09.26.07
Brueggemann
“But the church with its vision and the world with its fear are here today, and they are in our guts. I am tangled up with the values and priorities of the world and so are you. It cannot be otherwise. Part of the hatred of the world toward church is within my own body and in yours. It has to do with the coerced parts of my person in conflict with the vision of joy that sustains me. And that conflict tears at me. We are all of us making up our minds about that deep conflict between yearning for shalom and yet wanting business with the world to continue uninterrupted. You and I will not likely rush madly to that new vision of confidence, but it is possible for folks like us to keep the tension alive.”
“We are each of us in the brickyard. We all owe our souls to the company store. It does not matter if it is a fifth grader with a demanding baseball coach or a third grader with a teacher who shouts or a father who demands; it does not matter if it is a taxpayer who is always playing catch up or an unappreciated mother and wife. It does not matter if it is a graduate student never satisfying his or her committee, or a junior executive under enormous pressure, or a doctor with too many patients, or a salesperson whose quota is always upped, or a social worker with a heavy load. We are all of us caught in a way of life that yields only frantic hostility and desperate effort, which cannot finally pay off.”
Both from “Living Toward a Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom”
09.21.07
Things are going well
We are quite spoiled with D.J. She rarely cries unless she needs something and seems quite happy most of the time. Several nights in the past week she has had herself a little party in her crib at 5am. She squeals and laughs for about a half hour before going back to sleep.
We still won’t know for a few months, and most likely until next May or June, how things are progressing. I don’t really want to share a lot on here, just that we’re still waiting and will be for some time.
09.20.07
International Peace Day
Bananas and Colombian paramilitaries
The role the Chiquita company has played in Central and South America is not a good one. Since its “plantation” into these areas, it has done little to improve the lives of its workers or the communities in which it has been placed.
Bribing Honduran presidents in the 1970’s and disregarding international competition laws are two of the lesser offenses. Now we see that they have been involved in much more.
The BBC coverage of this latest chapter gives us a better idea of what the company has involved itself in. Chiquita has been paying the AUC (United Self Defence Force of Colombia) and FARC to protect its workers. Against whom, I am not sure. I hesitate to guess what the effect might be of having paramilitary troops hanging around the plantation.
U.S. multinational corporations have a sordid history in Latin America. According to numerous reports by Human Rights Watch, American fruit companies in particular show a deplorable record of human rights abuses both in the creation of the plantations in Latin America as well as in their daily operations.
The issue at hand as I see it is that we have given up on the idea that we might conduct business in a manner that respects the rights of those individuals working for them, as well as the communities they affect. They have simply decided that the populations in Latin America (and China, Taiwan, Bangladesh, etc.) do not deserve the same respect as workers here in the United States.
I have heard the argument that these workers “Are probably happy to be working at all.” And I can only ask if we would be happy with a job that left us in poverty even after working 12 to 16 hour days, all under the watchful eye of our “protection,” which might be most closely associated with the mafia.
Isn’t it time that these organizations are both held accountable for their actions and forced to change?
09.13.07
that other title
The title of my last post comes from a song that was created at a worship gathering the Landing Place had many years ago. It was called Elements and the element we used that evening was Fire. No electricity, no lights, no amplified instruments.
We created a song by hanging words from a clothesline, one at a time. Over the course of the evening, these words, moved and re-moved, placed and re-placed by those attending, coalesced into a phrase with which the band (revolving members throughout the night) would create a song.
My favorite one from the evening was:
Why disappear now, scorched as I am? I’m burned up and broken, burned up and broken…I’m changed.
09.02.07
Buffalo Wings
Sauce:
1 ½ cups Franks hot sauce
2/3 cup butter
¼ cup red wine vinegar
6 Tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into small pieces
Batter:
1 ½ cups flour
3 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp fresh ground pepper
1 egg
Add milk until batter drops from spoon in oblong slivers
First things first: get all the ingredients out and open the windows. The grease and garlic smell will dissipate much quicker.
Get out the chicken and cut it into pieces.
Once that’s done, mix the dry ingredients for the batter and then add the egg and milk. The batter should be lumpy and not runny, but should fall off the spoon relatively easily when you hold it up. Roll the chicken pieces in the batter and put them on a nonstick cookie pan in the freezer. Cold batter crisps up better. Leave them in there anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour.
While the chicken and batter is cooling, start heating the oil to a medium temperature. The oil, when heated, should smoke only very slightly and should stop when you add the chicken. Now mix the ingredients for the sauce and heat them very slowly in a pot. In the picture below, you can see the butter I added, but it’s actually better to let the butter melt first, then add everything else. DO NOT LET THE SAUCE BOIL!! Keep it on low heat and if it starts to roll, move it away and let it cool some. If it boils for more then a few seconds, it will get a very skunky taste.
Once the chicken is cool and hard, drop them piece by piece into the hot oil. You will have to do them in a few batches unless you have a giant pot. Stir them a bit to make sure they aren’t sticking together. Cook them for about 5 to 8 minutes, depending on oil temperature, or until a nice golden brown color.
Once they’re done, transfer them to the pot with the sauce using a slotted spoon. Try to strain as much oil off as you can, but don’t worry about including some…it thickens the sauce. Let them sit in the sauce while you start cooking the other batches of chicken.
When all the batches are done, put them in a serving bowl and serve immediately with a nice salad, a soup, whatever. But definately have some Bleu Cheese or Ranch dressing on hand.
