The Grey Shadow

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has visited and redeemed his people
and has raised up a horn of salvation for us
in the house of his servant David,
…
because of the tender mercy of our God,
whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:68-79, ESV)

Among the Christmas texts, the Song of Zechariah is a gem that is rarely explored for all its worth and yet, there are incredible riches in it. I especially like the emphasis on redemption, deliverance from darkness, and God’s mercy. The image of the sunrise (with obvious echoes of Malachi 4:2) is especially fit for our Christmas. We need the light of the Sun of Righteousness!

As you might already guess, we live a Christmastime that is very different from the usual practices of the Northern Hemisphere. Here Christmas happens at the beginning of summer, among scorching hot days full of sun, light, and lush garden colors. That was another reason for choosing this text. It almost looks like it was written for our Christmas.

We spent a nice Christmas Eve with my in-laws, and we went to my parents for the Christmas Day noon dinner. On New Year, the arrangement was reversed. All in all, the Lord blessed us with a happy, quiet time of reflection among our loved ones, and we are thankful. Thankful for the salvation brought by the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, thankful for countless blessings, and your fellowship among them.

Dear reader, may you have a blessed Christmas time, and a truly happy New Year.

(Photo: Dusk at River Paraguay. Photo by kind permission of Paraguayan photographer Alfredo Zucotti)

You know that “challenge” in marketing doublespeak is synonym for trouble or difficulty; but here I retain the original, unpolluted meaning.

My wife and me have been talking, and there are just too many things we need to get done in our house and car; and besides, she really, really needs to take a good break from her exhausting job. Therefore, some expenditures would be in order, save for a little technicality: We are severely strained financially. And even more so, I had to take a 40% cut on my paycheck.

We have been doing the math, and it seems like we can afford those expenses. However, the undertaking will tax our stewardship and administration abilities to the maximum.

Therefore, I will need your prayers for wisdom and provision from the Lord.

I would like to wish all my American readers (and everyone) a happy Thanksgiving. There are few activities on this world that are more overdue than giving thanks to our Lord, the Maker of All Things and the Source of Blessings. Praise Him, and praise the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself so that we could have Life!

Hope you have a nice extended weekend with your loved ones.

(… and please, pass the turkey with some stuffing down here, ok? 😀 )

My home is graced with two big and beautiful mango trees. Right now they are loaded with mango fruits… and believe me, I never knew a tree could produce that much fruit in so little time! The floor on my front and back yards are littered with hundreds of mango fruits. They are delicious, although they are a little high on those pesky fibers usually found in wild mangoes. As with any mango fruit, those fruits are high in vitamins, fat, sugars, and other nutrients.

Sadly, the problem is that no matter how fast you eat them, an enormous number of them are just lying on the floor, decaying. And this is not just an aesthetic problem; it really breaks my heart to see such valuable food being consigned to decay. There are so much hungry people in the world, and here is great food for them, but I cannot do anything!

Well, this is just an example of the land of plenty that is Paraguay… where food just grows on trees all year round, and is available almost everywhere. We have been truly blessed by the Lord.

Of course the rumor I mentioned on this blog was just a bunch of hot air. Nothing. Serves me right for airing it.

I was extremely busy during these days, overseeing the smooth transition of both my home and office systems to Slackware 11. As I reported before, there were some issues and certain things went haywire while transitioning sombragris, my home system. After learning some things that way, and armed with that knowledge, I set myself up for upgrading goyeneche, my office system.

The upgrade went well. I took special care on applying some extra steps to avoid trouble, and everything was smooth and great. At the end, I finished not only with a Slack 11 upgrade; I also upgraded KDE to 3.5.5, and OpenOffice.org to 2.0.4. The system is running surprisingly smooth, considering that is just a 466 MHz Celeron with a meager 128 Mb RAM.

On an entirely different matter, please pray for me. I may become “collateral damage” of a very serious situation. I’ll try to explain more later.

Sorry to make two politically-oriented posts in a row, but I just had to report this.

Close sources say that certain bearded Latin American dictator of a certain big island has just passed away sometime along this week. If that’s true, remember: you’ve heard it here first… 🙂

I usually refrain from talking about politics, but there are exceptions, and I think this is one of them. Some days ago, our Congress voted to revoke the immunity granted to U.S. troops performing humanitarian and technical assistance duties in Paraguay. Due to this circumstance, Paraguayan Army General (Ret.) Juan Antonio Pozzo Moreno (last names italicized) wrote an opinion piece in the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color. I think this article is worth sharing, so I took the liberty to translate it in full for your benefit. My translation was quick and dirty; so please forgive any grammar or spelling mistakes.

In the most crucial moments of our history, the United States of America have shown with concrete actions their uncompromising support to the Paraguayan cause.

After the end of the Great War (1865–1870) Argentina, still not satisfied, kept claiming the better part of our Occidental Region (or Paraguayan Chaco) even despite all the territories she already took by force. Thanks to the timely intervention of the American president Rutherford B. Hayes, such a destitution never happened, and the Occidental Region is still part of our national territory.

While the Chaco War (1932-1935) raged on, Mr. Huey Pierce Long, an U.S. Senator from Louisiana, accused the Standard Oil of promoting the war by using Bolivia as a proxy against Paraguay. This astounding claim made against the very interests of the private sector of Mr. Long’s own country, gave great support to the legitimacy of the Paraguayan cause. And in 1938, after the war finished, when General José Félix Estigarribia served as Paraguayan ambassador to the U.S Government he was extended every courtesy, simpathy and support from the U.S. President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Anna Eleanor, so that General Estigarriba could perform his duties on behalf of the Paraguayan people in the best of conditions.

In june 1965, a Brazilian military expeditionary force set up shop on a twenty kilometers strip of the Guaira Falls area, part of a still untraced border. They said to members of the Border Tracing Commission from Paraguay that they had instructions of stationing at Port Renato. From the Brazilian viewpoint, the area wasn’t a zone under litigation and was totally inside Brazilian territory, to the point that the invaders retired road signs of Port Ypora and Port Phillip, on the Paraguayan side. No protest was accepted, claiming that the area was solemnly and definitely traced since 1874. Suddenly, the Guaira Falls became wholly inside the Brazilian territory manu militari; and therefore, all the platitudes about joint usage of the hydroelectric potential of the falls, as it was agreed by Presidents Goulart and Stroessner in Tres Marias, Matto Grosso State, Brazil, on January 19, 1964, became null and void.

We were thoroughly impotent and disappointed until 1966, where the Paraguayan government was able to get the then U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk to visit Asunción, if only for a few hours. During that brief but significant visit, an interview with the President took place. He was able to get Rusk interested on the issue, and extracted from him the promise to use his influence on the Brazilian government so that Brazilians would agree to sit on a negotiation table. It is highly likely that Rusk complied with that promise. (Enzo Debernardi, Apuntes para la Historia Política de Itaipú, pag. 63). Here lies the beginning of the Bi-National Itaipu Dam.

These examples show clearly that it is not enough for Paraguay to have legitimate property rights on its ancestral territory; it is also necessary the good friendship with the most powerful, most free, and most democratic country on earth so far.

when our larger neighbors confiscate our energy, put barriers to our foreign trade, and block our borders, they are unilaterally assuming a sort of de facto immunity whose effects can be seen right before our eyes: we are becoming more and more indigent, and les and less autonomous due to these causes. But, if our sovereign choice is to do so, we could grant immunity to soldiers from the United States for humanitarian and training tasks. And we do not deem appropriate the choice of other countries in the region of deny such immunity to any foreign military delegation.

Our national interest is above other interests, and this is part of the State policy, be it written or not, be it on the interests of the current government of not. The State policy will prevail over any other motive of the moment. The unfortunate choice taken with the nation who stood with us in the most difficult moments of our history is cause of grave concern; and the damage done is not so much to them, as is to Paraguay.

… here at the Southern Hemisphere, that is. We have barely begun October and we already are ‘enjoying’ a scorcher! But the most important thing to remember right now is that we just entered the last quarter of 2006. Hey, were have all those months gone? 😉

The weekend was nice, even though I am still buried with the typesetting thingy. I just went through half of the corrected galley proofs. I still need to go through the other half, and even throw a cover mockup concept or two for good measure. Please pray that I finish all these jobs to my customer’s satisfaction.

I remember reading a writing of C.S. Lewis where he engaged in great insights on the nature of Heaven. His prose was at his best as he presented his view of profound Biblical truths on the nature of the blessed state. But then, he added with uncompromising realism: “Meanwhile, the cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.” How true.

The force of that statements hits me particularly hard in days like today. I feel extremely sleepy to the point of exhaustion. I finished the book I was typesetting; and then, on Friday, I got an urgent translation to do. I was able to finish that one on Sunday evening. And, yesterday, my client returned the proofs of the typeset book, full of anotations and emendations. And this is just a small part of what I am doing.

I am swamped in work, with no end of it in sight. Please pray for a good rest during this week and the upcoming weekend.

Phone lines… finally!Well, it looks like we will have land phone lines installed in my new home! This means that I might be able to be online again, if only rudimentarily. I plan to put some kind of always-on connection later (at 64Kbps, they can’t be called ‘broadband’) so I can forsake the constant watching at the clock. We’ll see…

Alternative fuels in Paraguay I mention this especially given Tim‘s interest on the matter. The state petroleum company launched a new “econo” gas composed of 40% hexane gasoline, 35% high-octane gasoline, and 25% anhidrous ethanol. In addition to this, the experimental bio-diesel plant is going along nicely. In other news, it was announced that Brazilian cars will be from now on dual-fuel, i.e., they could be moved at either regular gasoline or 100% ethanol. All of this is great news for the environment, and also for our pockets, since it helps reducing our dependency on fossil fuels.
Update on 22/09: I forgot to mention price, which is roughly 73 cents per liter, or US $2.77 per gallon.

By the grace of God, today I am turning 36. I am grateful for the Lord’s blessings and mercies in my life.

This weekend was uneventful. I could finally manage to turn that typesetting book project in. I felt tired, and moreover, I had to do a lot of errands on Saturday for my mother-in-law. However, Sunday was nice, and my wife and I had a much needed day of rest.

I plan to resume my “On Porn” series this next weekend. Stay put!

Oh, and by the way, Happy Birthday Ed!

I am not posting anything on these days because I must finish typesetting a book on Friday, and practically every minute counts. Meanwhile, I’m still working on more posts on the “On Porn” series.

By the way, I think I understand C.S. Lewis now. In the prologue to Screwtape Letters, he wrote about how unpleasant writing the letter was for him. I can relate now; writing on porn is not exactly a leisure activity. However, I still have something to say and I strongly feel that I must say that, so I plan to finish my writings on the subject.

Yesterday we had a nice evening dinner at my family home on occasion of Dad’s 70th birthday. We had the visit of Aunts Lucy and Betty, from Argentina, and we shared a great time.

Right now, Dad’s life is not easy. He suffers from diabetes and chronic terminal kidney failure, and has to submit himself to dialysis three times a week. But yesterday I saw him in good moods, and I was happy for him.

This was also a time to reflect on our relationship, which could be described as rocky at best. He was a very stern father, with a rock-hard outlook on life. He was very demanding, and very hard to please. By all honest accounts, one could say that I suffered a lot, and I did.

However, he also told me and showed me in no uncertain terms that he loved me. Even though he was a workaholic, he managed to be with us and I could enjoy his presence every day. He cared about our family, and gave us the very best in everything: education, healthcare, access to sports facilities, etc. Financially he was very disciplined; he showed us the value of being thrifty without resorting to avarice.

Dad is also an intellectual and a scientist. A long-standing, Chair of General Chemistry at the School of Chemistry of the National University of Asunción, he also taught Chemical Analysis; but his interests ranged from botany through micro-biology through agricultural science through ecology, and everything in between. He is fluent in Guarani and Spanish, and he can also speak French and Portuguese well.

He believes in hands-on science: his best introduction to nature was to unleash me and my bicycle on the ~750 acre University campus, which at the time was vastly underdeveloped, with whole sections untouched except for small trails, to explore it at my leisure. Dad also ensured that we were thoroughly schooled in sports and the musical arts. He instilled in me —as Mom did, too— the love of reading; and he was especially keen on the value of having reference sources at hand. “It’s better to have two copies of a valuable book: one at home and other at work. The best scientist is the one who has the right information available right on the spot. The time savings are more than worth the cost of having two copies of a book,” he used to say.

For me, taking all these things for granted was too easy. I am also shy, and became even more withdrawn with Dad because he was so stern and demanding with me. But once I got married, my wife told me that I should change that; and with her help, one day I thanked Dad for all that he is and for all that he has done for me. He was stunned, and said nothing. It was extremely difficult for me, for I am very shy and also because we Paraguayan men are not very fond of showing affection to other men. But it was long overdue.

Dad’s life is not easy now; besides his falling health, he has issues of his own that he must face. But on his seventieth birthday, I thank God for him. In a land where most kids are born out of wedlock from an unknown father, I had not only one, but a GREAT one as well. God surely has blessed me with him.

I am glad to announce that we finished our moving, and that we are finally installed in our house. We still have tons and tons of unopened boxes, and we have lots of work ahead; but we have moved, at long last.

Our former house is right now in repairs, in preparation of its return to the landlord. We expect to turn the keys tomorrow. Please pray for a smooth transitional process.

You can blame Tim for tagging me into this meme 😉 But I find it funny, so here it goes:

1. Grab the nearest book.

It’s El Aleph by Jorge Luis Borges. It’s on my desk, roughly at 20 cm of my right hand. The edition is from Alianza Editorial, 1998, hardcover. Since the book is in Spanish, I will translate everything into English.

2. Open the book to page 123 and find the fifth sentence.

“I had wandered in circles; now I was one block away from the grocery shop where I was given the Zahir.”

3. Post the text of the next three sentences on your blog along with these instructions.

I turned the corner; the dark walls of the corner told me from the distance that the shop was already closed. I took a cab on Belgrano Street. Sleepless, posessed, almost happy, I thought that nothing is less material than money, since any coin (say, a quarter) is, in all fairness, a set of possible futures. Money is abstract, I repeated to myself; money is future time. It could be an evening at the suburbs, it could be the music of Brahms, it could be maps, it could be chess, it could be coffee, it could be Epictet’s words, teaching the forsaking of gold; it’s a more versatile Proteus than the one from the island of Pharos.

4. Don’t you dare dig for that ‘cool’ or ‘intellectual’ book in your closet! I know you were thinking about it! Just pick up whatever is closest.

In fact, this book is the one that was closest.

5. Tag three people.

I would like to tag all my readers who wish to take part on this. Feel free to join me ;).