Caribleaper

Buffet, Piling Up & Table Grace

Posted on February 14, 2012 by caribleaper

Would you ever consider a buffet spread, as a place for considering insights into human behaviour? Perhaps not, depending on the occasion! Before I came across the word “buffet”, I knew of lavishly spread tables growing up in a context where people hadn’t much, but when they came together for a social gathering, it would always be a mouth-watering and delightful experience of plenty, where each knew what amount to have so that all can eat, with enough left-overs to come a second time round.

Some researchers have been studying “buffets” and their observation suggests that there is more going on at a buffet table than just diving into the sandwiches, wraps, samosas, sausage rolls, vegetarian quiche, nicely sliced pizzas to fit one’s mouth size, salads, and fruits etc. Buffets are “a microcosm of greed, sexual politics and altruism” (New Scientist December 2011) a site where our journey to the table and the choices we make are dictated by factors we may not even be conscious of.

Will certain choices lead to a delicious plateful when food has to be divided up? Of course that will depend on the sort of food on the “spread”. We would assume that in heading towards the buffet table people will pile up their small plates with their preferred option (meat for instance for the carnivores) rather than going for the vegetarian option. We should not rule out the possibility it may not pay to take your favourite food first. From a mathematical point of view if you are aware that the other diners hate chicken legs or sweet and sour chicken wings, then this is what you may go for lastly as there be more of these, the second time round. In others words if you are aware of the other’s preferences then you may be able to work backwards from your least favourite to maximise you intake and how much you can get on your plate. Of course, there is the small matter of eating more than your money’s worth so why not start with the expensive stuff?

And what about the predictable approaches: those we know who will go for what they always had (the boorish approach) or those who in their selection is mindful of what others delight in (gallant knight approach). What researchers discovered is that if the eaters act “boorish”, everyone ends up with a less satisfying meal, than if every person acts gallantly. Hence, their suggestion that it may be wise to be generous providing that there are not selfish eaters around: wishful thinking perhaps given human inclinations and ways in which we can be original in our transgressing!

We do know from experience though that there are those of us who rush headlong to the buffet table and who see satisfaction not in taste or favourite food but in the art of engineering piles of food on a small plate especially if you can only go only once at the table! The art of piling up food as high as a meter on small plates may serve you well. One software engineer even worked out equations, diagrams and online instructions as how ‘eaters’ can maximise their haul at the buffet table and these special meal deals. The art of such ‘high piling’ calls for creativity. So one may wish, for instance, to build a tower using a base of carrot sticks balanced around the rim of one’s plate in order to extend it and then start the piling. The important thing is that the foundation needs to start with strong and dry stuff. Insights of the parable of the wise and foolish builders may be helpful here!

But what about the patterns of our behaviour when it comes to the buffet? Are you surprise to learn that those of us with a high BMI index may locate ourselves closer to the feeding point than those with an average BMI, and that 71% of the former will face the food in comparison to 26% with an average weight? This is beside the point that the latter may also be back in seconds for a second helping! And what the group size – would this influence how we consume? Indeed, the group size will dramatically affect the number of calories consumed (35 % more than if you dine alone and in a group of eight perhaps a 90% increase). “Where two or three are gathered in my name…” does have a comforting ring!!! You can imagine how gender, ethnicity and other factors of socialization will influence our intake capacity. And try imagining the soul –searching that happens as we head for the dessert! One may have to take Luther at his word here: “sin boldly, grace abounds”!

Our location from or walk/run towards the buffet table is not some value-free exercise. The next time we head for the buffet table and start to “dig into” the offers before us and are faced with the “eat as much as you can” offer we may wish to think otherwise. It may be wise to offer grace before, during and after the “buffet run” as we remember those hungry mouths who cannot even reach a table, the source of our food and contemplate the importance of well-being. Eating faith-fully is quite a challenge!

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | Tagged buffet, food, table-grace | Leave a comment

Saving Capitalism & Spinning Jargons

Posted on January 24, 2012 by caribleaper

Capitalism is dead – long live capitalism! The funeral has been announced and postponed as there is a dispute over the cause of death and whether it is really dead And since no will or testament has been written, there is a problem of the estate and the many debtors lining up to make their claims. While we await an inquest, some of the key worshippers and high priests of this once mighty god is now calling for a “responsible” off spring to step in and “run things”. There is a strong belief in some form of a resurrection and theologians are wrestling about the implications of this for faith.

In the meantime the merchants of capitalism’s death – those very greedy earners of meteoric sums of money continue to grease their palms and pockets with extravagant amounts in bonuses. These are very happy people. Many others are unhappy having lost their jobs or source of income, unable find work and are faced with mounting debts. Would the bonuses make these human beings better bankers with a heart for the common good? Perhaps they will prove philosopher Jeremy Bentham right in his suggestions that if you want to know the right thing to do: ask yourself what will increase the happiness of most people, and decrease pain.

In the meantime, I have been wrestling with some of the economic jargons we are bombarded with and associated with the deep mess we are in. Here are some, with my own attempts at busting these, just to decrease pain….for the fun of it!

AAA-rating: means that there is still some time before the battery life runs dry. Or like the 3 A* you will need to stand a chance for Ox-Bridge: welcome to the world of the privileged!
Administration: means that when the crap hits the fan, rescue will arrive in a form of directed supervision to help you out of the mess. The courts will be calling the shots!
Assets: that which will provide income -cunning ingenuity to beat an oppressive system
Austerity: economic policy aimed at only one group of people – the already poor!
Bailout: frantic struggle to rescue that which is sinking or already sunk.
Bankruptcy: having you assets devalued in order to be liquidated (see administration).
Bear/Bull Market: has nothing to do with animals though they conjure images of altar and sacrifice.
BRIC: has nothing to do the construction business. It stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China – the rising [by the way not a new horror film ]
Capital adequacy ratio: can be compared to a sponge: it estimates the ability to absorb losses!
Credit crunch: has nothing to do with abdominal exercises, though its effect may spell forced starvation for some and natural weight loss/shrinking stomach for others.
Credit default swap (CDS) is a sophisticated way to speculate on the misery of borrowers unable to repay
Currency Peg: a fixed furnishing on which to hang out your devalued or worthless currency. This mechanism collapses when the currency in the central bank dries up!
Core inflation: is another way to underscore that we continue to be screwed, and with central bankers starting to eat more than fingernails.

Ambrose Bierce (The Devil’s Dictionary) observed that “there is nothing new under the sun but there are lots of old things we don’t know.” It may be the case that the jargons we are bombarded with merely serve to cover up our ignorance and our inability to name the monster before us. Fancy and technical language aside: one word – greed – sums it up!

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | Tagged Capitalism is dead, greed, jargon busters, Jeremy Bentham | Leave a comment

Being Downgraded, Anomie & Fairness

Posted on January 15, 2012 by caribleaper

All is not well with the “body”. I am not referring to my body, though I will do well with getting in shape and healthier. I mean our “body politics” and “body economics”, if I may coin these words. France has been downgraded, losing its triple A credit by the ironically named Standard and Poor’s (S&P) credit rating pundits. Italy, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal were made even lower (one notch lower than France) with Cyprus and Portugal given “junk” ratings. What have they been eating (pun) to get so out of (economic) shape?

One cannot help but think of Durkheim’s idea of anomie to describe our present state of affairs. The sudden change and breakdown of things, rules and systems that hold us as a society together cause a state of anomie. And this state can happen in both prosperity and in serious economic depression. Can it be that our financial crisis can serve as a necessary catalyst to mobilize us to initiate a different set of actions across all fronts? Or it may be that what we have before us is an opportunity to check ourselves from plunging into a state of anomie!

In the midst of all these developments, the notion of “fairness” is finding interesting ways to be raised in our consciousness by politicians, media reporting and by commentator. I am interested in the rhetoric around “fairness”, especially since it seems to be applied selectively and only in certain areas of our political and economic life. For those feeling the long end of the present government’s “castration complex” tend to be the most vulnerable in our society!

We need to scrutinise the use of “fairness” in these political conversations among the above. We may wish to ask: What is their understanding of fairness? Who determines it? Should it not apply across the board to all the other parts of our political and economic life? Is it fair that the taxpayers should pay for the follies of those who gambled away billions of pounds, and yet received (and are receiving) mind-boggling sums of monies for their incompetence? It is ironic that “fairness” (not justice) tends to be always articulated by privileged people (who rarely disclose their interest). Usually when those who are most vulnerable take to the streets or let their views be heard by protests they are branded as anarchists, selfish, ignorant of the complexity of issues and of not having the common good at heart.

Justice as fairness (Aristotle) must be affirmed. Perhaps what we need is to inject our “body politics” and “body economics” with more oxygen that will propel us to strive for fairness that is linked to the common good where the focus is on ensuring that the outcome is to the advantage of all. And perhaps what needs to underpin this is a virtue approach where we deepen habits that enable us to be and act in moral/ethical ways that will release and develop the best that is in all of us. This means that the Chancellor and all of us should be asking ourselves in these circumstances: what kind of person should I be? What will promote the best in me and hence my community and the common good?

Something is wrong with our politics and economics. And we can do something about it. As Margaret Mead once observed, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” In these anxious times, we need leadership that will calmly act to enable some radical reorientation to get the “body” back into shape and towards a more flourishing purpose. Can we live in such a way that when our children and their children (our grandchildren) think of fairness, justice and integrity, they will think of us and rejoice?

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | Tagged anomie, downgrade, fairness, justice, making a difference | 1 Comment

Speaking in Tongues: Accents, Cognitive Fluency & Prejudice

Posted on January 2, 2012 by caribleaper

It was Mark Twain who noted: “I have travelled more than anyone else, and I have noticed that even the angels speak English with an accent.” An assuring insight when your accent may be considered wildly out of place! I have lost count of the number of times people comment (in their own accent) on a lack of understanding of what was said or being said because of the speaker’s “heavy accent”. Of course, an accent is a way of pronouncing a language. It is therefore impossible to speak without an accent. Yet, one cannot help but consider whether there is some form of bias (knowingly or unknowingly) when it comes to the comment about not understanding someone because of their accent!

Is there a bias against particular accents and especially foreign ones or that which marks you out as different? Can this be considered a form of prejudice? How often in a conversation and especially if you look visibly different, you are asked where you are from? There is, of course, no reason why someone cannot ask that as a reasonably way of showing interest in you. It becomes uncomfortable, however, when you are the only one being asked while the others in your group are clearly not local and like everyone else speaks with an accent.

In the context of the vocation of ministry it is not uncommon in training, formation or being interviewed to work in the British context, for the matter of accents of overseas (meaning especially African, Indian, Korean and Caribbean) to become one of the most critical issue around which many are discerned as not having the calling to work in British Churches. Candidates, however, who are native speakers, are not considered or evaluated for their accent, even though churches may have a problem in understanding some of the regional accents. This is beside the point that some of us do need coaching to use our voices to maximum effect in the context of a gathering. In a work in which communication skills are essential, it seems as if the yardstick is often only applied to those who are considered non-native English speakers and foreigners.

Prejudice, according to some recent research, is only part of the problem. There is also the matter of class and snobbery. Moreover, it has been discovered that non-native accents is much demanding for those who are native speakers to parse and thus affects their ‘cognitive fluency’, pushing them into uncomfortable zones, experiencing a sort of displacement resulting in fear and insecurity! Because the brain is challenged to process what it hears as a result of the accent, it quickly doubts the accuracy of what is said, if it is not the familiar accent. I wonder if this is why at meetings my contributions are often neglected until someone makes the very contribution and all “ears” are then tuned towards that person!

In our world where data is now processed in small and imaged bites it is not surprising that more and more prefer to work with that which is easy and simple on their thinking. Research has shown that in judging a statement’s accuracy, amendments, corrections or manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process can alter people’s judgment of its truth, along with their evaluation of the intelligence of the author/presenter and their confidence in their own judgments and abilities. This may be a clue for all those church resolutions, how they are crafted and who present them! It may be that the difficulty in understanding accented speech lies in the complex relationship between prejudice and cognitive fluency associated with processing speech.

The implications for all native speakers are large and demanding. They need to look self critically as to why they find the heavy, different or foreign accent to understand, while doing some serious intensive work on their verbal reasoning skills. After all Mark Twain may just be right: “even the angels speak English with an accent” and it would be wise to question the veracity of their instructions!!!

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | Tagged Caribbean, congnitive fluency, postcolonial, prejudice, sepakin in tongues, theology | 2 Comments

Pos(t)ing Questions

Posted on December 31, 2011 by caribleaper

The Chinese have a saying: “The person who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; the one who does not ask a question remains a fool forever.” I love asking questions, though not keen to offer answers. I am often comforted by the fact that a wise Rabbi, when asked why do Rabbis always answer a question with a question, replied “what’s the problem with that?” Hence, the idea of posing or posting some questions as we enter a new year (2012). I am sure that you will also have many questions floating around. Here are some of mine and I hope that together with yours, the contours of a conversation may take shape.

-Was 2011 really a bad year, as the many pundits have ruled, or is it that we humans have seen the worst in us displayed after most of the “holy cows” we genuflect to have failed us?

-Are we becoming dysfunctional because of or in spite of fear, insecurity and the implosion of so much that we hold dearly to?

-Would it be fair to deduce that media reporting, both feed on and feed the habits of fear, insecurity and a corrosive blame culture?

-Can we claim any moral right to make “fun” of or critique the governance and economics in developing countries, when we display mind-boggling incompetence and mediocrity in our own political and economic life together?

-In times of austerity: is thrift better than spending and how do we rethink priorities?

Here is a problem to help us contemplate the matter more clearly: “A sojourner arrives on an island which has just started to use money, but has the good fortune to lack a sophisticated banking system. He buys a meal and pays by cheque. The natives are so impressed that it goes from one trader to another without being cashed. Who paid for the meal?”

-Are our instructions that easy to always understand? Whose logic do they follow? How well are we communicating? Here are a select few from the underground:

Press the alarm signal button to alert the driver.
The driver will stop if any part of the train is in a station.
If not, the train will continue to the next station, where help can more easily be given.
There is a £50 penalty for improper use.

Or perhaps we may wish to consider the first sentence of the British Nationality Act 1981 which is intended to be very clear:

“A person born in the United Kingdom after commencement shall be a British citizen if at the time of the birth his father or mother is – (a) a British citizen; or (b) settled in the United Kingdom.”

-What do our phones know about us? Are our phones becoming our extended brains, yielding a repository of memories, offering a full inventory of friends, acquaintances, of all we have said and communicated and all the websites we have visited?

-What are some of the reasons to be hopeful in 2012?

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | 2 Comments

Occupying Advent and Political S(p)in

Posted on December 11, 2011 by caribleaper

If our churches are looking for renewal, reformation or some sort of infusion to restore credibility and new life into dry bones, then we do not need to glance far! It is literally on our front step! I am referring to the Occupy movement which is presenting a public and prophetic face that ecclesial institutions should welcome and support, instead of genuflecting before the dead deposits of traditions turned into traditionalism, money lenders, an failing economic system and lies.

One cannot help but ask “who are really running things these days”! Governments may give the impression that they do. Perhaps! For ever since the IMF open “piracy” season in the Caribbean (1970′s onwards), I am of the view that governments are largely impotent, to use an appropriate descriptor for the largely male dominated leadership. Economic/financial power houses are the ones who call the “shots”, even if they have lost all integrity! The continue to spin their economic roulette, while politicians do the “s(p)in” to give us the impression that things are under control.

The Devil’s Dictionary (Ambrose Bierce) describes politics as “a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles” and “the conduct of public affairs for private advantage”. He goes one to compare politicians to “eels”. A slippery idea indeed, but one that causes me to raise both eyebrows to our PM’s constant plea about putting his country first! Some politicians love their country so much that they will take the whole nation “to the cleaners”! That famous note in the Treasury memo (“there is no money left”) underscores this point.

We are all aware that before elections, we are often duped into all kinds of promises by political leaders, who once in power play a different ball game. Indeed, political speeches are best read backwards! No wonder, some have compared politics and politicians to the art of theatre – great acting and appropriately chosen masks. And so, in our upside down world we applaud forked tongues and split personalities! In the midst of all the nice language and official palaver about we are in this present economic mess together, the reality is that this translates as: “screw those who always get screwed”! A person like John the Baptist who pulls no punches, smell musky from a distance and has a strange organic diet would stand no chance in such a world. No wonder he eventually lost his head! Truth should remain covered up!

Truth is a rare habit and to practice it today is an uphill task. And churches are not exempted from the double speak and lies. Our injustices and wrongs are turned into mistakes and perpetuators appear before “hearings” and committees of all sorts, apologise and then continue to perpetuate more injustices with impunity. Taking responsibility is such a lost habit that when someone rises to the occasion and accepts it, we are surprised.

So here we are again in the midst of advent, rehearsing our waiting. Perhaps, it is time to actively occupy waiting with insights from the Occupy Movement, opening up fresh opportunities to help us rediscover honesty and integrity. These virtues may hopefully propel us to enable the change of direction we so desperately need. May we continue to actively occupy and act for the many for whom there will be no room in the inn!

Posted in Commentary, Reflections | 1 Comment

The Mathematics of Eating Spaghetti

Posted on November 14, 2011 by caribleaper

I know. The carbs from spaghetti is not good for the body mass around my waist. Giving up on the variety of spaghetti and the ways they are prepared will be challenging. And the fact that pasta is the number one favourite food in the world will not help! But this is not why I am writing this blog. My imagination was stirred by an article in an issue of The New Scientist (October 18, 2011) on “the mathematics of pasta shapes” (Richard Webb). My initial thought: “what a sad life to be engrossed in reducing tasty pasta to some mathematical formulae”. Even sadder may be the case that I decided to read on and was pleasantly hooked on the idea. I do not know if George Legendre has a deal with pasta producers. Maybe not, but he has spent time and energy in compiling “the first comprehensive mathematical taxonomy of the stuff”.

Now I starting to make sense from the reference of Birmingham’s spaghetti junction that commentators care to note when they want to put down the city! According to Legendre we should pay a closer look at what we eat. For closer scrutiny will reveal “three basic topological shapes in pasta – cylinders, spheres and ribbons.” But more than this, there is a logic and serious mathematics to its shapes. For when viewed in 3D the “curvaceous shapes of most pasta lend themselves to mathematical representations mainly through oscillating sine and cosine functions”. If only I knew this in secondary school: my love of pasta would have meant a greater interest into trigonometry for me!

So every time we “dig” our blunt forks into that plate of pasta we need to be aware that “the sine and cosine of a single angle serves to define the coordinates of the points enclosing its unvarying cross-section, and a simple constant characterises its length.” We are not merely delving into or eating random shapes! There is beauty, logic and lots of mathematical equations here! There is more to the maths of pasta than the only kind we may be obsessed with, that is, adding on extra kilos!

And some of the variety of shapes point to some real sophisticated and complex mathematics: even the plain looking penne “take some low modelling cunning, involving chopping the pasta into pieces, each represented by slightly different equations.” Legendre is so serious about the mathematics here that he has developed a collection of 92 shapes and their corresponding mathematical relationship. Ridiculous as this may read, he thinks that this proves that “immense variety and seeming complexity can be reduced to simple mathematical beginnings”. There is an equation and formula for everything! A thought worth considering….

And guess what, Legendre is using his pasta shapes and the equations to help architects construct buildings, bridges and other shapes etc. That plate of pasta shape will now be floating all around us as we climb them, walk on, besides and through them. So should we need to come off your pasta diet, we can just print the equation and savour it! I suppose that the author will be making enough on this to try another menu! In the meantime we may wish to suggest a volume on the mathematical shape of our favourite pasta sauce. And with the Italian economy in such a bad state this may be a good source of income! If only Silvio Berlusconi was not doing all of his thinking with “that thing” other than his brains: a good read of this book may have just been salvific for Italy and Europe! In the meantime, pasta lovers do delight in your pasta shape – even though you may eating a possible Nobel Prize for mathematics!

What could be better for your digestion in a world gone wrong with managing economics and economies?

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