Lisbon 3 - Laws

As far as I know, these aren't actual legal laws, just ones I've observed... And no, I'm not in Portugal any more, but I'll keep blogging about it for a bit.

1. Department stores and supermarkets larger than SPAR in England are forbidden.
2. All pharmacists should look like boutiques.
3. Labelling of prices is strictly optional. In pharmacies, it is discouraged. If you really have to label a price, try to make it insignificant, like in the small print under the bar code.
4. No pharmacist should sell razor blades or shaving foam. Neither should supermarkets.
5. One in ten shops to be given over to the selling of loose leaf tobacco. Such shops should always be a few cm below street level, and are allowed to sell men's magazines on the side.
6. There should be lots of police on the streets, often using slow electric transport like golf buggies or Segways.
7. Police should always be visible. This is to ensure that tourists feel very safe on the streets - Lisbon has a very low rate of violent crime - while still ensuring that there is a plentiful supply of drugs. I was offered drugs 7 times in two days. Unless "hashish" is Portuguese for "my, that's a nice T-shirt". Or maybe I just looked like I needed them.
8. Big brand stores are not allowed, with the following three exceptions: McDonalds, Subway, H&M. Actually H&M aren't a big brand - they're only on the border of my consciousness, and I'm not sure what exactly they do, except for sell vastly overpriced clothes.
9. Sandwich shops are allowed to sell alcohol. It was quite interesting to realise that one of the soft drink options was beer.

Lisbon 2 - Christo Rei

A couple of thing I didn't know about Lisbon before coming here that weren't exactly prominent in he guide book were the near-replica of the Golden Gate Bridge and the giant statue of Jesus.

To give you an idea of the scale o the statue, look carefully at the next picture. You see that little black thing at the bottom of the base? That's a normal-sized door.

Christo Rei, the statue, was built by the Roman Catholic Church in part to thank God (or, as they put it, Christ of the Sacred Heart) for Portugal not getting drawn into WW2, and partly as a way of saying that Christ would be exalted over Portugal. Some people would doubtless say it was a bit of a waste of money, and that the money could have been given to the poor instead or something.

I suspect Jesus migth reply with something like Matthew 26:10

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me."

I'm not sure whether I ever approve of statues of Jesus theologically. I certainly don't like little ones. But 110m high ones, even if a lot of that is the plinth, certainly have something going for them.

Satisfaction

It seems that I have reasonable internet access, for the time being at least.

This morning, I was thinking about Psalm 81. Here's an extract:

Hear me, my people, and I will warn you—
if you would only listen to me, Israel!
You shall have no foreign god among you;
you shall not worship any god other than me.
I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of Egypt.
Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.
But my people would not listen to me;
Israel would not submit to me.
Psalm 81:8-11, TNIV

God offers us total satisfation, if only we are willing to look to him for it. He says to us "open wide your mouth and I will fill it". He has shown his ability to do so by rescuing his people from slavry. And yet time and again, even God's own people fail to look to him for satisfaction. We look to money or entertainment or relationships or academic success or beauty or power or whatever. How do we expect those who are not yet Christians to look to God for their satisfaction if we do not?

Lisbon 1 - Words

At the moment, I'm in Lisbon, on my way to my placement. As people who know me realise, I'm a bit of an equal-opportunity mocker. I'll mock just about anyone and everyone when they do something silly, especially myself.

With that in mind, here are some funny photos from Lisbon.

When Jesus said "store up for yourselves treasures in Heaven, I'm not sure this is what he meant...

Yes, I'm pretty sure that means "Bank of the Holy Spirit"...

I'm also glad I'm training to be clergy. There seem to be different traffic rules for us here...

And some of the local cuisine is a little suspect...

Lots more sensible stuff about Lisbon to follow at some point, depending on time and internet access.

Prince Caspian and the next few weeks

Last night, I saw Prince Caspian at the cinema. I have to say - I think it was a lot better than the first film, and even better than the book of Prince Caspian. They've expanded the story in several ways, most of which are improvements and which bring out the points more clearly or nuances in the characters. For me, the only thing that didn't work was the whole Susan / Caspian subplot.

Having said that briefly, I'm about to go off on placement until late August. I don't know how much I'll be able to post (if at all). So don't worry if nothing much new appears here.

Sharia Law?

In the news recently, a judge suggested that it would be a good idea if Muslim communities in Britain could regulate themselves using Sharia law on areas like family law and some transactions, while not going beyond the sanctions of the laws of the UK.

This and most other such discussions miss the very simple key problem - who determines which jurisdiction applies? For example, suppose a Muslim woman, married to a Muslim man, with children, becomes a Christian. Sharia law, as far as I remember, would claim that the woman was under its jurisdiction as she did not have the authority to convert without her husband's permission. And if she did convert, depending on the interpretation of Sharia, she would either get killed (prevented in the above suggestion) or treated as if dead - divorced and separated from her children with no right to contact them, regardless of whether her husband was abusive (for example) or not.

This Intolerant God

This impatience of the Bible that refuses to accept anything less than total fidelity is only a reflection of the intolerant God of the Bible who insists on having all your affections.
Dale Ralph Davis, The Word Became Fresh

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

It's odd. My experience of talking to American Christians about Indiana Jones is that they love the films, except for Temple of Doom, which they hate. Temple of Doom was my favourite of the first three, and is still my favourite. Possibly because the peril isn't just Germans with guns.

But in a more profound way, this film is also the odd one out of the four. And yes, Indiana Jones was probably due for an expedition with one of the ancient American civilisations, but there are definitely strong X-files-type sci-fi elements as well. It even starts with the Russians invading Area 51 to try to find something from the UFO crash at Roswell...

The Russians protested about this film. But that's just New Cold War scaremongering. Actually it makes sense if when Indiana Jones was 40 he was up against the Germans to be up against the Russians when he's 60. And they don't come off anywhere near as badly as the Germans (let alone the Thuggi) do in the other three films. Their position makes perfect sense - they want knowledge, especially knowledge that might help militarily. They aren't trying to use weird occult powers or anything.

From an action point of view, it's probably the best of the 4 Indiana Jones films, and the compulsory gross-out animal scenes are great too. From a plot point of view, it's possibly the weakest. But it's still great fun.

Bill Bailey - Love Song

This is a favourite of my girlfriend's. It is magnificent.

Taking Risks

Near where I live, there is a big roundabout. It's often regarded as a very dangerous roundabout for cyclists. Coming out of Oxford, most cars go left at the roundabout. Most bikes go right, which causes problems.

The road coming into the roundabout splits into two lanes - the left lane for left (with the cars), the right lane for right. This all makes sense.

For the cyclist who always wants to take the safest course of action, it seems that the correct thing to do is to stay at the left of the traffic. But the problem is that staying at the left then leads to them having to cut very dangerously across the traffic when it is accelerating out of the roundabout. I have narrowly missed hitting a cyclist who was trying just that.

The safe way to cycle round the roundabout is by taking what initially looks like the more risky route - to weave into and through the stream of traffic as it is braking to arrive at the roundabout so that they are in the correct lane for turning right. It feels riskier, but it's much easier to see and to account for for cars, and far fewer people are hit doing that.

This is a parable. Often in life, and in faith, playing it safe is actually the high-risk, low-gain strategy.