Christian categories

A footnote from "Exclusion and Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation", Miroslav Volf.

The metaphor of the door is helpful insofar as it implies a necessary demarcation, but it is also misleading insofar it suggests a sharp and static boundary. In analyzing the category "Christian", missiologist Paul Hiebert suggests that we make use of the mathematical categories of "bounded", "fuzzy" and "centered sets". Bounded sets function on the principle "either/or": an apple is either an apple or it is not; it cannot be partly apple and partly a pear. Fuzzy sets, on the other hand, have no sharp boundaries; things are fluid with no stable point of reference and with various degrees of inclusion - as when a mountain merges into the plains. A centered set is defined by a center and the relationship of things to that center, by a movement toward it or away from it. The category of "Christian", Hiebert suggests, should be understood as a centered set. A demarcation line exists, but the focus is not on "maintaining the boundary" but "on reaffirming the center"
Bibliography:
Hiebert, Paul G. "The Category 'Christian' in the Mission Task." International Review of Mission 72 (July 1983): 421-27.

Natal 2007

Fotos do Natal de 2007

Neve

Neve...


Veja as
fotos aqui

Púlpito ou Picadeiro?

De
http://thiagomendanha.blogspot.com/

E ele designou alguns para apóstolos, outros para profetas, outros para evangelistas, e outros para pastores e mestres, com o fim de preparar os santos para a obra do ministério, para que o corpo de Cristo seja edificado... Efésios 4:11,12 – NVI (Nova Versão Internacional)

E ele contratou alguns para superastros-ídolos, outros para cantores-popstars, outros para marketeiros-paparazzi, e outros para showman e ilusionistas, com o fim de entreter os pagantes para o show business, para que o Mercado de Cristo seja fomentado... Efésios 4:11,12 – NVA (Nova Versão Apostólica)

Bezerra da Silva - Quando O Morcego Doar Sangue

Para tirar meu Brasil dessa baderna
Para tirar meu Brasil dessa baderna

Só quando o morcego doar sangue
E o saci cruzar as pernas
Só quando o morcego doar sangue
E o saci cruzar as pernas
Toda nossa esperança é somente lembrança do passado
A alta cúpula vive contagiada pelo micróbio da corrupção
O povo nunca tem razão, estando bom ou ruim o clima
Somente quem está por cima é a tal dívida externa

E o malandro que faz aquele empréstimo
E leva os vinte por cento dela para tirar!

Já não há alegria de noite e de dia a tristeza não pára
A vida custando os olhos da cara
E não temos dinheiro para comprar
Quem governa o país é muito feliz, não se preocupa
Tem tudo de graça, não esquenta a cuca
E o custo de vida só sabe aumentar

Antigamente governavam decente, sem sacrilégio
Hoje são indecentes, cheios de privilégio
É só caô caô pra cima do povo
Promessa de um Brasil novo
E uma política moderna
Mas só quando o morcego doar sangue

Lounge Night - Ottawa Baptist Association - Youth

Ontem teve aqui o Lounge Night, promovido pelos Jovens da Associação de Igrejas Batistas de Ottawa. Foi muito bom. A líder de jovens da igreja organizou. Alugamos um lounge (tipo um bar). Um DJ da rádio cristã veio pôr músicas e ser o MC. Tivemos um mini-concurso de bandas locais. A banda vencedora ganhou uma música a ser produzida em estúdio. E outros músicos se apresentaram.
O bar fica no setor de badalação da cidade, do lado do centro (no Market).
Gostei muito do ambiente. Era pequeno, tinha dois andares. Tinha luz fraca, outras luzes coloridas e um globo espelhado no teto. A banda ganhadora era de uma escola (a maioria dos integrantes eram não-crentes. Conversei com alguns pais dos integrantes.). Da nossa igreja (nossa igreja é bem pequena, tem uns 30 membros) foram vários jovens. Dois participaram do concurso. O Nilton matou a pau com o seu rap. Ele tem gravado em Montreal. Ele me disse que a escola dele (pública) tem um estúdio. Ele pode usar o quanto quiser de graça (coisas de Canadá...). Depois de gravar na escola ele leva as gravações pra Montreal pra ficar mais
profissional. O pessoal da rádio gostou tanto que vai pôr uns raps dele no ar.
O pessoal dançou muito ao som de hip-hop e dance. Dá pra ver que não somos Batistas americanos... Quem sabe da próxima vez não abrimos o bar com umas caninhas?
Foi um lugar neutro onde crentes e não-crentes podem se encontrar, se
divertir e interagir. Foram muitos jovens que eu conheço (amigo do amigo) que não poriam o pé numa igreja. Fica a idéia.

On RFID software

There are customers and integrators that underestimate or do not appreciate the complexities of the problems involved in delivering an RFID solution. Software for RFID is something that is currently not well documented. The knowledge is not readily accessible to developers. At this post, let us consider some aspects of software for RFID.
1 - The customer often needs enterprise software for RFID. That means a solution that focuses on the business problems (and practical problems!). More often than not RFID will be just one piece of the solution. One important piece, and one piece that requires integration. But one piece among others likely. For instance, integration between the new system and ERPs or WMSs may be required. A good integrator will approach the problem aiming at a solution.
2- This is a corollary of the point above: RFID is not just about hardware. Many people spend lots of time thinking about the physics of RFID and forget (deliberately at times) about software. Good read rates is only part of the problem. (A non-problem really for software!) Middleware is a commodity now, so think of RFID hardware as any other hardware (printers, memory, hard disks, keyboard), and begin to work on how your software will address the business problems. Forget about read rates. Leave that with the hardware providers.
3- Think about the network. More specifically, the 'cloud' and the 'edge'. More generally, RFID requires software to be distributed because tagged objects are moving! Since objects go from A to B, your software needs to be in A and B. Now thinking about common roles and scenarios where RFID is deployed into, there's the 'cloud' and there's the 'edge' more often than not. RFID software in the 'cloud' is generally for managers and IT, whereas at the 'edge' is for 'warehouse workers'. This has many implications. The first direct implication is that the software gets to be partitioned: part lives at the cloud and part at the edge. While there's room for debate over what feature should live where, some restrictions apply. There's a network penalty for the edges to access the cloud. Ideally actions that require fast response or local data (data that applies to this instance of the edge) should be accessible from the edge. For instance, gadgets at the warehouse should be controlled by software at the edge and not the cloud. Reports (which require often consolidated data from all edges) are recommended to live in the cloud. Most middleware provide control for readers in a central location, so that's not a problem. Depending on the size of the deployment, you will want to think about the replication of two elements: data and rules. Depending on the location of the ERP and WMS systems you'll have data integration in the cloud. This data, however, is likely to be used at the edge. In the second case, depending on the size of deployment again, you'll want to update business rules (or new versions of software) only at the cloud and have them to migrate to the appropriate instance of the edge.
4- Time is important in RFID implementations. To begin with there are three agents that produce 'events' (there's a word that is abused): readers, software and humans. Tag reads happen and software has no control over when they happen (that is, they happen asynchronously. Well, there are synchronous tag reads. For example, tag reads triggered by handhelds are synchronous). Processes generally have two variants: those with beginning and end, and those which are 'continuous'. You may have a human beginning and ending a process, and you may have to coordinate or fit in tag reads within the (logical) process. Most software implementations will just ignore this and code everything inside the business components. And most middleware won't model the problem. (By the way, this has nothing to do with EPC-IS... initially). The best thing you can do is to think about timing issues and think about how to model processes generically. Besides the problem of coordinating time between tag reads and processes, there's always the UI. Yes, you'll have to take into account when tag reads occur and when and how to show them in the UI. With all this, try to design the software properly... (boa sorte, meu fio.)
5- Think about location and processes. Have your terms well-defined. When thinking about processes, the two variants above may convey different meaning. For instance, a tag read in the ' continuous' case may mean that the tag underwent the process (and is 'out' of the process). A tag read in a process with beginning and end may be held by the process until it's explicitly out of the process when it ends. This is specially true when there is a group of tag reads that 'enter' a process and depend on humans to exit the process. That is, it is as if tag reads are temporarily held at the process. From a business point of view the tag reads only occurred after the tags exited the process. Define a precise vocabulary with the business peers, setting what 'location' and 'process' mean.
6- Association is important. More often than not, RFID tags are attached to something. The business is usually interested in this something and not the tag itself! So think about tag associations. (One sample question to the customer: 'Are objects always associated to the same tag forever?')
7 - Think about when to use handhelds and when to use fixed readers. The primary business decision relates to labour and hardware costs. However, think about the differences for software. Mobile software is a subject that is vastly documented and explored, so there's no need for me to write too much about it. Software on handhelds must take into account network constraints (on-off connectivity, operating disconnected if needed, network latency, control of software version, manageability of software updates, etc), synchronization challenges (collecting or changing data offline), limited displays and resolutions (which requires a whole rethinking of the UI and usability), etc. Also, bear in mind that most middleware to-date are for non-mobile platforms (stay tunned, however...). You may be required to develop with proprietary APIs for handhelds. If you'll use a browser in the handhelds, be mindful of differences in JavaScript support among browser versions and so on.
8 - Think about tag encoding. Yes, tag encoding is the kind of thing that everybody knows that exists, is well documented and so on. When it's time to develop you'll find all sorts of practical problems on how to represent tag numbers. Is it binary, decimal, hexadecimal, hexadecimal string, ASCII of the binary, LSB or MSB and so on! Then add the EPC encodings and variants and there you go: if you don't plan it well, when tag numbers flow from one place to the other there's room for problems. It may be from database to business components, or from UI to business component, or from exchange between different internal modules, or with external software. Think about your encodings in detail, and of any transformation the encodings may undergo.
9 - Don't write to the tag what you can write in the database. A few people look for writable tags and rank tags according to the space available in user memory. Avoid writting structured information to tags. I would argue: avoid writting to tags if at all possible. Begin by thinking about the business problem you are trying to solve. Then think well about the software design. Seek advice from your friends on the software design. Criticize it and so on. Only after check if you need to write to the tag. The argument for not writting structured data to the tag is scalability. What if the structure changes and you have thousands of tags deployed? Will you recall and reencode all of them? Will you do so at once or live with mixed data structures? It would become a mess. If all the business requirements need is identification of goods/objects /entities don't complicate the software. Go with just reading the tag identification.
10 - EPC-IS é um bicho de 7 cabeças complexo e distante. É como Exú Caveira: todos dizem que existe mas eu nunca vi. Um dia eu vou aprender o aperto de mão secreto e vou entender pra que server EPC-IS. De acordo com os búzios, EPC-IS é um negócio complicado e misterioso que se aplica a troca de dados entre múltiplas empresas. Só os iniciados é que entendem e podem aplicá-lo. Mas pra que sofrer desnecessariamente? Como um bom brasileiro, pense no problema que seu negócio tem e vejas as ferramentas e alternativas disponíveis. Dê um jeitinho brasileiro.

That's all for today, folks.

Happy RFID deployment!

Cultivate Gathering, Hamilton, ON

The Cultivate Gathering happened last Saturday in Hamilton, Ontario. As they put it "Cultivate Gathering is a learning party." There we talked about many topics related to church in Canada, including creativity, theology and (practical) ecclesiology. As they put it, "Cultivate Gathering is for anyone who is interested in church planting or creating mission shaped churches".
I met Joe, who is workin on the "One size fits all?" documentary about new forms of churches in Canada. Check it out: http://www.thinkerlabs.ca/documentary/ . I liked his creativity and artistic expression. The other two women speakers were very good too.
The 'theology' segment was good. The best speaker was David Fitch, author of "The Great Giveaway: Reclaiming the Mission of the Church from Big Business, Parachurch Organizations, Psychotherapy, Consumer Capitalism, and Other Modern Maladies". Tim Bailey from Wortley church (London, ON) also spoke (I didn't understand anything he said. Interestingly enough, Wortley's podcasts seem to be somewhat more interesting to me).
The discussions in the pods on 'us versus them' was quite interesting. I was happy to hear David Fitch's comments. And I was also happy to hear Pernell Goodyear from the FRWY in this discussion. I was encouraged by his example, humility and disposition to work.
The last segment had a 'multicultural' spin. Lots of mumbo jumbo... but good intentions.

Negative download transfer rates

Wow! My transfer rate when downloading the .NET Framework 3.5 beta 2 reached -940314704 KB/sec! Was the download was so slow that it turned into an upload?



Wait a minute, all of a sudden my download got superfast. More precisely, 1044392007 KB/sec. It's likely my download transformed into some sort of upload, not only because the previous transfer rate was negative, but also because the blue progress bar proceeded backwards. That is, after a while I had less content downloaded... Go figure.

Zune software: @!@#!@%#

Where are my playlists???!!! Gone! They are gone. Zune software just deleted all my playlists. I had everything organized and it is gone with the latest upgrade. No wonder people are afraid of computers. Wait a minute! They are back! Microsoft, don't scare me like that! Or are they back? I was scared for a minute. The playlists are back! Hurray! But wait a minute again! They are empty! My playlists are empty! No wonder people don't understand the computers. How can they trust them if the software they get behaves like that?

Wiki emer-gente

Criei um site wiki com recursos sobre a conversa emergente. Depois confira:

http://emergente.pbwiki.com/

Aceito sugestões e comentários.

Um abraço

Film: Slavery: A Global Investigation

TrueVision Productions Oct. 2000 for Channel 4 (winner of the 2001 Peabody Award for Documentary)


Directors:Kate Blewett and Brian Woods

Bitter Chocolate

Bitter Chocolate: Investigating the Dark Side of the World's Most Seductive Sweet
by Carol Off

This book is very good. The stories are very interesting. The dark side of chocolate is unfortunately unjust and very sad.

----

Este livro é muito bom. As histórias são muito interessantes. O lado obscuro do chocolate é lamentavelmente injusto e muito triste.

• Publisher: Vintage Canada (Sep 25 2007) - prior to that Random House Canada (Oct 10 2006)
  
• ISBN-10: 0679313206
• ISBN-13: 978-0679313205

chat sobre igreja emer-gente

Pecadores e santos,
A idéia do chat é conversar ao vivo sobre a igreja emergente no contexto brasileiro.
Para participar adicione o usuário u9x3n_15so (arroba) hotmail.com ao seu MSN (ou Windows Live Messenger).

Sexta-feira, 26 de Outubro, 2007
23:00, horário de Brasília.

Aquele abraço,
Gustavo

Fotos

Aí estão algumas fotos ('show' feito com Flickr, Yahoo Pipes e SplashCast)

Brian McLaren's Symposium in Ottawa, Canada (part 2 of 2)

In the second day, Brian McLaren went on to make more direct comments about what church and Kingdom have to do with the historical changes he mentioned the day before. He went on to give examples as to how Christians may 'cross boundaries' in acceptance and even embrace of other practices. He showed 4 quadrants with Evangelical / Liturgical / Social / Charismatic labels, hinting that one person may embrace practices from all quadrants. Brian suggested that the church needs to conceive their gatherings as a means for stimulating 'exercises' among believers so as to enable them to do God's will in today's world. These 'exercises' are 'practices' and rituals that may be performed during the gatherings and throughout the daily activities of the person. He mentioned 1. Inconvenience (from what I understood, he meant 'pushing people to the limit, beyond their comfort zones), 2. Association (If I remember it he meant helping people create associations with other people. I can't quite remember, but I don't think he meant here to use associations as icons that link ideas in the worship.) 3. Speed (I can't remember what he meant by that), 4. Hospitality, 5. Public prayer, and 6. Attentiveness.
I had the opportunity of asking a few more questions the second day. The first question began quoting Jesus when he said "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36) to Pilate. The question was pretty much "Is it the message of the gospel delivered in its entirety if I go on doing 'only' good social acts? " Brian went on to explain how Jesus meant that his kingdom did not agree with the worldviews and values of the Romans. When trying to address more directly the question, Brian (quickly) said that he makes no distinction between the 'spiritual' component of the message and its 'social' component.
The second question related to "us versus them". That is, the apparent distinction in the Bible between believers and non-believers. I and my friend could not understand Brian's answer. He kind of hinted that ecumenism is beautiful, but that was it.
I didn't have to ask question 4. It was apparent by his comments that Brian MacLaren sees that a place to worship on a regular basis is important (perhaps not 'important' but necessary?)
Brian's view on eccumenism goes more or less like this: if he can bring anyone closer to Jesus that's a good thing. I agree with that. I know I may be labeled as a dualist, but my problem is that I still see Jesus as 'the only way'. And no matter how metaphorically or phylosophically the person may interpret 'Jesus' and 'only way', there's still some notion of exclusiveness and distinction. Dialog is good, respect for the other is good, learning from the other is good, networking with the other is good, not imposing my ideas on the other is good, helping and loving the other is good. But you see, it's still the other. I appreciate where Brian is coming from: he's in a country full of bad Fundamentalists. We are in an age that many people say bad things about other people's theology. The other side of the coin is that people are even reluctant at times to identify differences. I think his view on ecumenism still compromises the gospel a great deal. I may change my position in the future... But no problemo, many of his ideas are great.
Brian MacLaren at one point (after commenting about the modern ideas) drew a diagram of the modern worldview of the individual in relation to the church and 'the universe'. It was a diagram where the self was the centre. He then presented an alternative, where the 'universe' is just there, and 'things flow' from the individual to church/world/universe. He went on to comment on how people really look at their needs first very often. One example is people that say 'I had to leave church (fill the blanks here), because I wasn't being fed there". It's so true, and a really sad reality.
Gustavo's first insight: it is ok to be a Baptist and morph that way. Even though I don't quite agree on his view on ecumenism, I appreciate Brian's respect for 'the other'. Brian even complimented good things in the seeker movement twice (with disclaimers, of course). So, inheriting the Scriptural zeal can be a very good thing, but Gustavo thinks Baptists still have a long way to go.
Gustavo's second insight: associate and network with fellow Baptists (BCOQ from Toronto more specifically). Support and identify new local leadership that will carry forward new ideas and initiatives.
Kind regards ! / Aquele abraço !

Gustavo Frederico

Brian McLaren's Symposium in Ottawa, Canada (part 1 of 2)

It was a very good symposium by Brian McLaren here in Ottawa.

It was a symposium organized by the Anglicans. Brian McLaren was the main speaker. It took place September 28 and 29, 2007 here in Ottawa, Canada.
I was very glad to meet some new Anglican friends. Rev. Robert Davis was very kind to allow me and my friend Sidney G. to join the symposium. The venue was just perfect: tables of ~7 people, perfect sound and so on.
The whole symposium was a service (Eucharist). It began with music, went on to prayers and Scripture reading. Brian MacLaren had two main talks Friday and two main talks Saturday.
I'll try to summarize some of the thoughts brought by Brian McLaren.
He joked he would summarize the 'History of mankind' in 8 minutes :) That is to say that he identified what he called some abrupt/discontinued changes in society. These were either because of technological changes, or social changes. His thought is that during of immediately after these abrupt changes the church and theology deserve to change as well to maintain its relevancy and relationship with the world. He mentioned the 'invention' of writing, the invention of the press and, more recently, the Internet.

He went on to characterize the time of modernity and reason (after the Industrial Revolution), mentioning the main scientific rationale and philosophical advances of the time.

He didn't quite precisely define post-modernity, but mentioned that we are living now times of great change in the world and very fast changes. The firs talk Friday was mostly an introduction. After the second talk he moved on to talk about how he interprets how the church related to this History. He classified them into some sort of 'flexibility in hierarchy' criterion, begining with Catholics, through Anglo-Catholics, to Anglicans, to Lutherans, Presbiterians, to Baptists, to Pentecostals, to 'fluid/micro' churches (I can't quite remember the terms). And, of course, from an American view, he depicted two ways: liberal and conservative. Brian went on to advocate for a 'via media' that flows in-between liberals and conservaties.

It was between breaks that I had a chance to pose him a question. The question was: imagine a church with about 40 people. With new members, new christians. They probably have in them the potential to lead change so that the church is relevant in today's context, but these people are not probably aware of this potential. How to move forward? I was hoping to draw upon Brian's experience, knowing that he travelled a lot in the past years, speaking to all sorts of organizations. His hint was that established churches (affiliated to conventions) tend to move forward by immitation, whereas new 'churches' move forward by direct innovation. I have some hints of willingness of the Canadian Baptists (CBM) to engage in relevant discussion. ( One hint was that some high-level pastor from CBM mentioned the book Emerging Churches: Creating Christian Community in Postmodern Culturesby Eddie Gibbs and Ryan K. Bolger in of the Baptist magazines. And another important hint is the partiticaption of Dr. Leonard Sweet as the keynote speaker at the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec (BCOQ) in Toronto, 2007). My takeaway was to walk closer to BCOQ and the Ottawa Baptist Association.

Friday's supper was very good. They assembled a bar (yes, a bar!) with wine, beer and other liquor, so that folks could buy it for their supper. Every table had wine! I don't know why I was impressed... I have no theological problems with it, of course. I guess I'm just not used to seing it. At the table, the two Anglican ministers were very surprised to see us, two Baptists, drinking wine. We said we were 'good' Baptists :) Mind you that they mentioned 3 times they were surprised with a drinking Baptist... One of the Reverends said to us: "I think as Anglicans we can't even be ordained if we don't drink wine!" The other interesting comment came later on from the other Reverend, who said that "I think you Baptists got it right with regards to Baptism by immersion". Anglicans still perform pedobaptisms (baptisms of children).

I'll comment the second day in another posting.


( The folks in our table. Anglicans and Baptists drinking together)

Questions to Brian McLaren

I'm writting down the questions I intend to pose to Brian McLaren ( http://www.brianmclaren.net/ ) tomorrow.

1- Jesus prayed "your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". And Jesus said to Pilate "My kingdom is not of this world." (John 18:36) Is it the message of the gospel delivered in its entirety if I go on doing "only" good social acts? If Christians are to include 'spiritual' good news when proclaiming the gospel, what are the 'spiritual good news'? Are these news relevant and do they speak to people now-a-days? Is the good news that when they die they will go to heaven?

2- This is a question related to "us versus them". In Matthew 25.33 Jesus says "He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left". Acts 5.13 says (commenting about Christians) "No one else dared join them, though they were highly regarded by the people". We have baptisms that are public statements of change in direction. And Paul speaks of "being a new creation". And so on. It seems that it is a division between believers and non-believers in many texts. What do you make of this distinction?

( In Mark 1.15 Jesus said "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" )

3- Is the great commission a mandate to proselytize? Should churches grow?
Is it a healthy objective for a small church in Canada to grow in numbers?

4- Jesus went every day to the temple courts (Matthew 26.55). I understand that today the world is very different from back then. Does it make sense to "go to church" today? In your experience, what is the importance for Christians (and others...) to have a place and time to worship together regularly now-a-days?

5- If I tell my pastor tomorrow that "Everything must change" he will be reluctant to agree and will begin to worry for his position. Suppose you were in a historical or evangelical church in Canada of 40 people, mostly seniors, without a pastor and searching for one. Suppose there is some willingness by some 'to change', even though they don't quite know what to change into. Where would you look for one pastor? In your experience and considering what you have seen, what are some of the practical options for leadership now-a-days?

The United States and the International Criminal Court

The United States and the International Criminal Court

The United States of America was one of only 7 nations (joining China, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Qatar and Israel) to vote against the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in 1998.

The Bush administration's hostility to the ICC has increased dramatically in 2002. The crux of the U.S. concern relates to the prospect that the ICC may exercise its jurisdiction to conduct politically motivated investigations and prosecutions of U.S. military and political officials and personnel. The U.S. opposition to the ICC is in stark contrast to the strong support for the Court by most of America's closest allies.

In an unprecedented diplomatic maneuver on 6 May, the Bush administration effectively withdrew the U.S. signature on the treaty. At the time, the Ambassador-at-large for War Crimes Issues Pierre-Richard Prosper stated that the administration was "not going to war" with the Court. This has proved false; the renunciation of the treaty has paved the way for a comprehensive U.S. campaign to undermine the ICC.

First, the Bush administration negotiated a Security Council resolution to provide an exemption for U.S. personnel operating in U.N. peacekeeping operations. The administration failed in May to obtain an exemption for peacekeepers in East Timor. In June the Bush administration vetoed an extension of the UN peacekeeping mission for Bosnia-Herzegovina unless the Security Council granted a complete exemption. Ultimately, the U.S. failed in its bid for an iron-clad exemption, although the Security Council approved a limited, one year exemption for U.S. personnel participating in UN peacekeeping missions or UN authorized operations. The Security Council has expressed its intention to renew this exemption on 30 June next year.

Second, the Bush administration is requesting states around the world to approve bilateral agreements requiring them not to surrender American nationals to the ICC. The goal of these agreements ("impunity agreements" or so-called "Article 98 agreements") is to exempt U.S. nationals from ICC jurisdiction. They also lead to a two-tiered rule of law for the most serious international crimes: one that applies to U.S. nationals; another that applies to the rest of the world's citizens. Human Rights Watch urges states not to sign impunity agreements with the United States.

Thirdly, the U.S Congress has assisted the Bush administration's effort to obtain bilateral impunity agreements. The Congress passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act (ASPA), which was signed into law by President Bush on 3 August. The major anti-ICC provisions in ASPA are:

• a prohibition on U.S. cooperation with the ICC;
• an "invasion of the Hague" provision: authorizing the President to "use all means necessary and appropriate" to free U.S. personnel (and certain allied personnel) detained or imprisoned by the ICC;
• punishment for States that join the ICC treaty: refusing military aid to States' Parties to the treaty (except major U.S. allies);
• a prohibition on U.S. participation in peacekeeping activities unless immunity from the ICC is guaranteed for U.S. personnel.

However, all of these provisions are off-set by waiver provisions that allow the president to override the effects of ASPA when "in the national interest". The waiver provisions effectively render ASPA meaningless.

Position of Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch strongly opposes the Bush administration's approach to the ICC. In any event, the Court is now a reality. Anti-ICC laws and impunity agreements only serve to align the U.S. with pariah states of the international criminal justice system (for example, Libya). HRW considers that the major impact of the Bush administration's anti-ICC campaign is to diminish the credibility of U.S. efforts to forge coalitions against human rights abusers and to undermine future U.S. efforts to advance international justice in discrete cases, such as leading NATO in arrests of war criminals in the Balkans, or bringing war crimes charges against Saddam Hussein.

---

Source: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/icc/us.htm

Culto Alternativo: Recursos da Igreja Emergente e para a Igreja Emergente

Estou lendo o livro "Alternative Worship: Resources from and for the Emerging Church" de Jonny Baker e Doug Gay

Editora: Baker Books (1o de Fevereiro de 2004) ISBN-10: 0801091705 ISBN-13: 978-0801091704

É um livro excelente. Das 158 páginas, 125 são de exemplos e sugestões práticas. O prefácio (escrito por Sally Morgenthaler, fundadora do sacramentis.com) é muito bom. É interessante ver como ela pesquisa e cita números e fontes sobre o declínio dos números das igrejas nos Estados Unidos. Embora Sally volta e meia comente sobre tendências emergentes com uma ótica um pouco mais norteamericana, o livro em si tem uma ótica mais britânica (o que é muito bom).
É o capítulo de introdução do livro que mata a pau. Os autores conseguem em 10 páginas descrever o contexto em que surgiram os 'alt worships' na Inglaterra. Isso inclui o contexto histórico dos cultos. Discute características dos cultos 'pós-modernos' (um tanto específico para o caso Inglês, tenho que admitir. Mas não fica menos interessante por isso.) Ao repensar o papel do sermão no culto, citam os trabalhos de Walter Brueggemann, Walter Wink, Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza e Phyllis Trible. Me impressionei bastante também como que as pessoas envolvidas nos alt worships pesquisam. É uma grande pena que os pastores brasileiros não estudem bem o culto cristão, mesmo com altos salários quando comparados com a população em geral, com muito mais tempo do que a maioria das pessoas da congregação. Por exemplo, recursos publicados nos Estados Unidos eram rapidamente acessados na Inglaterra e aplicados à liturgia. Foi o caso citado da publicação Imaging the Word patrocinada pelas universidades cristãs de Yale e Texas, sendo logo depois utilizada. Trabalhos recentes nas teologias da liberação, política e feminista também eram consultados. ( Os pastores brasileiros talvez tenham uma educação de base que não fomenta o estudo e a leitura. É muito triste. Fica então o desafio à maioria das igrejas brasileiras de repensarem suas estruturas eclesiásticas na busca de alternativas práticas.)
O uso da tecnologia nos cultos é algo muito interessante. O livro vem com um CD-ROM. E as últimas páginas do livro contêm 100 (isso, cem) fontes de recursos para cultos, incluindo CDs, livros sobre liturgia, livros sobre teologia do culto e prática, livros sobre cultura contemporânea, bibliotecas de imagens e websites.
As sugestões para cultos são organizadas em 4 partes:
1- Advento e Natal
2- Quaresma
3- Páscoa
4- Pentecostes

Cada parte é subdividida entre recursos e rituais.

Recomendo muito. Penso que os Brasileiros precisam ter algum ponta-pé inicial que contextualize os cultos. Onde estão as publicações? Não só os pastores são mal treinados e orientados nessa área, mas não há muitas publicações a respeito em Português. Quando teremos o livro em Português?

- Gustavo

Brian McLaren no Canadá (e 2 brasileiros por perto)

Olá, pessoal,
O Brian McLaren ( http://www.brianmclaren.net/ ) estará aqui no Canadá semana que vem, dias 28 e 29 de Setembro de 2007. Brian McLaren é um dos expoentes da conversa emergente. Ele estará em Ottawa num simpósio dos Anglicanos. E o Gustavo e um amigo estarão lá também. Serão dois dias de interação. Eu vou estar compilando uma lista de assuntos e perguntas. Não sei se vou ter a oportunidade de conversar sobre elas. Sei que meu blog entra em pelo menos um blog roll brasileiro emergente. Você meu amigo que está lendo esse blog post tem assuntos e perguntas? Mande pra mim. De repente eu tenho a oportunidade de pôr na compilação. Mas não dá pra prometer nada. Nem sei ao certo como vai ser o ambiente. Você pode pôr os assuntos e perguntas nos comentários desse blog post, ou mandar direto pra mim por email. Meu email: u9x3n_15so arroba hotmail ponto com. Ou clique aqui: mailto:u9x3n_15so@hotmail.com
[]s

Livro: Culto Cristão através do Mundo ("Christian Worship Worldwide")

Christian Worship Worldwide: Expanding Horizons, Deepening Practices (Institute of Christian Worship Liturgical Series) (Paperback) by Charles E. Farhadian (Editor)





Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (August 30, 2007)
(em Inglês)
ISBN-10: 0802828531
ISBN-13: 978-0802828538



Só tive acesso ao livro por poucas horas, mas gostei bastante do conteúdo. Por isso o comentário aqui faz referência somente a partes do livro. É um livro acadêmico.

Comecemos pela introdução. "Beyond Lambs and Logos: Christianity, Cultures, and Worship Worldwide" por Charles E. Farhadian.
Tradução do Anjo Raoni:
"Como podemos mapear uma nova geografia do culto global?

Hoje, o Cristianismo é um movimento pós-Ocidental com um renascimento forte no mundo não-Ocidental, onde a grande maioria de cristãos vive agora. [...] Acadêmicos religiosos, missiólogos, historiadores e antropologistas cada vez mais apontam a enorme mudança de números na direção do sul como sendo de tal importância social e religiosa que muitos prevêem que estamos entrando numa nova era do Cristianismo: uma revolução na maneira de ver o Cristianismo.

[...]
À nossa frente está um oceano de mudanças na própria forma em que o Cristianismo será concebido à medida em que é recontextualizado e ressurge de culturas não-Ocidentais. As maiores comunidades cristãs nas próximas décadas não estarão mais nas regiões Euro-Norteamericanas, mas ao invés na América Latina, Ásia e África, com os maiores números de Cristãos morando nos Estados Unidos, Brasil, México, Filipinas, Nigéria, Zaire (República Democrática do Congo), e Etiópia. Nós devemos reconhecer este novo relevo global do cristianismo não-Ocidental. O Ocidente não ocupa mais o centro de gravidade em torno do qual as igrejas não-Ocidentais cristãs orbitam. No passado, práticas de culto não-Ocidentais cristãs eram comumente legitimadas por suas características Ocidentais - mesmo estando as comunidades não-Ocidentais histórica e culturamente mais próximas do local de nascimento do Cristianismo. Não mais. A expansão através do mundo todo do Cristianismo não deixou em seu rastro nem centros nem uma agenda cultura particular. Ao contrário, comunidades de culto de todos os tipos se encontram em grande desfile de contextos culturais que glorificam a Deus de formas diferentes. "

É interessante mesmo ver a mudança em números para o sul. Os continentes citados contêm em sua maioria países subdesenvolvidos. Se o Brasil for um país com um grande número de cristãos no mundo então ele terá uma grande responsabilidade de expressar e representar os valores do cristianismo. No culto, ainda temos muitos moldes americanos e muitas falhas teológicas e práticas. Será que a quantidade maior de cristãos vai ajudar na qualidade do culto e da sociedade? Sobre culto, penso que temos uma boa oportunidade de incorporarmos elementos que falam aos brasileiros e que os ajudarão a melhor experimentar o metafísico.

O capítulo que merece atenção é o "Worship and Culture in Latin America", por Miguel A. Palomino e Samuel Escobar. Vou comentá-lo em outro post.

Five Myths About Guantanamo Bay

Guantanamo - Five Years Later: It's Time for Justice
Five Myths About Guantanamo Bay

MYTH: The detainees at Guantanamo are the “worst of the worst."
Fact: Few of the men sent to Guantanamo are the high-ranking al Qaeda or Taliban members the US government alleges them to be. Hundreds were not even involved in the conflict, but rather sold to the US by bounty hunters or turned over by rival clan members trying to settle a vendetta, while high level al Qaeda operatives with the money to buy their freedom got away. According to Michael Scheuer, head of the CIA’s bin Laden unit from 1999 until 2004, no more than 10 percent of those brought to Guantanamo Bay were considered high-value detainees.

MYTH: All the Guantanamo detainees are combatants who fought against the United States.
FACT: Many of them were not picked up on or anywhere near the battlefield. Detainees were taken into custody from 14 different countries, including Gambia, Bosnia, and Thailand. About half were taken into custody in Pakistan – and, as noted above, the thousands of dollars offered by the US to bounty hunters encouraged false arrests. According to US military records, the US has not even accused the majority of them of fighting US or coalition forces.

MYTH: All the Guantanamo detainees will be prosecuted.
FACT: Of the nearly 400 men still being held at Guantanamo (another 300 have been repatriated or released), only 10 have been charged with a crime. None have been convicted. The Bush administration now claims that it plans to bring charges against a total of 70 detainees under the military commissions approved by Congress this fall. This still leaves more than 300 detainees at Guantanamo who have never – and will never – be prosecuted. They are simply being held indefinitely without charge or trial. Most of the detainees have filed habeas corpus petitions in federal courts asking that a judge review the legality of their detention. Pressured by President Bush, Congress enacted legislation that bars the courts from hearing their habeas claims – or any other claim regarding their treatment. Absent a new law out of the new Congress or a decision by the Supreme Court that the denial of habeas is unconstitutional, the detainees could spend the rest of their lives behind bars, without trial or any independent review of the legality of their detention.

MYTH: All of the Guantanamo detainees have had fair hearings where they could contest their detention.
Fact: None of the detainees has been given a fair or impartial hearing to determine whether his detention is justified. The Bush administration claims that the summary hearings that have taken place before three military officers are a sufficient substitute for independent judicial review. The officers conducting these hearings have relied on secret, classified evidence that was presumed to be genuine and accurate but was never shown to the detainee. This put detainees in the impossible situation of rebutting evidence that they had never even seen and subjecting them to decisions made on the basis of untested evidence. In many cases the detainee was never even told what specific activities he was accused of doing that would supposedly make him an “enemy combatant.” Detainees were not allowed lawyers and in most cases were not able to produce any witnesses or evidence apart from their own statements.

MYTH: All of the Guantanamo detainees have been treated humanely.
FACT: Pentagon superiors, including then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, provided Guantanamo interrogators broad authority to use interrogation techniques that ranged from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment to outright torture. The practices included prolonged forced standing, extended sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, exposure to extreme heat and cold, and use of snarling dogs. One memo from an FBI officer who visited Guantanamo described detainees as being “chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water ... Most times they had urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18, 24 hours or more.“ The military has since repudiated the use of such abusive interrogation techniques in a newly issued Army Field Manual.

On .NET versus Java (Orcas, Eclipse and NetBeans)

First of all this is not about that kind of religious war.
Often the religious wars between .NET and Java get lost in unimportant details of language and runtime performance. The fact is that often good criteria such as software quality, productivity, maintainability, development support, community support, diversity of frameworks, ease of use, integration, etc are kind of left out. I tried to summarize my comparison in a chart (click on the image below to see it in its original size)



I tried to compare mostly Orcas beta 1 (.NET 3.5) with Eclipse and a bit of NetBeans 5.5.

Problems with TFS and Orcas, WF & WCF hints

Yes, TFS is much worst than CVS. I can't add files to source control. This happens not only in Orcas (with the TFS client for Orcas), but with VS2005 as well.



When I was trying to close windows, I got an error:

Now, some WF tricks when using .NET 3.5.

1 - When trying to call a WCF service from WF, the channel factory will try to create a client on the fly. If you get an exception like "Could not find endpoint element with name 'WSDualHttpBinding_IBlahblahblah' and contract 'ServiceRef.Iblehblehbleh' in the ServiceModel client configuration section. This might be because no configuration file was found for your application, or because no endpoint element matching this name could be found in the client element.", you have two options:

- try a fully qualified name for the service contract (the interface), including namespace. If it doesn't work (like it didn't for me), it may be that you are editing the wrong .config file! Yes, try to edit the .config file of the HOSTING application, not the workflow project. Tricky!

2 - If you have a SendActivity that calls the WCF service, you'll have to define a
ChannelToken. First register the channel token:

public static DependencyProperty ChannelTokenProperty = DependencyProperty.Register("ChannelToken", typeof(System.Workflow.Activities.ChannelToken), typeof(MyWorkflowApplication.MyWorkflow));

- There's a wonderful bug that resets some of ChannelToken's properties, like name, setting them to null! Before the send activity, recreate a new instance of a ChannelToken and assign the proper values. If you don't, the name property of your ChannelToken will be null and you'll get an exception like

Message "Argument value cannot be null or empty string.\r\nParameter name: name"
at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.ChannelManagerService.CreateChannelFactory(LogicalChannel logicalChannel)

at System.Workflow.Runtime.Hosting.ChannelManagerService.GetChannelFactory(LogicalChannel logicalChannel)

...

Problem with WF problem

I'm still trying to work with WF, but it's a complicated beast. I think WF and WCF will follow the path of CORBA! It didn't fly because it's difficult to use. I was trying to post to the WF MSDN forum. First I can't access the site with Internet Explorer 7. It doesn't respond. Trying to access its root URL gives an ASPX error:












Interestingly enough, it works well with Firefox:


However, the MSDN forum kicks me out when I try to post, even though I am logged in:



If you happen to know why the client proxy classes of WCF can't be serialized please let me know.

WF problems

I'm using Windows Workflow Foundation and WCF for some weeks now. More specifically I'm using .NET 3.5 and Orcas Beta March 2007 CTP. These things are kind of complex beasts. I don't know how adoption will go. Microsoft appeals to the visual developer who may not have a theoretical foundation to fully understand what the machine is doing.
My main frustration with Orcas and WCF is how the clients generated are different from the original service! The client generated in fact does not implement any of the interfaces I defined for it. How can I pass data and interact with the service if there's a fundamental type mismatch betwen client and service? In WF persistence, for instance, I mark my server class as serializeable. Guess what: the client is not serializeable and therefore the workflow can't be persisted!
Some day I'll compare the fundamental differences of frameworks and tools between .NET and Java here.

Music and Worship in the Evangelical Brazilian Church podcast

I'm glad to announce the podcast I did with Denise - my mother - featured at the Emergent Village podcast. It's called "Music and Worship in the Evangelical Brazilian Church". Here it is:

http://www.emergentvillage.com/podcast/music-and-worship-in-the-evangelical-brazilian-church

It ends with the music "Em Nome da Justiça" by João Alexandre.

Let me know what you think!

- Gustavo

Unis en Jésus / Eins in Jesus / Uniti in Gesù

I like this CD. I bought it in Paris. It is a group of Christians from Switzerland. What I like most (more than the lyrics) is the fact that they sing in the 3 official languages: French, German and Italian. Here's an excerpt in French:

Nous voulons vivre Wir wollen eins sein - Sylvain Freymond

1 Nous voulons vivre l'unité, rester ensemble à chaque instant.
Sourtout ne pas nous séparer, continuer d'aller de l'avant.

Tous ensemble, nous partageons l'amour du Seigneur, l'adoration du Sauveur.
Tous ensemble, nous accueillons l'Esprit du Seigneur, l'unité du Créateur.

2 Nous voulons te rester fidèle et devenir un même corps,
Travailler au lien de la paix, marcher toujours dans le même Esprit.

3 Reconnaissons nos différences en Dieu, elles seront notre force.
Nous allons partager ensemble, chercher encore le Royaume de Dieu.

There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea

If it said "there's a hole in the roof of the sky" I guess they would be referring to the ozone layer and global warming. That's not the case. If you think of it from the philosophical sense, what does it mean that "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea"? I guess it's one of those tales from the XV century. At that time people created these myths to impress others and to impart fear on others. I don't think that's what Grover says. I think he's helping us to expand our imagination. He gradually adds to the details. It must be something important, otherwise he wouldn't repeat it this much. Here it is (I hope I could sing it Sunday):

There's a Hole in the Bottom of the Sea
sung by Grover (Frank Oz)

There's a hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a hole
There's a hole
There's a hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a log on the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a log on the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a log
There's a log
There's a log on the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a bump
There's a bump
There's a bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a frog
There's a frog
There's a frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a tail
There's a tail
There's a tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a flea
There's a flea
There's a flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a speck on the flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a speck on the flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log on the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a speck
There's a speck
There's a speck on the flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

There's a teeny weeny something that's so small you can't see it
On the speck on the flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea
There's a what?!!
There's .... all that stuff in the bottom of the sea
There's a teeny weeny something
There's a teeny weeny something
There's a teeny weeny something ...
On the speck on the flea on the tail on the frog on the bump on the log in the hole in the bottom of the sea

Let's forget about that teeny weeny something and we'll ...
Pluck the speck
Flick the flea
Tweak the tail
Flip the frog
Move the bump
Lose the log
Fill up the hole ...
In the bottom of the sea ...

'Cuz no one wants a hole in the bottom of the sea!!!!

In the Name of Justice

It's not intended to fit the metric. In any case, here it is

In the Name of Justice
Original title: “Em Nome da Justiça”
Music and Lyrics: João Alexandre
English translation from Portuguese (2007): Gustavo Frederico

While violence devastates people in the slums,
And those who know everything say they know nothing,
While wages rot waiting in line,
And men revoke the laws instead of fulfilling them,

While sickness takes the place of health,
And those who promised being beside the people keep changing their attitudes,
While deals are struck behind closed doors,
And the noble’s honor yields its place to the scoundrel’s sauciness,
There’s no way out, there’s no way out

We can only change this country with plenty of love
Only God’s love can make our people truly happy
We, his children, must unite our hands
In the name of justice, through deeds of justice.
She who knows God cannot hear this and be silent,
She has to be a prophet and raise his banner high
To transform the world is a matter of commitment
It’s all of that and so much more…

While Sunday is still our sacred day
And in the name of God we overlook the wounded,
While sin is just a sin,
Lived out, felt by, embedded within, sneaked in and thought out

While some sing and dance with their eyes closed
There’s people dying of hunger everywhere
The “God” one sings about not always is the God one lives out,
Because God reveals himself, gets involved, resolves and revives
There’s no way out, there’s no way out
There’s no way out, there’s no way out

===========

Em nome da justiça - João Alexandre

Enquanto a violência acabar com o povão da baixada
E quem sabe tudo disser que não sabe de nada...
Enquanto os salários morrerem de velhos nas filas
E os homens banirem as leis ao invés de cumpri-las...

Enquanto a doença tomar o lugar da saúde
E quem prometeu ser do povo mudar de atitude...
Enquanto os bilhetes correrem debaixo da mesa
E a honra dos nobres ceder seu lugar à esperteza...

Não tem jeito não, não tem jeito não...

Só com muito amor a gente muda essa país,
Só o amor de Deus pra nossa gente ser feliz...
Nós, os filhos Seus, temos que unir as nossas mãos
Em nome da justiça, por obras de justiça...
Quem conhece a Deus não pode ouvir e se calar,
Tem que ser profeta e Sua bandeira levantar...
Transformar o mundo é uma questão de compromisso,
E muito mais e tudo isso...

Enquanto o domingo ainda for nosso dia sagrado
E em nome de Deus se deixar os feridos de lado...
Enquanto o pecado ainda for simplesmente um pecado,
Vivido, sentido, embutido, espremido e pensado...

Enquanto se canta e se dança de olhos fechados,
Tem gente morrendo de fome por todos os lados...
O Deus que se canta nem sempre é o Deus que se vive, não,
Pois Deus se revela, se envolve, resolve e revive

E não tem jeito não, não tem jeito não...

L'église universelle

L'église universelle

1 L'église universelle
a pour roc Jésus Christ;
elle est l'oeuvre nouvelle
que sa parole fit.
Habitant le ciel même,
il vint se l'attacher,
et, par un don suprême,
mourut pour la sauver!

2 L'église en sa prière
unit à leur Sauveur
les peuples de la terre
soumis au seul Seigneur.
C'est son nom qu'elle acclame,
son pain qui la nourrit;
elle verse à toute âme
l'espoir qui la guérit.

3 Honnie et méconnue, menant de durs combats,
elle attend la venue de la paix ici-bas.
Contemplant par avance la fin de son tourment,
la grande délivrance, le repos permanent.

4 Aujourd'hui, sur la terre,
elle est unie à Dieu,
et, par un saint mystère,
aux élus du saint lieu.
Rends-nous, comme eux, fidèles,
et reçois-nous, Seigneur,
dans la vie éternelle,
dans l'éternel bonheur!

Words: Samuel John Stone 1866; French translation: Fernand Barth 1923

Myths About Hunger

Myths About Hunger
Myth 1: Not Enough Food to Go Around
Reality:
Abundance, not scarcity, best describes the world's food supply. Enough wheat, rice and other grains are produced to provide every human being with 3,500 calories a day. That doesn't even count vegetables, beans, nuts, root crops, fruits, grass-fed meats, and fish. Enough food is available to provide at least 4.3 pounds of daily food per person worldwide: two and half pounds of grain, beans and nuts, about a pound of fruits and vegetables, and nearly another pound of meat, milk and eggs - enough to make most people fat! The problem is that many people do not have access to the resources to produce or purchase food. Foodgrains Bank member churches seek to address this problem by working with people to gain access to more food.

Myth 2: Too Many People
Reality:
Globally, population growth is slowing. Although rapid population growth remains a serious concern in some countries, population density does not explain hunger. For every Bangladesh, a densely populated and hungry country, we find a Nigeria, Brazil or Bolivia, where abundant food resources coexist with hunger. Rapid population growth is not the root cause of hunger. Like hunger itself, it results from underlying inequities that deprive people, especially women who are poor, of economic opportunity and security. Foodgrains Bank members work at issues of land ownership, jobs and education in communities where there is hunger.

Myth 3: Nature's to Blame for Famine
Reality:
Food is always available for those who can afford it. Starvation during hard times hits only the poorest millions who live on the brink of disaster because they are deprived of land, trapped in the grip of debt, or poorly paid. Natural events rarely explain deaths; they are simply the final push over the brink. Human institutions and policies determine who eats and who starves during hard times. The real culprits are economies that fail to offer everyone opportunities, and societies that accept hunger as inevitable. The Foodgrains Bank members work to bring about lasting change in disaster-prone countries like Bangladesh and Ethiopia through helping communities build a more equitable economic base.

Myth 4: The Environment vs. More Food?
Reality:
Efforts to feed people who are hungry need not cause an environmental crisis. The world is capable of producing enough food for everyone in a sustainable way, but as people without access to resources struggle to survive, they are often forced to farm marginal lands that are susceptible to erosion, flooding or drought. Over-cropping and lack of crop inputs may mean further soil loss. Foodgrains Bank members work with partners in developing countries who promote good farming practices and local production for local consumption.

Myth 5: New Technology is the Answer
Reality:
The production advances of the past 20 years are no myth. Thanks to the new seeds, millions of tonnes more grain a year are being harvested. But focusing narrowly on increasing production cannot alleviate hunger because it fails to alter the tightly concentrated distribution of economic power that determines who can access the additional food. That's why in several countries - India, Mexico, and the Philippines for example - grain production has increased while hunger has persisted. Foodgrains Bank members promote appropriate agricultural technologies and access to those technologies by those most vulnerable.

Myth 6: We Need Large Farms in the Developing World
Reality:
Large landowners who control most of the best land often leave much of it idle. By contrast, small farmers often achieve four to five times greater output per acre, in part because they use more "hands-on" farming practices. However, without secure tenure, millions of tenant farmers in the developing world have little incentive to invest in land improvements, rotate crops, or improve soil fertility. A World Bank study of northeast Brazil estimates that moving farmland into smaller holdings would raise output an astonishing 80 percent. The Foodgrains Bank members support small-scale farmers in developing countries.

Myth 7: The Free Market Can End Hunger
Reality:
Unfortunately, market efficiencies only work to eliminate hunger when purchasing power is widely dispersed. Those who believe in the usefulness of the market and the necessity of ending hunger must concentrate on promoting not only the market, but also the ability of people to participate in the market in ways that reduce poverty. Foodgrains Bank members work to inform policy makers in Canada about the effects Canadian trade policies have on developing countries.

Myth 8: Too Hungry to Help Themselves
Reality:
People will feed themselves, if given a chance. Bombarded with images of people who are poor and hungry, we lose sight of the obvious: for those with few resources, mere survival requires tremendous effort. If people who are poor were truly passive, few of them could even survive. Our responsibility is to remove the obstacles in their paths. Foodgrains Bank members take the responsibility to work with people in developing countries to increase their self-sufficiency.

Myth 9: There is little we can do about hunger
Reality:
World hunger can be ended - significant progress has been made. The percentage of people who are hungry has declined substantially in the 20th century. Bread for the World Institute has outlined (2000 report) a politically feasible and economically affordable plan to overcome hunger worldwide. The outcome of the war on hunger is determined not by forces beyond human control, but by decisions and actions well within the capability of nations and people.

You can make a difference by raising awareness in your own community - talk with your neighbours or encourage discussion about hunger issues in your schools and churches.

Through prayer, mobilizing resources, becoming aware of the effect of our investments and lifestyles on international economic systems, and writing to politicians to encourage better trade and hunger policies, together we can bring an end to hunger.

Based on "World Hunger: Twelve Myths, 2nd Edition," by Frances Moore Lappé, Joseph Collins and Peter Rosset (Grove Press/Earthscan, 1998), a book from Food First/The Institute for Food and Development Policy

As curas

A cura - Lulu Santos

"Existirá,
em todo porto tremulará
A velha bandeira da vida
Acenderá todo farol iluminará
Uma ponta de esperança
E se virá, será quando menos se esperar
Da onde ninguém imagina
Demolirá, toda certeza vã, não sobrará
Pedra sobre pedra
Enquanto isso não nos custa insistir
Na questão do desejo, não deixar se extinguir
Desafiando de vez a noção
Na qual se crê que o inferno é aqui

Existirá E toda raça então experimentará
Para todo o mal, a cura."

A Cura - Cassiane

"
Eu quero mergulhar nos rios do Espírito
Entrar na dimensão do sobrenatural
E onde esses rios me levarem eu irei
E cada vez mais fundo eu mergulharei
E aquilo que se fez deserto em mim florescerá
E a terra seca, em mim, se faz manancial
E poços,rios, vales dentro do meu coração,
Cheios de águas vivas para sempre serão

A cura logo vem...
Não há como impedir
Os rios do espírito estão passando por aqui
A nuvem da unção...
Repousa sobre nós
É hoje o dia de romper
Não há como impedir

Hoje é dia de romper
E eu recebo a unção de Deus
"

( pegando o gancho do saite Crer e Pensar )

My Masters Thesis

For those that are looking for something to read, here's my Master's Thesis.

FEATURE SELECTION AND EVALUATION FOR GENRE CLASSIFICATION OF
SYMBOLICALLY ENCODED CLASSICAL MUSIC WITH THE AID OF MACHINE
LEARNING

Gustavo Cesar de Souza Frederico

Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Computer Science

June 1st, 2006

Ottawa-Carleton Institute for Computer Science
School of Information Technology and Engineering
University of Ottawa

Abstract

This work defines useful features for the classification of symbolically encoded music into 14 classical genres namely chorale, symphony, étude, fugue, prelude, contrafactum, sonata, mazurka, motet, sonatina, waltze, concerto, Gregorian chant and scherzo. Features are based on Music Theory and grouped into seven categories: distances in the harmonic möbius strip, distances on the line of fifths, scale, rhythmic syncopation and meter, polyphony measurements, duration and instrumentation. Features are extracted and ranked combining 5 filter-based methods. Six Machine Learning algorithms are defined for classification: three Support Vector Machines, one Bayesian network, the C4.5 and random forests. Using nested cross-validation for training and testing and considering all the features, the Bayesian network classifier yields 84.10 % empirical accuracy. The FEATUROMETRE process measures the usefulness of the feature subsets in an approach similar to wrapper methods, conveying relevant information to domain experts. Another experiment measures the usefulness and accuracy of features individually and by category using FEATUROMETRE. Grouping the music pieces by their period, the measured accuracy with the random forest classifier in the second experiment reaches 89.81 %.

Pecados do Pai - Sins of the Father

Culto número 3
Pecados do Pai
Contexto do culto
Há uma lógica pragmática que recomenda-nos que evitemos lutar contra uma força que é muito superiora à nossa. Isto, é claro, reflete a simples sabedoria de auto-proteção. Contudo tal lógica é freqüentemente ignorada nas escrituras Judaico-Cristãs, pois ali encontramos inúmeros indivíduos que constantemente confrontam seu criador. Nessas iterações nós não achamo-nos confessando humildemente suas transgressões perante Deus, mas ao invés acusando Deus de transgredir contra eles. Esta rica tradição, na qual a pessoa se ajoelha perante Deus com o punho cerrado, não se encontra somente nas histórias de Moisés e Jó, juntamente com os Salmos, mas também na obra de crentes contemporâneos que se debateram com eventos aterrorizadores como o holocausto.
Esses confrontos violentos entre a criação e criatura se tornam ainda mais impressionantes pois são várias vezes instigados por aqueles fiéis amigos de Deus. Somos confrontados pelo vasto número de crentes através da história cuja profunda e firme fé pareceu como infidelidade, de uma forma que evoca o grito de Cristo na cruz.
O porquê dessa incapacidade de comprender tais comoções se encontra em parte na nossa incapacidade de assimilar a natureza radical da fé, uma fé que deve ser marcada por paixão, mesmo se esta paixão várias vezes parece se dirigir contra a fonte da fé. Certamente, no livro de Apocalipse lemos que Deus prefere que o fiel seja ou quente ou frio ao invés de morno. Certamente, ser 'frio' pode na verdade ser um sinal de que a pessoa esteja muito perto de Deus. Ao invés de pensar que a genuína experiência religiosa é sempre confortante, a idéia de que há alguém que pode ver o profundo do nosso ser pode fazer-nos fugir de Deus. Tal repulsão e medo provêm da própria experiência de Deus, pois sentir-se nu e envergonhado perante Deus pressupõem um tipo de relacionamento com Deus.
Contudo, isto não esgota a experiência de uma reação contra Deus inspirada por Deus, pois no livro de Jó testemunhamos uma reação contra Deus que está ligada não aos nossos próprios atos maus mas aos que parecem serem atos maus de Deus. Enquanto a Bíblia geralmente fala de Deus como alguém que permanece além de todas as acusações humanas, isto se coloca em tensão com outros trechos do texto que testificam à experiência humana de um Deus que se arrepende, é ciumento, irado e é até mesmo indiferente ao sofrimento. O fato de algumas personagens serem desenhadas lutando contra Deus em nome da justiça mostra que acusar Deus de malfeito tem cabimento na tradição Judaico-Cristã. Pois embora possa Deus estar em última instância além de qualquer acusação, nossa experiência do mundo pode nos levar a questionar isto legitimamente.

Descrição do culto
Uma longa mesa é posta ao longo do palco. Sobre ela ficam uma dúzia de taças de vinho quebradas numa caixa de areia. Uma das paredes é coberta por uma grande projeção das pelavras "Ó Vigia das Pessoas", enquanto pequenas tiras de papel e canetas ficam sobre cada mesa. Ao entrarmos na sala somos saudados pela música do DJ que faz um loop das seguintas palavras sobre a música:
Quando eu estava com fome vocês não me deram comida.
Quando eu tive sede vocês não me deram água.
Era estrangeiro e não me convidaram para entrar.
Precisei de roupas e vocês não me vestiram.
Estive doente e na prisão porém vocês não cuidaram de mim.

Gradualmente a música vai morrendo à medida que estas palavras ficam mais fortes. As palavras começam a vencer as conversas das pessoas. À medida que a sala fica em silêncio, um jovem chega no microfone e, tendo as palavras morrido completamente, começa a falar:
Certa vez, há muito tempo atrás, eu tive o privilégio de gastar algum tempo com um velho rabino, calejado pela idade e muito íntimo com o sofrimento. Cada noite ele me contava a história de um judeu que tinha escapado da Inquisição Espanhola com sua esposa e filho, conseguindo chegar com pequeno barco através do mar agitado a uma ilha pedregosa. Um raio explodiu e matou sua esposa. Um vento forte apareceu e levou seu filho para as entranhas do mar. Sozinho, miserável, estarrecido por raios e trovões, com seu cabelo embaraçado, seu corpo castigado pela fome e suas mãos erguidas a Deus, o judeu conseguiu subir na ilha deserta e pedregosa e assim voltou-se a Deus:
- 'Deus de Israel', disse, "eu fugi para este lugar para que eu te servisse em paz, para seguir tuas leis e glorificar teu nome. Tu, porém, estás fazendo de tudo para que eu pare de acreditar em ti. Mas se tu pensas que vais conseguir com essas provas desviar-me do caminho verdadeiro, então eu apelo a ti, meu Deus e Deus dos meus pais, para que nada te corrobore. Podes me insultar, podes tirar de mim o mais querido e o melhor que eu tenho no mundo, podes me torturar até a morte eu sempre vou crer em ti. Eu vou amá-lo sempre e para sempre - até mesmo apesar de ti.
'Eis, portanto, as minhas últimas palavras a ti, meu Deus irado: nada disto será de proveito para ti! Tu fizeste tudo para que eu perdesse minha fé em ti, para fazer-me cessar de crer em ti. Mas eu morro exatamente como vivi: um crente inabalável.'
Ele vive até hoje, este homem bravo com seu Deus, naquela pequena ilha pedregosa em algum ligar quieto nos nossos corações. Hoje à noite vamos tentar dar-lhe voz.

Enquanto a música volta alguém vai até o microfone e fala o seguinte texto das escrituras como uma oração:

'Será que eu sou algum monstro do mar para que fiques aí me vigiando?
Eu prefiro ser estrangulado; é melhor morrer do que viver neste meu corpo.
Quando deixarás de olhar para mim, a fim de que eu tenha um momento de sossego?
Se pequei, que mal fiz a ti, ó vigia das pessoas?
Por que fizeste de mim o alvo das tuas flechas?
Por acaso sou uma carga tão pesada assim?
Por que não perdoas o meu pecado
e não apagas a minha maldade?
Logo estarei na sepultura; tu me procurarás, mas eu não existirei mais.

Por que continuo a sofrer?
Por que as minhas feridas doem sem parar?
Por que elas não saram?
Será que não posso confiar em ti?
Será que és como um riacho que seca no verão?

Ó Eterno, eles me desprezam e zombam de mim o tempo todo
porque anuncio a tua mensagem.
Mas, quando penso: 'Vou esquecer o Eterno
e não falarei mais em seu nome',
então a tua mensagem fica presa dentro de mim
e queima como fogo no meu coração"

Ao findar a oração, um músico vai ao palco. Ele canta algumas músicas que expressam uma mistura de raiva e paixão por Deus ao mesmo tempo. Quando ele termina, uma outra pessoa vai ao palco e começa a ler:

"Claro, o primeiro padre apareceu apropriadamente, e Ahab entendeu qual era a verdadeira ameaça. Para compensar, ele instituiu algo que aprendera dos Judeus: um Dia de Expiação, exceto que ele se propôs a estabelecer um ritual do seu próprio jeito.
Uma vez por ano, os habitantes se trancavam nas suas casas, faziam duas listas, viravam seus rostos para a montanha mais alta e então erguiam seus punhos aos céus.
'Aqui, Senhor, estão todos os pecados que cometi contra ti', diziam eles, lendo o relato de todos os pecados que haviam cometido. Trambiques nos negócios, adultérios, injustiças, coisas desse tipo. 'Eu pequei e imploro perdão por ter te ofendido tão grandemente'.
Então (e aqui está a originalidade do Ahab) os habitantes imediatamente tiravam sua segunda lista do bolso e, ainda virados para a mesma montanha, erguiam essa também aos céus. E diziam algo parecido com 'E aqui, Senhor, está uma lista de todos os teus pecados contra mim: tu me fizeste trabalhar mais do que necessário, minha filha ficou doente apesar das minhas orações, fui assaltado quando estava tentando ser honesto, sofri mais do que era justo.'
Depois de ler a segunda lista, eles terminavam o ritual assim: 'Eu tenho sido injusto para contigo e tu tens sido injusto para comigo. Contudo, como hoje é o Dia de Expiação, tu se esquecerás das minhas faltas e eu me esquecerei das tuas, e nós prosseguiremos juntos por mais um ano."

Depois que isto for lido, todos são convidados a usar o papel e canetas nas mesas para escrever sobre algo que os torna raivosos ou frustrados com Deus. Se isso for algo que eles queiram manter particular, alguém pede que eles dobrem o papel e ponham um 'X' na frente. Os pedaços de papéis são então juntados e trazidos a duas pessoas que ficam lá no palco. Dizem a todos que depois de lidos, os papéis serão simbolicamente repassados para Deus via um ritual de queima. Toda vez que um pedaço de papel com um 'X' aparece, ele é queimado, sem ser lido, enquanto um trecho do Salmo 10 é dito como oração:

Por que ficas aí tão longe?
Por que te escondes em tempos de aflição?

Enquanto essas orações são lidas vinho tinto é despejado sobre as taças quebradas sobre o palco de forma que o vinho transborda na areia. Quando todas as orações forem queimadas há alguns momentos de silêncio. Então um organizador vai ao palco com o que parece ser uma Bíblia. Ele abre-a e começa a ler:

No dia do julgamento uma intimação foi ao mar, ordenando que ela entregasse seus mortos, e uma voz chamou o Hades para que os prisioneiros fossem libertos de suas cadeias.
Então os anjos reuniram toda a humanidade e trouxe-os ao grande trono branco de Deus. Toda a criação permaneceu em silêncio enquanto um grande anjo abriu os livros.
O primeiro a ser julgado se levantou e se aproximou-se do texto. Quando o acusado viu as acusações, toda a humanidade falou em uníssono:
'Quando nós tivemos fome você não nos deu nada para comer. Quando nós estivemos com sede você não nos deu nada para beber. Fomos estrangeiros e você não nos convidou para entrar. Precisamos de roupas e você não nos vestiu. Estivemos doentes e na prisão e você não cuidou de nós.'
Silêncio desceu sobre toda a criação enquanto as pessoas pronunciavam suas sentenças sobre Deus.

Depois de ler isto, o organizador fecha o livro e começa a falar:

Nós não vamos tentar e concluir esta noite de lamento com qualquer resposta bonita. Talvez as coisas façam sentido algum dia, talvez não. Mas, a razão desta noite não é respoder por Deus, algo que só Deus pode fazer. A única coisa que queremos fazer aqui é reconhecer que no meio da incerteza nós permanecemos fiéis.
De certa forma o porquê dessa frágil fidelidade, assim como Jó, talvez se encontre na crença de que nossas acusações irão um dia se tornar cinzas nas conseqüências da insondável presença de Deus; de que nossas preocupações legítimas serão um dia silenciadas perante aquele o qual nós não podemos dar nome mas que nos dá nome. Por enquanto, a única coisa com a qual podemos nos consolar é a possibilidade de que o Deus quem acusamos é um Deus da nossa própria criação. É por esta razão que Slavoj Žižek diz que o Deus que nós pensamos compreender é como um Tamagotchi - nossa própria criação que posteriormente exige de nós.

Ao findar o culto uma cesta cheia de Tamagotchis (comprados baratos do eBay) é dada às pessoas para levarem para casa.

--
Do livro "How (not) to Speak of God", de Peter Rollins, ISBN: 1557255059, Editora Paraclete Press.

Gustavo's Live™ Space

And here is Gustavo's Live Space:

http://gcsfred.spaces.live.com/

It has photos, lists of books and links to other good audio content.

Qual o Adorno Desta Vida?

Qual o Adorno Desta Vida?
Letra: Sarah Poulton Kalley
Música: Hubert Platt Main (adapt)
John Walter Clancy (harm)

Qual o adorno desta vida? É o amor, é o amor
Alegria é concedida pelo amor, pelo amor
É bondoso, é paciente, não se torna maldizente,
Não se torna maldizente este meigo amor

Com suspeitas não se alcança doce amor, doce amor
Onde houver desconfiança, ai do amor, ai do amor!
Pois mostremos tolerância; muitas vezes a arrogância,
Muitas vezes a arrogância murcha e mata o amor

Mesmo quando for custoso, nutre amor, nutre amor.
Ao irado e mui furioso mostra amor, mostra amor.
Não te dês por insultado, mas responde com agrado,
Mas responde com agrado, vence pelo amor

Pois, irmão, ao teu vizinho mostra amor, mostra amor.
O valor não é mesquinho deste amor, deste amor.
O supremo Deus nos ama, Cristo para os céus nos chama,
Cristo para os céus nos chama, onde reina o amor.

Semantic Web, Semantic DNS, browsers

I begin to like Firefox and Mozilla. There are two very interesting projects:
Annotea. It is a good base to bootstrap the semantic web. It is interesting because it leverages the multitude of existing content on the web, and allows structured annotation on top of them. They have server reference implementations, which are very intersting. Hey, where are the meta-servers and the new generation of semantic "DNS" (or "Semantic ONS", RFID fans)?

Annozilla is also an interesting animal. It is like Annotea for Mozilla. Too bad the development seems to be going very slowly. Also I can't quite understand what Netscape has to do with all this. I hope these nice ideas were not thrown into the garbage because of Netscape 'pulling the plug'. Despite what the various marketing groups will say, we all need a good and sound Semantic Web (or semantic web).
Interestingly enough, I see very good support for RDF in Mozilla, even though the documentation seems cryptic at times.

As for IE, I see no activity related to RDF (or OWL, or annotation). Plug-ins and extensions for IE are difficult and too close to the OS. You are looking at C++ very early on, still using COM (no .NET). I can see good support for feeds (RSS, Atom, etc), but that's it. Oh, yes, and a strong marketing behind "Web 2.0", with few cases of one explaining precisely what it is.

How (not) to speak of God

I'm really liking the book "How (not) to speak of God", by Peter Rollins.
Here's the beginning of Chapter 2: "
There is an old anecdote in which a mystic, an evangelical pastor and a fundamentalist preacher die on the same day and awake to find themselves by the pearly gates. Upon reaching the gates they are promptly greeted by Peter, who informs them that before entering heaven they must be interviewed by Jesus concerning the state of their doctrine. The first to be called forward is the mystic, who is quietly ushered into a room. Five hours later the mystic reappears with a smile, saying, 'I thought I had got it all wrong.' Then Peter signals to the evangelical pastor, who stands up and enters the room. After a full day has passed the pastor reapears with a frown and says to himself, 'How could I have been so foolish!' Finally Peter asks the fundamentalist to follow him. The fundamentalist picks up his well-worn Bible and walks into the room. A few days pass with no sign of the preacher, then finally the door swings oopen and Jesus himself appears, exclaiming, 'How could I have got it all so wrong!'
"

Michael Frost :: 1 of 7 (hosted by Odeo)

This is Michael Frost, from Resonate Audio.

Michael Frost :: 6 of 7 (hosted by Odeo)

This is Michael Frost, from Resonate Audio