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Showing posts from 2007

FREEDOM OF SPEECH?

From time to time some new song is aired and there are calls for it to be censored. Immediately the preachers of the freedom of speech argument get agitated. There have been instances when the Broadcasting Commission has intervened and actually banned some songs. A recent one was Chuck Fender's, 'Gash dem and light dem.' Advocating harsh penalties against child molesters, rapists etc. The commission claimed that a better lyric would have been, try them and incarcerate them. Fender refused to adjust his lyrics and the song was banned. In light of the difficulties the JCF is facing to get persons who witness the many brazen, even daylight murders and other acts of violence it seems to me that someone in authority needs to take a zero tolerance approach against artists who continue to label those who talk to the police as informers, and advocate that informer fe dead. The persons wants to see justice and the back of crime and violence broken and is willing to speak out

Of Dreams and Visions

Scientist tell us that that once we enter into REM(Rapid Eye Movement) sleep we dream each night, its just that we dont always recall that we had a dream. Dreams can be very very embarassing to say the least and bothersome. I find that dreams are for the most part a subject that very little is know of. With all kinds of theories as to their origin, interpretation, and meanings. Some have made major life changes as a result dreams, some have become depressed and suicidal as a result of dreams. Some make a career out of dreams. Dreams have also been used by God to speak to His people, this is quite frequent in the OT in particular. In my own experioence I have had dreams that were very vivid, and shortly after awakening, I was given the interpretation by the Holy Spirit. Other times its not quite clear. This morning I awoke at 3:11 a.m, having had a very disturbing dream. I am still praying through the interpretation of it. I am almost complete in my assessment and it is disturbing as it

Barking Up The Wrong Tree

Fancy sanctuaries, lofty steeples, clanging bells, air conditioned halls, multi media projeectors and clean sound systems. The churches are doing well... some even will soon implement debit machines so that if you left the cheque book or the cash at home you won't have to worry about not getting to pay your tithe, or make your offerings. Are we really effective? How is that measured and determined then? Are we scratching where no one is itching? Are we barking up the wrong tree? Recently, I had the chance to minister at three camps this past summer. It brought me face to face with some harsh realities. Many churches say that they are youth focuses, some don't even care that the majority of the Jamaican population is youth, their budgets do not betray the supposed concern for youth and reaching and keeping youth. Its mere lip service if so much. While some are busy fighting for fiefdoms and kingdoms and turfs the youth are dying. Most feel so out of place. With the vast majority

The Dean of Hurricane University

Hurricane Dean, the dean of discipline, the dean of natural disasters schools? Dean was described by one Weather channel meteorologist as a well organized storm and a text book kind of storm, with very tight circular motion around a very well defined eye, with wide outer bands. He described it in excited tones, then his voice became somber as he all but said that Jamaica could not miss being directly hit by this one. The local ones stopped just short of saying that only God can divert this one. There are many who have buried God, so the very thought of God diverting a hurricane would seem preposterous to them. They would laugh at th every thought. When Ivan diverted, we were told that there was a high pressure ridge just north of Jamaica, which pushed Dean south of us. I wonder what they will find to excuse away the divine hand of God's mercy this time. Maybe there is a permanent high pressure ridge over Jamaica. Thank you God for watching over us and sparing us in your mercy again

Blogging to your wallet

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By now you've probably heard of blogging, or a blog. It short for weblog. A simple way to get your ideas online, to have a small and simple website (though some persons have very complex blogs). Google has an excellent free blog service (which is what I am using right now) www.blogspot.com. So I started blogging about a year ago, I have like five different blogs. As I continued to learn about internet marketing I joined some safelists to advertize my affiliate sites. One day I received an email telling me of how I can make money by posting to my blog. The link led me to www.payperpost.com Advertizers are willing to pay posters to write about their products, and services, using their guidelines and once you meet these guidelines you are paid into your paypal account. This is what the payperpost advertisments look like: blog network So of course I was all excited about this but it took me almost a year of resubmitiing blog site after blogsite till I satisfied the requiremen

The Genesis of a Mass Shooting

Yesterday was one of those sad days working in community. A young man who has already spent over a year in a juvenile remand centre, who used to carry a gun, who has been on the run from the police in the past, now desperatley trying to walk the legal pathway, find himself a job came to me in a very bitter mood. He had been walking around town trying to find a job in a supermarket. One enterprise asked him to bring in a resume (the poor youth had never even heard the word before), then they asked him to bring in a recommendation. I assisted him with getting both. Then they asked him to come for an interview and take with him a signed photogrpah by a notary public. This he got and went. He was practically interrogated and then summariuly dismissed simply on the basis of his home address. This after he literally begged and pleaded with the boss to give him the job. Just because of where he lives he was sent home still jobless. He was fuming, he was so disappointed, I could see him fighti

Restoring The Fallen Brother

It has been said that the church is so unlike the armies of the wolrd in that we kill or ignore the wounded. We often get puffed up when someone falls into a sin. We so often kill the fallen brother, especially with sins of a sexual nature, as if they have gone beyond the grip of grace. How easy it is for us to sit in judgment against the fallen brother forgetting that we are just as fallible. Just a prone to wander and leave the God we love... The fallen brother needs the community at that time more than any other. Rather than finding love and acceptance, he finds rejection and scorn as if he has become a leper. I find that we are so eager to have grace meted out to us yet so stingy with grace. It betrays a false understanidng or no understanding of grace itself to withhold it from one who needs it... One of the modern classics for me has to be Phillip Yancey's "What's So Amazing About Grace?" I highly recommed it. There we are taken into the belly of Grace, be prepa

Prison to Pulpit

From the prison to the pulpit... this was the topic of the message shared at our street meeting held in Vietnam, Grants Pen last Sunday evening. The speaker was Pastor David Chang, former leader of the Ants Gang, of Montego Bay in the 70's. A gunman from before 11, this pastor now pastoring in Majesty Gardens, is a living testimony that this Gospel that we proclain is the 'Power of God unto salvation." Only the power of Christ can transfrom a man convicted in prison of multiple charges into a dynamic, anointed preacher with a powerful testimony that touches the lives of young men, especially those in the inner city. In a place where young men often find it impossibe it impossible to live after the gun, they wonder how can they survive if they put down the gun. Yes it is possible with God!

When the smoke clears

Shalom! This is another of those time when I think it necessary to copy a section of text before my own thoughts are recorded. Copy follows: June 14, 2007 Please help us get this information into the hands of as many people as possible by forwarding it to your entire email list of family and friends. A bill in Congress makes it a crime for pastors and churches to speak against homosexuality Message to pastors and other Christians: Just keep your mouth shut Dear Sonia, If pastors and other Christians don’t aggressively oppose a bill now in Congress, in the near future they will be subject to huge fines and prison terms if they say anything negative about homosexuality. The proposed law would make it a crime to preach on Romans Chapter 1 or I Corinthians Chapter 6. Or even to discuss them in a Sunday School class. If churches and individuals want to keep the government from telling them what they can and cannot preach and teach about homosexuality, they better get invo

The Crucified Life

"I have been crucified with Christ..." Really now, were you there when they crucified my Lord? Of course not! What does Paul mean by that bold statement. It is interesting to note that excruciating means literally out of the cross. Here our English language has been impacted by the cross. The cross is a reality, the cross of Jesus Christ is central to Christianity. One of my friends preached a sermon once entitled, "That Bloody Gospel" and you only needed to have view Mel Gobson's "The Passion of The Christ" to know exactly what I mean. Some found it repulsive, yet not even Mel's computer graphics workers could quite picture the original scene... It is clear from Scripture that life is in the blood, and that there can be no remission of sin without the shedding of Blood. An animal had to be killed to cover the shame that Adam and Eve felt for the first time when they sinned. It began there, rather it began before the foundation of the world, for

He Came To Set The Captiives Free

18The Spirit of the Lord [is] upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to send forth as delivered those who are oppressed [who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed, and broken down by calamity], 19To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord [the day [b]when salvation and the free favors of God profusely abound.(B) - Amplified Bible This past week has been awesome at Shalom Missionary. We have been having a week of believers meetings, Pastor Napolean Black, my dear friend and brother has been sharing with us. What an anointing upon the man, he has opened himself to the move of the Spirit. He has availed himself to the Lord so much, and God has been using him mightily. Last night, we had to engage the power of darkness in a direct way. Just as Jesus taught us, we do not play around with demons, we deal with

Guns, Gangs and Governance

Guns, gangs and violence, G3 - This was the topic of a conference put on USAID and FLAVACA held at Hilton Kingston June 12-13 , which I was privileged to attend. It was time well spent, I learned a whole lot. The conference was well organized, and the organizers sought to bring presenters from a wide range of perspectives on the G3. There was the 'grassroots' perspective, the youth perspective, the police perspective, the media/business perspective... In the Grassroots perspective I learned new slangs that are being used by gang members along with some of the harsh realities of the inner city gang life and their gun related activities.

Guns Gangs and Governance

Guns, gangs and violence, G3 - This was the topic of a conference put on USAID and FLAVACA held at Hilton Kingston June 12-13 , which I was privileged to attend. It was time well spent, I learned a whole lot. The conference was well organized, and the organizers sought to bring presenters from a wide range of perspectives on the G3. There was the 'grassroots' perspective, the youth perspective, the police perspective, the media/business perspective... In the Grassroots perspective I learned new slangs that are being used by gang members: 'strapped for cash' - means armed to go rob some money.

A Loving God committing murderous atrocities?

One of the answers that I have gotten so far is that the Bible contains a record of God's progressive self revelation, a record of the development of moral and ethical thought and behavior. Thus at times it seems as if God was once lenient with something and is now being strict about it. I am very aware of that kind of reasoning but my difficulty with it is that it is just that a difficulty. All of that makes very little sense to the man on the street, will this stranger that raised the issue with me be able to understand and appreciate any of that kind of thing? I readily admit that I am having a great difficulty finding a way to explain that in simple terms for now. What its really saying is that just as God dealt with his people in stages of their own understanding of who he is and who He has revealed Himself to be, and so overlooked some things in man's early days of journeying through life with Him but now that He has culminated this gradual revelation of Himself in

Biblical Algebra

The Psalmist opens the song book with words that are very common, blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the ungodly or seats among the wicked. I was helping a student prepare for the 2007, CXC math exam today when I had to smile as I saw some algebra in light of Scripture. I was saying to the student that negative multiplied by negative comes positive. But this is not true in terms of humans , cause two negative people with negative attitudes and behaviors tend to propograte badness, they tend to produce more wickedness. Next we looked at the algebraic theory that negative multiplied by positive gives negative. This I see to be true, more often than not someone who has a positive outlook hangs around someone with a positive attitude and behavior and it is the positive person who ends up being corrupted. Good cop...bad cop, the bad ones today started out very good in most cases. I dont want to stretch this too far but it made me remind myself that we need to be

Married To The Same Person For So Long?

Hi, this is the first post that will have an extensive portion that was not written by me. I had to put it here cause I think its so relevant and timely and instructive. I will comment on it in my next post. Please share with a friend. When I got home that night as my wife served dinner, I held her handand said, I've got something to tell you. She sat down and ate quietly.Again I observed the hurt in her eyes.Suddenly I didn't know how to open my mouth. But I had to let her knowwhat I was thinking. I want a divorce. I raised the topic calmly.She didn't seem to be annoyed by my words, instead she asked mesoftly, why? I avoided her question. This made her angry. She threw awaythe chopsticks and shouted at me, you are not a man! That night, we didn'ttalk to each other. She was weeping. I knew she wanted to find outwhat had happened to our marriage. But I could hardly give her asatisfactoryanswer, she had lost my heart to a lovely girl called Dew. I didn't loveher an

270 Days of Promise

The gestation period is approximately 270 days long for humans. For the average woman who is pregnant that is 270 days of promise. 270 days is quite a lonmg time... a long time to endure all kinds of changes in the body, pain, nausea, dizziness, strnage and strong urges for various food items, cravings of unusual stuff... A mother, God's crown of creation. Thank you Mamma for the 9 months you carried me! I love you mamma. You did it mostly on your own, but you did it proudly. We didn't always see eye to eye but we did it together. Through all the tears, the days of little, the tears of losing my brother Leroy, the hassles of in and out of the hospital with Sally and Jude, the many visits to the doctor with me, the many diagnoses of liver problems and heart problems and ear problems and hearing aid needed and kidney problem, the many times we had to just hold on in faith and reject the doctors' report and walk in faith before Jehovah Shammah. Mom you are the best. The

Ward 6

Ward 6, university Hospital of the West Indies, men who have some kind of urological related surgery. Men with all kinds of tubes and bags attached to their sides, men with the hands strapped to a bed (and no its not some kind of dominatrix movie)- strapped because if their hands are left free the nurses would have to be re inserting the tubes, needles and bags upon each visit (unfortunately these visits are few and far between so there may be a higher mortality rate if their hands are not strapped). What is man? Little wonder life is described in breif terms in Scripture, a vapour, a aswift runner, a morning mist, a breath... Life hangs in a precarious balance. Hanging by thin threads at times. There seems to be an increase in the number of urology patients thaat are being seen. My presence at Ward 6 was to visit a man who in a few days faces a penile amputation, after Tuesday of next week he will be John less, minus his willy, he wont have a tea pot, his anaconda or what's le

Dutty Collage

When I was much younger, growing up as a young Christian my church ( a trinitarian pentecostal) held regular open air crusades. One of the favorite choruses had these words, "I'm going on towards my mark, towards my goal... so many lives depend on what I do , give me the strength Lord, I'm going on for you." How often does this pride defying and back to reality realization hit you? That what you do can and will affect so many lives? I came across two items today that brought this painfully home to home to me. One was an email with a link for a video entitled "Because The Children Are Watching" Take a look at the movie (I hope the link works for you). The other was an article in the Wednesday Star ( Click on the title of the article posted here)- by Blacka, Jamaican comedian, in his column " Blacka's Box)- If you cant get a hold of the star or find it online then please send an email to: hit-me-back@hotmail. com and ask Blacka to email the articl

The Demon of The Ghetto

The more I look at it, the more I think about it, its the more I realize that one of the most wicked systems that has been created in Jamaica is the system of the ghetto. The ghetto is more than a geographical location. It is a system of behavior, a system of thinking... the physical attributes of this system are mostly easier to deal with than the philosophical aspect of it. It's easir to have to see people in sub human conditions than to see people who seem to be comfortanle and content to remain in subhuman conditions because it is a ticket to a few dollars from some weak and corrupt politician. It's easier to see persons without a job than to see persons who don't want to work for a certain pay, even though they have neither the qualification, experience of know how to get a bigger pay. I am simple not convinced that the powers that be or some of the people of this ghetto want the label of ghetto and the reality of ghetto to be removed from here. There seems to be a

Get Off The Bus!

A dear friend of mine lost a male relative in tragic circumstances recently. He was part of the crew on a JPS (light and power company) truck that ran off the road and fell into a gorge. This man thinking he had a better chance of survival jumped off the truck. The uncanny fateful twist is that he landed on a stone and died instantly while the other crew members who remained in the truck are now alive with relatively few injuries. This is really sad but it underscores the reality that those who are on o a road or path they they recognize leads to death tend to want to jump off that path. Proverbs 14: 12 tells us that there is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death. Jesus tells us in John 14, that He is the way the truth and the life. Any and every other way leads to death. Isn't it high time some people get off the bus? Isnt it time the unsaved get off the express way and enter the lane? For broad is the road that leads to destruction and narrow is t

Sixth Sense...Led of The Spirt...Death

Have you ever had a sudden urge to do something, something that you had been asked to do maybe... or of your own volition you had decided to do and forgot to do or didnt get to do due to the multiplicity of activities that are oh so important? Or so you think. What happens when the request was to pray for an elderly gentleman? In all earnestness you planned to go and just didnt get to go. Oh there are so many things to be done, legitimate things to be done, all pressing needs. The request came just about three weeks ago... I planned to go, just didnt get to go. Out of the blues, this week, Maybe Tuesday it came back to me very stronly that I need to go to pray with that man. I planned in all earnestness to go again. Set the time to go and just didnt get to go. Then this morning, or no it was last night, I was told that he died. There has to be a reason, its not sixth sense, its not premonition, it was the Holy Spirit prompting me. Lord I hope he made it right with you... Lord forgive m

Of Wise Sayings and Us

"You are only young once, but you can be immature indefinitely." - What is maturity? Who determines it? In the natural realm maturity is open to wide subjectivity, influenced by all manner of factors, varied from culture to culture. What is clear is that whatever the parameter used in a particular locale it is frowned upon to be considered immature. In the spiritual realm, maturity is measured against the plumb line of Christ likeness. We were created to become like Christ. Evidence of growth and maturity is the extent to which we are becoming or have become like Christ. Each day we experience many opportunities, many challenges. To hold to the sovereignty of God is to hold to the view that nothing happens by chance, that there are no co incidences. It follows then that each moment of the day we are being taken through experiences designed to make us mature. We learn to love by being tested to hate or to respond in love, we learn self control by being allowed to

Delayed But Not Derailed

Saul of Tarsus had a destiny. a destiny for which he had been uniquely qualified. A destiny that was characterized by zeal, energy, passion, desire and excellency. A destiny that involved a sharp mind, boldness. Something deep within him longed to serve God wholeheartedly. His studies at the feet of Gamliliel seem to have catapulted him into a deep recess of the grip of religion. He sought with all his might to please God by excelling in the religion of his fathers, he fought valiantly and unapologetically against the Christians because their message was a threat to the survival of the Jewish religion. Until the day had his date with destiny and he came face to face with the one that he had been trying so hard to please and was unknowingly hurting. His encounter with the living Jesus brought him to the threshold of his destiny. He embraced it gladly, and he became doubly zealous, double brave, double excellent as he finally was doing that for which he had been born. You too hav

The Wheat and the Tares

Typically Jesus taught in parables. One of those has to with the labourers reporting to the master that they had gone to inspect the fields and they found that the wheat that they had laboured to plant had been contaminated by tares that appear to have been sown during the night by a ruthless enemy. I have never seen a wheat or a tare plant, but what is clear is that they had a striking morphological resemblance. S much so that unless one painstakingly scrutinized them, he/she could unintentionally destroy a wheat plant thinking it was a tare. I am still in the hermeneutical process with this passage to arrive at the precise meaning behind this parable. What i will say at this juncture is that a cursory examination of the church will certainly cause one to seriously question the validity of the discipleship of some members. There seems to be in every congregation some persons who have all the external trappings of a genuine disciple yet they are a constant source of problems in t

All in a days work

So whats the big deal anyway. We each have 24 hrs each day... or do we. We assume that we have 24hrs in our day when we wake up. What In the first place when you wake at 6 a.m hrs out of that 24 has already been gone never to return. If you die at 10 a.m it means that God would have allocated 10 hrs of that particular day to you. How well do you spend your day. Should we be spending our days or should we be investing them? Our days, our time is a charge that God gives us to manager to be stewards just as with everything else that He gives us. How well then are you at being a steward of God's time, note God's time, not your time! A good measure of this is to ask yourself, how much of the day do you spend doing things that have eternal value? Sleeping, eating , watching television... Do they have eternal value. How much of your typical day is spent in communion with Him? how much is spent sharing the Good News with someone who needs to hear? How much is spent bearing

Give To Everyone Who Asks You?

Give till it hurts! Can giving hurt? Should it hurt? In the famous sermon on the mount Jesus teaches us that we are to give to everyone who asks of us. We are to give even more than they ask of us. We read of the Macedonian church, who gave beyond their ability to give, we read of the Galatians who regareded Paul with such love that they would have plucked out their own eyes to give to him if it were possible. Can giving hurt? Should it hurt. I wonder if there is any one living in Jamaica today who can say that a day goes by (while they're out and about- not locked away in a house)- that they are not met by a beggar who is doing just that begging. From the boys and the stop lights, to the ones staggering in the New Kingston Parking lots, to the ones on the street corners kneading a spliff in their palms(who somewhere think that every male that they approach has a child since they address you as fadda or dadz), to the ones who come knocking on office door or ringin the buzze

Have You Counted The Cost

Have you counted the cost? Luke 9: 57 - 62. What is the cost of discipleship? We live in an age of easy believism...cheap grace...mouth only committment...shallow discipleship. Have you counted the cost of following Jesus? Jesus is walking along teaching as he usually does and this bright scribe pipes up form the crowd, "Lord I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus must have smiled to himself. Maybe the scribe thought that was the proper thing to say, maybe it was the religiously correct thing to say, maybe it would have made him look good in the eyes of the crowd, but Jesus knowing the need for a distinction between mouthed commitments and commitments of heart and mind and body and will placed the reality of the cost of discipleship right before the Scribe. "Foxes have holes and birds have nests but the Son of Man has no place t0 lay His head"... This statement by Jesus flies in the face of those who teach that Jesus was rich and that if He were alive today he

Christ In The Ghetto...Flowers Garden

I pushed open the zinc gate, there they were. Two boys without shirts, and a cute little girl. She smiled brightly as she saw me and I called to her. He was nowhere in sight, then out of nowhere he appeard behind me, with a knife in his hand... and in the other a flower cutting that he had acquired from one of the neighbours. His scarred face lit up as he saw me, "Wow superintendent, you come see me busy man!" He had gone in search of more flowers to add to his garden. To the unsuspecting passer by, it would seem as though some meticulous granny with nothing but her precious memories lived there. There where once was the haunt of men that would scare a demon from hell at night if he crossed their path. Men who can loan and shoot a rifle before you could say run! Men who blew sensemilia smoke in circles and rings like an international truck struggling Mt. Rossa. Men who knew no easy life, men who never expect to live pass 21. Now the yard is brimming with flowers that

SAND AND STONE

Two friends were walkingthrough the desert.During some point of the journey, they had anargument; and one friendslapped the other onein the face. The one who got slappedwas hurt, but without saying anything,wrote in the sand:today my best friendslapped me in the face.They kept on walking,until they found an oasis,where they decidedto take a bath the one who had been slapped got stuck in themire and started drowning,but the friend saved him.After he recovered fromthe near drowning,he w rote on a stone:"today my best friendsaved my life ".The friend who had slapped and saved his best friendasked him, "after i hurt you,you wrote in the sand and now,you write on a stone,

Christ In The Ghetto

The Spirit of the Lord God, YHWH , was upon Him. The Spirit anointed (empowered, consecrated, designated) Him to preach good things, good news, news that would make them skip for joy. EXTra EXta EXtra read all about it. A land of people who lived in darkness, where not even dogs roam the street at nights for the instincts have taught them that their woof woof tail wagging friends went outside, there was a loud noise and spot lay on the ground, not moving not even a whimpher. A land barricaded, lanes narrow and dark, lined with rusty zinc... covered with a dark darkness. A darkness that enveloped them in a soul clenching, biting grip. Devoid of the voice of God, reminiscent of the darkness which existed in the begining. Oh the joy that fills the soul when this good news enters the heart. For it is not a news that is new, it has rang out from the 'modda' with head wrapped and bell clanging and word King James version in her hands in the square at 'four roads', up the aven
“Your Finest Hour” Luke 1: 26 – 38 Joseph Joshua Gideon Esther Samuel David Solomon Josiah Jeremiah Timothy Titus… The unnamed ones: the servant girl of Naaman, the one whose fish and bread fed the multitude. What do they all have in common? Youth used in God’s redemptive plan Some of the world’s greatest accomplishments have been done by young men and women. Alexander the Great became king before he was thirty years old. Hitler and Mussolini built their power on the dedication and energy of young people. Today, Communists make their strongest sales pitch to youth, because they know of the influence and dedication of the young. Historic commentators place Mary at about age 16 – 18 GOD TAKES NOTE OF HOW YOUNG PEOPLE CONDUCT THEMSELVES v.26-27 Mary was able to keep herself pure [private and public, virginity highly valued then, less now, media exposure] 65% of al

I surrender All?

I surrender everythingt to you. Do I? Really now. At best this can be my aspiration; my constant striving after. Oh take me to that place Lord. Lord; your very name demands total surrender! Can I truly call you Lord? Am I a hypocrite? A play actor? A whitewashed sepulchre . prettily decored on the outside but inside is nothing but filth, deadness, rotteness uglyness, stench, stink, decay. Help me master to clean both the outside n inside of the dish. Here is my life Lord. You know my heart's desire is to follow hard after you, though following after you is hard; help me to keep pressing on. The flesh almost brought me to the ground. Almost in so far as I didnt remain grovelling in the dust, wallowing in the mire...