As I sit down tonight to write in New York City, a light snow is falling though weather.com does not indicate that it a harbinger of bad things to come. So, after a relatively busy afternoon, I have returned to the little apartment on Riverside to write my blog.
Last night I met my friend Dan Pawlus for a drink at the Warwick Hotel on 54th Street and then I went with him to a screening of “The Francis Effect,” a documentary made by the Canadian Catholic television organization Salt + Light about the Holy Father.
Last year, about this time, I was in Rome to speak on a panel for SIGNIS, the organization of Catholic Communicators. In some breakout conversations, the talk was about “the Francis moment.” This Pope had, in a not too long a period of time, altered the perception of the Roman Catholic Church by much of the world.
The documentary last night chronicles the effect of the moment. It is hard not to admire the man. While he has not changed doctrine, he has changed the tone of the conversation. And that is a very good beginning. He has offered gentleness instead of reproach. In the last twenty years the tone of the church has been strident and reproachful; under Francis it is conciliatory. He has challenged the all-powerful Curia and reformed the reputedly corrupt Vatican Bank.
And he has only been in office for two years. It will be interesting to follow the rest of this man’s Pontificate.
When Dan asked me to the screening of a film about Francis, I asked him if it was about the Francis who was a saint or the Francis who would be a saint?
Until I saw legions of people in New York with black marks on their forehead I had forgotten today is Ash Wednesday.
In a remark that is indicative of the man that is Francis, he told people that this year they should fast on their indifference to their fellow man. A grand comment.
Francis is a saintly man but there are very few of them.
To help combat young men and women from the States going to jihad, Obama held a conference on extremism. The US and countries such as France, the UK, and Belgium are all struggling with young Muslims who are seduced to jihad.
There was a striking article in the NY Times today about a young man from Cairo, middle class, educated in private schools, who had abandoned his family and friends and gone off to Syria. He tweeted a picture of himself with a beheaded man. His family is devastated. He got lost somewhere in the tumult that has been Egypt the last three years.
We have medieval values being practiced by men with good weapons. In grisly rumors, IS has been accused by Iraq’s UN Ambassador of killing people to harvest their organs, then to re-sell them on the organ black market. It is a revenue generating operation reportedly.
In Ukraine, the Ukrainian government suffered a defeat today when its forces abandoned Debaltseve, the major rail hub between the rebel areas. They attempted to put a good face on it but there is no good face to a major defeat.
President al-Sisi of Egypt is pressing for international intervention in Libya. He has a problem in the Sinai with insurgents who are aligning themselves with IS [ISIS or ISIL]. He thinks the Sinai insurgents are getting some help from IS in Libya. Libya and Egypt have asked the UN to lift the arms embargo so they can better fight IS.
The snow is still falling lightly. I am getting tired and think I will retreat to bed and read Time Magazine and The Week [my favorite weekly] and drift off to the land of Nod.
A new version of Cinderella is out soon. The Oscars will be this weekend.
And I am prepping for a trip to India. I have been invited to go to the Indian Institute of Technology in Rourkee to speak about American media. I must sort out the intricacies of getting a visa now.
Letter from the Vineyard 
Letter From New York 03 14 15 In celebration of PI Day
March 14, 2015Having successfully survived Friday the 13th, I awoke to a dark, drear, drizzly world. At least it is relatively warm. As I write this, I am doing the mundane things of life, doing a load of wash after finishing picking up around the house today. This week a desk made by my grandfather, a master furniture maker, was returned to me after being away some months having all its joints worked on. Old age had made it more than a bit wobbly; now it’s back, sturdy as ever.
For those of us who are not nerds, let me tell you that today is PI Day. PI is the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Its first five digits are 31415, an event that will not happen for another century. 3/14 is also the anniversary of Einstein’s birth and therefore a cause of celebration of all things math related. I would have been in blissful ignorance of this if not for one of my train companions yesterday, who is a computer geek nerd wonderful chap, explaining it all to me in some detail.
So tonight, when I make a martini, I will lift my glass to PI Day. And Einstein.
There is no celebration happening today in the South Pacific as Cyclone Pam has left a trail of destruction as it passed through the island nation of Vanuatu. Winds up to 170 mph roared through accompanied by torrential rains. The full damage will not be known for days as communications have been severely crippled in the wake of the storm.
Cyclone Pam may be one of the worst storms to have ever passed through the region.
In Israel, Netanyahu is also facing a storm. His polling numbers are flagging and he is blaming a worldwide global conspiracy of the left for his slippage. While we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day, the Israelis will be voting and the world will be watching.
Some within Likud, Netanyahu’s party, are saying that if they fail in Tuesday’s election, Netanyahu may lose his position as head of the party. The stakes are high for “Bibi.”
Stakes are high, too, in Iraq. There some government officials are saying Tikrit may be liberated within the next three days, a week at the most, despite booby-trapped roads and fierce resistance. It will be a psychological blow for IS to lose Tikrit, hometown of Saddam Hussein. IS is still holding on to a cluster of palaces built for the former dictator.
In Rome, Pope Francis has said he does not think his papacy will be a long one. Pope Benedict XVI may have started a precedent of retiring popes. Personally, I hope he doesn’t go too soon. He also has said that he misses being able to go to a pizzeria and getting a slice. He’s too famous now.
Also famous is Vladimir Putin, who still has not been seen in Moscow. Rumors are flying rampantly around the Russian capital. The most logical one is that he has been felled by a virulent flu that has broken the back of the capital. It is also rumored that he has been in Switzerland for the birth of a child by his mistress. It has also been whispered that he’s dead or a captive in the Kremlin of the far right. [It’s hard for me to think of anyone more right than Putin.] But rumors are all that the city has. He’s just not been seen. Tomorrow he is supposed to travel so if he doesn’t the rumor mill will probably explode.
Also exploding, but in a good way, is the live action version of “Cinderella” that opened last night, zooming its way toward a magical $70,000,000 weekend. Starring Lily James, Downton Abbey’s Lady Rose, and Cate Blanchett as the evil stepmother with Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother it has rocked past the competition and garnered brilliant reviews.
Hoping to garner brilliant reviews for the dinner I am preparing for four neighbors tonight, I must head off to the store to pick up a couple of ingredients I forgot when I did the morning shopping.
Tags:Benedict XVI, Cate Blanchett, Cinderella, Cyclone Pam, Einstein, Helena Bonham Carter, Likud, Lily James, Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Moscow, Netanyahu, PI Day, Pope Francis, Putin, Tikrit, Vanuatu
Posted in Mat Tombers, Mathew Tombers, Social Commentary | Leave a Comment »