h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It's a drizzly, humid day at the Cape of Storms. I tuned in to the morning programme but the music was exceptionally bad - repetitive, not good at all. So I switched off and went back to bed.

I've found the sentence: After a beautiful paragraph of the description of a woman, comes this sentence. "Nicht anders konnte das Himmelsmädchen Pramlotscha gebildet gewesen sein, das Indra zu dem großen Asketen Kandu geschickt hatte, damit er durch seine ungeheure Askese nicht göttergleiche Kräfte sammle" - The heavenly maiden Pramlotsha could not have been formed in any other way, whom Indra sent to the great hermit Kandu, so that he should not gain powers like those of the gods through his terrible asceticism. That sentence has stuck in my mind ever since I was a teenager.

The posting police, who evidently rejoice in the absence of Peet, appear to be having difficulties passing this post.

So this is how they treat someone with mental health problems. They must be shetting themselves if they're afraid of words. What are they afraid of? Perhaps I haven't made it clear enough, that I suffer from mental health problems. As opposed to going on, and on, about how mentally ill I am, I actually suffer from the illness; and in that last acute episode I lost 2 friends, as well. You REALLY find out who your friends are when you're mentally ill.

Israel and South Africa: Some Parallels

There are some interesting parallels between the histories of Biblical Israel, and of South Africa. Both are lands which
have seen much suffering and pain, and endure wounds, originating in
past conflicts, open and weeping until this day. Both are lands of
wildernesses. Both are lands inhabited by many tribes. Both have been
governed by foreign powers, to the oppression of the people. Both
countries have had outstanding leaders arisen from the people. Both
nations have spoken to the world of the ultimate defeat of the forces of
oppression and tyranny. Let us examine some of these parallels in more
detail.

Forty is a symbolic number in the Bible. When we examine where it
occurs, we notice that it is associated with testing, trial, probation,
and the humility that comes from such testing. Moses was tested for
forty years in the desert before he came to lead his people out of Egypt
at the age of 80; he ruled them for another 40 years. Certain of the
judges who ruled Israel, ruled for 40 years, such as Deborah, Eli and
Gideon, as did the first three kings of Israel, Saul, David and Solomon.
The Bible is said to have had forty writers.

The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years; and the
National Party ruled in South Africa for just over forty years – an
astonishing record for a single party to rule in a parliamentary
democracy, if you want to call apartheid South Africa a democracy, which
the National Party certainly did; although of course these days it is
commonly said that democracy only began in South Africa in 1994.

The Africans were taken twice by foreign powers; we think firstly of
the chapter of slavery in Africa’s history, and secondly, of the
seizure of the majority of South Africans by the policy of apartheid, by
which South Africa was ruled from 1948 until the early nineties of the
20th century. Similarly we think of the two Exiles which Israel
suffered, first the Assyrian, then the Babylonian Exiles.

We think of the twelve tribes of Israel; and of the eleven official
languages in South Africa today, of which nine are African languages.

Of the leaders of Israel, we remember Moses, who led his people out
of Egypt, in the same way as we think of Madiba, who, like Moses, had to
undergo a lengthy period of preparation before he began his public
service as an old man. Moses received his education abroad in Egypt; the
Struggle heroes were largely funded and educated by the Soviet Union.
Then there were the great writing prophets of Israel, such as Isaiah and
Jeremiah, as there were great protest writers in apartheid South
Africa, like Steve Biko and Nadine Gordimer. Both Jeremiah and Biko
worked at the risk of their lives. Israel had the finest legal system of
the Ancient Near East, in the Mosaic Torah; the ANC had the Freedom
Charter and now there is the South African Constitution, widely
recognised as the finest in the world. Israel had her prophetic songs,
whereas South Africa had Miriam Makeba.

The Israelites had friendly foreign leaders, such as Darius of
Persia, and the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar, after he had endured his
seasons of madness; the ANC had Helen Suzman, Joe Slovo and Beyers
Naude, who were white Africans committed to the cause of the oppressed
majority.

The Israelites, like their children the Jews today, were marked in
their history by long periods of national anguish; South Africa had her
Struggle, and there were oppressions previous to that of the National
Party, in the rule of the British and of the Dutch.

The Bible teaches that God prepares individuals and nations when he
wants to use them to perform his works. Every leader God has used, in
the Bible and in the history of the church, has had to undergo long
training in the wilderness before being released into their ministry and
used by God. We see the great and disproportionate impact on the world
that the people of Israel have had since the days of Moses and David and
Jesus; let us look forward expectantly to God moving upon the world
through the nation of South Africa, as things gather in momentum in the
race towards the finish-line and the manifestation of the ultimate
Victory of Jesus Christ over the forces of darkness which threaten
individuals, communities and nations. Jesus is Lord. Amen.

The unseen voices are angrily trying to push me over as I stand on the edge of a precipice calling to the multitudes in the Valley of Decision, Turn to Jesus, call upon his holy Name! Jesus is Lord and God, and he has saved you! Welcome the Saviour into your heart, and turn from your wicked ways, and trust in Jesus with the issues of life and death, face and shame, victory and defeat! Do not any longer pretend to trust, like children of time, in Karl Marx or Gautama or Jane Austen! Do no longer cover yourselves with see-through nylon undergarments! Take the love of God, which covers a multitude of sins, and the Blood of Jesus' Love, by which your sins were removed from you as far as the East is from the West, and receive the mercy of the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world! Believe in your hearts and confess with your mouths, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the Glory of the Father and of the Spirit of Almighty God. Recognise the crucified and risen Lord, receive the Peace of the Prince of Peace, and rest in the good standing with God that Jesus came and wept and struggled to procure for all mankind, lest we die of death the second time. Hear the words of the angel who said, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Fear not, and do not thou be afraid any longer; for there is born to you this day a son, which shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. And behold, the virgin shall conceive; and the offspring shall be called Emmanuel, which is, God is with us. And the young men shall see visions, and the old men shall dream dreams, and the Spirit of Almighty God shall be poured out upon all flesh; and the people shall call upon the Name of the Most High, and he will hear from heaven, and will answer them, and there will be a great rejoicing in the earth and in the heavenlies, as multitudes who presently dwell in the Valley of Decision, shall call upon the Name of the Lord; and as it is written, Every one who shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved. He who comes to me I shall in no wise drive away, says Emmanuel, the Son of man, the Son of God. And there will be rejoicing in your coasts; and your desert places shall bloom with sons and children, fathers and daughters, mothers; many shall turn to the ancient path, and walk, and be healed as they go. And they shall see the Hand of the Most High as he moves in power to heal and to save, and to fill the hungry with good things; for happy are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled with righteousness, and faith, and deeds. Exploits! Happy are those who mourn, for they will rejoice. Happy are those whose name is cast out as evil, for so did they treat the prophets who were before them. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt not destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

I have successfully renewed my PO Box for the year 2015. This was meant to be done in around October last year. But I've done it in January this year. And so it is, that personages can write to Word First Ministries, PO Box 53213, Kenilworth 7745 South Africa, and receive a reply, one hopes, in the formation of a tract, or a cheering epistle, or a teaching, or an exhortation, or an encouragement, or a slice of red pie with cream and a side order of garlic bread, with cheese.

I see Ubuntu comes with a flavour called Ubuntu GNOME; it's Gnome 3, but there is a Classic Session fallback, which I presume is GNOME2. I am, however, a committed Mint MATE user, because Mint MATE came to the rescue when Ubuntu started with their Unity nonsense. I was an Ubuntu user from 2008-2013 I think, that's five years Ubuntu, those years, my goodness me, unbelievable, where does time go? Now, however, I am on Clem's team. My desktop has everything I want, although Qiana is a bit slow on all my machines.

I've read about some of the problems openSUSE people have! My goodness me. Whereas Mint just works straight out of the box, even with mp3s and so on.

Perhaps the nods at Peet's have discovered some new cure for psychotic mental illness and they're trying it out on me. Because I had a slightly psychotic episode near to Christmas last year and as a result of that I lost 2 friends and have been put in premod at Peet's seemingly indefinitely. Which I wasn't bothered about, but which I am now coming to see as a hostile action intended to put me off posting there, which they're not going to do, because Peet's is my only social outlet at present. I am not going to say anything further except that I am pretty sure I know the source of the hostility. (gynaikes eisin tou aristerou.)

Gutman the Boepa can't save them, not even with his tremendous stomach.