devotional is below – what great advice; it keeps you safe and it keeps you on the right path.
Jan 6, 2015
When You’re Under Attack, Just Rest
by Rick Warren
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.” Psalm 23:5 (NIV)
Our civilization is losing its civility. The world is getting ruder! One of the things that’s causing that is the Internet, because it allows people to hide behind the screen and say things online that they would never have the courage to say to others face to face.
All those people are doing is revealing the smallness of their hearts. Great people make people feel great, but small people belittle people. People who belittle others have a little knot for a heart, and they make fun of others because they think it will make them feel better.
How do you handle rude people? You don’t. You let God handle them. You let God be your defender.
King David was a pro at this. He knew what it meant to be attacked emotionally, verbally, and physically. As a young man, he was anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel, but he spent two years running from his predecessor, who wanted to kill him. He hid in caves while being criticized constantly behind his back.
Yet David never said a bad word against the king. He never retaliated, because God was preparing him to be the king after his own heart.
David says in Psalm 23:5, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (NIV).
David was recognizing God’s goodness to him. God would anoint his head with oil, which says to the world, “This is my guy! Back off! This is going to be the next leader.” David’s cup overflowed, which meant God kept blessing him and blessing him, even when others attacked him.
Does it sound like David was stressed out? No! He didn’t have to use up all his energy defending himself because he trusted God to be his defender.
It takes a lot of faith and humility to rest and trust God when you’re under attack, when you’re misunderstood, when rumors are spreading about you and people are saying things about you online. When that happens, everything in you wants to rise up and do something about it.
But you are most like Christ when you remain silent under attack. Jesus was constantly attacked, yet he never retaliated, even on his way to the cross. He remained silent before his accusers because he had entrusted himself to the care of the Father.
“So if you are suffering in a manner that pleases God, keep on doing what is right, and trust your lives to the God who created you, for he will never fail you” (1 Peter 4:19).
Talk It Over
Why is it important to you to have the last word?
What is the physical result of entrusting your defense to God? How does it affect your health?
If you have to speak to your attackers, what do you think God wants you to say?
Parking Shame: No Excuse
In Qatar and Kuwait, I used to take photos of able bodied men and women parking in handicapped spots and strolling into the stores. There were penalties, but I guess these folks did not believe the law applied to them.
Parking karma exists. What goes around comes around.
People who drive these big-a$$ trucks get no sympathy from me. Squeeze, big guy. See, there are two little lines, and you are supposed to park between them. Parking like this is just ignorant.
Kuwait Has Test To Detect LBGT?
This is a very odd article from The Middle East Eye:
Kuwaiti police have busted a “wild party” and arrested 23 “cross-dressers and homosexuals” at a chalet in the south of the country on Sunday.
“The vice police received a tip about the party and a warrant was issued by the public prosecution to take action against the cross dressers and homosexuals,” a security source told local daily Al Rai.
“The police encircled the chalet to make sure no one escaped and proceeded to arrest the people participating in the party. Some of them tried to escape by using the backdoor of the chalet and heading to the sea, but they were caught,” the source added.
The daily said that investigations revealed the party was exclusively for “cross-dressers and homosexuals” who would face the charges of “engaging in immoral activities.”
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans (LGBT) rights receive no protection in Kuwait and homosexual acts between two male adults can result in a six-year prison sentence, though there are no laws against sexual acts between two women. Cross-dressing is also illegal.
In 2013, Public health official Yousuf Mindkar announced the introduction of a screening process at Kuwait’s International Airport to prevent LGBT expatriates from entering Kuwait or other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
“Health centres conduct the routine medical check to assess the health of the expatriates when they come into the GCC countries,” he said.
“However, we will take stricter measures that will help us detect gays who will be then barred from entering Kuwait or any of the GCC member states.”
The same paper later showed the minister appearing to backtrack on the move saying it was a “mere proposal.”
“It may or may not be accepted,” he said.
“The debate will reflect the keen interest of the GCC countries in human rights, taking into consideration the teachings of our religion and international agreements.”
Some suggested that concerns over the hosting of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and the potential controversy that would ensue were fans to be screened, may have led to the backtrack.
My First Sneakers Badge
I discovered if I keep my running trampoline by the TV, I can run during exciting football games. I bet I can run during exciting programs, too 🙂
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