Daniel Cavero R.I.P.

My very good friend Daniel Cavero passed away yesterday. He was a good man and he loved God and his neighbour immensely. The sun has set, Daniel .... you can go to sleep now. We will meet again when we awake.

Good show

Singapore's Tao Li was among the finalists of the 100m butterfly in the Olympics. Now that's some acheivement! Though she didn't win the bronze that she was aiming, the fact that she was competing with the world's best swimmers is itself a success. Good show!

Meanwhile I thought I saw the Singapore flag among the windsurfers in today's competition. Can't really tell because the TV is pretty grainy.

Today's gospel tells us how Jesus got Peter to catch a fish and find a shekel in its mouth to pay for both his and Peter's Temple tax. Note that the pharisees only asked for Jesus' tax but Jesus was so generous, he even offered to pay for Peter - through the fish! Something for us to think about during this Olympics - its not all about winning but the exercise of a magnanimous spirit.

Olympic pride

What a kick-off for the Olympics! Believe me, everyone here was very impressed by the opening ceremony. Now people in the streets ask me how are the games going, or what am I doing here instead of Beijing watching the games!

The spirit of the games make me thiink of what St Paul said - "I have fought the good fight, I have run the good race, .... to win a crown not of fading laurels but a crown of eternal life".

Thanks

Thanks to Yung Lai Fong and Yeung Sin Ming Alice for their kind donation.

Kammuri lesson

We're in a whirl .... Jerusalem is whirling in roadworks and traffic jams. Dust, noise and heat. Cars and pedestrians fighting each other for the tiny piece of road left for walking/driving while the rest is cordonned off for lightrail works. Shop keepers loosing business. Fear of another bulldozer attack. Tourists posing for photos and blocking everything else.

But the whirl is not just physical - it's also emotional, social, political. The news of how a family actually forgot and left their 4 yr old behind in the Tel Aviv airport is just one example of how people are just so caught up in this whirl that all sense or commonsense is lost. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7540112.stm Reminds you of Luke's Gospel? The growing sense of unhappiness can be felt throughout. See the expression of dissatisfaction in this article http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331212450&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

But cheer up - Israelis have gone through worse times. They'll ride this one off as well.

Meanwhile the whirlwind of confusion, fear and suspicion is blowing everywhere else. Last night there was another wedding party (this time our neighbours on our right). Remembering the last party was an occassion for the killing of 2 soldiers near us, I decided to play it safe by locking all the doors on my side of the monastery, locking my windows and staying inside my room.

Someone fell from Mt. Calvary yesterday while we were leading the procession at the Holy Sepulchre. We couldn't see anything but the chaos that ensued was incredible. Ambulance finally came. I heard that the person broke a knee or hip or something.

So we're in a whirl here in Israel - not unlike Kammuri that hit HK. I read about problem of glass-buildings that suffered during Kammuri's strike. Likewise here in Israel we should be thinking seriously if we want to live in glass houses, expect trouble when a typhoon strikes.

crocs

Stunned! The reports of crocodile sightings in Singapore is great. I've always been fascinated by the local saltwater crocs. See http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/22291/story.htm and http://www.thestandard.com.hk/breaking_news_detail.asp?id=2013&icid=4&d_str=20080806

Thing is it would be greater if they would leave the crocs alone. They're obviously escaped or released specimens. Saltwater crocodiles are practically extinct in Singapore now (except for the one in Sungei Buloh). Remember back 30 yrs when the Jurong Chinese Gardens first opened and there were warnings along the bank about crocodiles? Well they're all gone now .... a terrible tragedy for local wildlife. Singapore should be proud of its unique fauna and start a conservation programme for such rare reptiles and, turning it positively, start eco-tourism (like Sungei Buloh), to make the programme self-running. BTW the websites on the Sungei Buloh specimen is always portraying it as a man-eater and dangerous. Very unlikely for a 5 foot juvenile - and most probably not even an indigenous saltwater specimen: it's more likely a freshwater specimen that escaped and grew in the estuary. Just simply leave it alone - it's probably the last of its kind (if its a true salty) so let it enjoy it's last moment on the planet.

Other than Australia, I don't think there's any other SEA country interested in its indigenous crocodiles. Thailand is trying to reintroduce captivity bred crocs back into its rivers, but they're not the original species. Those've been extinct quite some time now. And .... in Israel the last native croc killed was 60 years back in the Crocodilion river near Caesarea Maritima. Now in Israel you'll only find the biblical croc in the pages of the Bible.

You know, once they're gone, they're gone! It'll be too late for regrets .... but as if anyone cares!

* Just found a website saying in 2005 they actually caught a croc from Sungei Kranji and released it in Sungei Buloh to be with the one already resident there. Hmmm I still have my suspicions if these are real salties. Check out http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php?entry=/nature/20051214-kranji_crocodile.txt

animal farm

The recent war with Lebanon saw many casualties in northern Israel. In this J.P. article, we see its not just people who suffered but also the animals. Check out http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331190641&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull