retread| Whole Foods v. the Local, Organic Farmer 3 February 2007
Posted by EDITOR in Culture, Economics, VARANGALI.2 comments
Retreads are quality posts from yesterweeks that are given a second run on Saturdays. This piece was originally posted by VARANGALI on 10 Oct 2006.
Proponents of the organic food movement often argue that organic goods are not expensive-–-it is conventional produce that is artificially inexpensive.
Organic foods seem elitist only because industrial food is artificially cheap, with its real costs being charged to the public purse, the public health and the environment.
- Alice Waters
The Africa Diaries: Of Atrocities and Religion 30 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in History, Theology, VARANGALI.1 comment so far
Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.
Blaise Pascal
For many, religion is by definition the purveyor of injustice: by legislating morality, it declares abhorrent certain behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. Given fervor and authority, such behaviors are often repressed society-wide, introducing the possibility of state-sponsored atrocity. Hence the Crusades, the Armenian Genocide, the Spanish Inquisition, etc. I was reminded of this last week, peering at the slave dungeons of Elmina and Cape Coast in Ghana, and the chapels built right above.
The Africa Diaries: Is Your Wife a Man or a Woman? 23 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in Humor, VARANGALI.add a comment
The Brits mock the Americans. The Americans laugh at the French. The French have their Polish jokes. And the list goes on, but it ends at the Ghanaians. The Ghanaians don’t have any jokes.
Ghanaians smile like it’s the national pastime. I’ve never been around so smiley a people – they must go to sleep smiling and wake up grinning. And they laugh, at my clumsy attempts to hack open a coconut with a machete, or just for the heck of it. But they don’t have any jokes. None.
The Africa Diaries: Sidi Santa 4 January 2007
Posted by VARANGALI in Culture, Humor, VARANGALI.add a comment
Window shopping for electronics in Fes (you’d be surprised how expensive irons can be in Morocco), I came across this gem: the Muslim Santa Claus.
The Africa Diaries: A Muslim Cathedral 26 December 2006
Posted by VARANGALI in Misc, VARANGALI.1 comment so far
The Great Hassan II Mosque sits on the edge of the sea, an imposing structure in a city otherwise bereft of tourist traps. It is the grandest mosque I have seen outside of Mecca and Medina. It has the tallest minaret this side of the Moon. It is called “Grande Mosquée.” It’s gotta be grand.
