The Hug

What better day to discuss the hug craze than the Roman Catholic-appointed sabbath, a day when there's a whole lot of grin-and-bear-it hugging going on across this church-going nation?

Seems to be that Americans began to embrace the hug heartily somewhere along in the 1990's. From whence it sprang as a casual adult practice is unclear. A good guess is that the hippies started it and 12-step groups stole the idea. Those organizations pride themselves as being bastions of support, comfort and understanding. Because the groups often met in church basements, it was not unexpected that the practice eventually went upstairs. When recovery and other support groups became an American industry, hugging seeped into the medical profession and forged beyond its previous boundary of pediatrics.

So here we are, trained to hug our way to better feelings. It is not working. This is a provable by a peek at the DSM-IV-TR or a glance at the pharmaceutical intake figures.

It used to be that hugging was for children, lovers, occasionally spontaneous sports fans, and some adults in reuniting with a long-absent dear one or seeing them off on a journey. Hugs were and are always present at times of bereavement, they are spontaneous and welcomed displays of human grief.

During the Vietnam War, the term was picked up by the military to describe the enemy's tactic employed to avoid being bombed into oblivion. (One might reasonably hypothesize that this tactic gave birth to the acceptance of civilian casualties and friendly fire as regrettable consequences of engaging the enemy.)

Prior to the second half of the 20th century, hugging between acquaintances and strangers was virtually unheard of. Now it is commonplace to be caught by the rhetorical demand, "Can I get a hug?"

No, thank you, I hardly know you.

How many are brave enough to say no when they would prefer not to be embraced? Some of us raise an eyebrow, scowl or step back in hopes of dissuasion. Such a response often leads the hugger to be offended or to launch into a pop-psychology attack. Woe be tied for the one who refuses the advance from agents of God or the healthcare system. Here's where being a curmudgeon or a witch comes in handy, or for the small child, being a spoiled brat is useful for avoiding the hug. Unfortunately for them, eventually either their immunity will be compromised or they shall endure the trials of reprogramming. At the rate society is pushing the hug, they will soon join the rest of us out here the hugosphere.

Of course, there are those granted birth-right exception from the hug. . .

If one is an aristocat (spelling intentional), hugs are out of the question. To be of royalty or celebrity -- anyone from the tippy-top echelons of government, business and religion -- is to be exempt from the hug. It is not just the bodyguard or security detail that provide defense. None dare touch the great ones because that's the rule. Members of society have been indoctrinated in the minutest principles of respect for authority. It took a few generations for the great divide between members and rulers to become obvious and secure. It won't be compromised by a hug.

Anyone who thinks they are beyond the grasp of the average bear need only ask themselves, "Can I be hugged today?" If one answers yes or maybe, then that one is not of the social strata they're kidding themselves they belong to. Think about it -- imagine trying to give CEO 44 or Pope 266 a hug.

There was much ado when #44 Michelle Obama put her hand on Queen Elizabeth II's back during their meet-and-greet. However the gesture was not a hug. Granted, it was improper and ill-advised contact. But this was the chance QE II took when she granted audience without permitting her sister to review and tutor the first couple. Another explanation given is that Michelle Obama is a direct descendant of the pharaohs, giving the first lady divine right upmanship on the queen. Perhaps. If so, that was risky business on Michelle's part. Elizabeth has control of all the records and Michelle's geneological documentation could disappear with the flick of bic.

Granted, there are a few humans out there that are traditional huggers on all occasions and would be no matter the fad or social training. Some are affectionate-natured (usually women and children) and the rest are perverts (usually men from this female perspective). The exceptions need not be detailed, we know who they are and why they do it. (Ever notice that Mr. Jones and Mrs. Smith seem awfully friendly at church?)

All too often the hug is an invasion of personal privacy which of course explains why it is gaining in acceptance in these underwear-as-outerwear days.

Checkout Lines

People: Jen's New Man (Her latest co-star)

Star: Jen's Baby Plans (Adoption says close source)

National Enquirer: Brad & Angie (Split/Rekindle/Adopt)

National Examiner: Anguished Last Days (Of dying/dead celebrity)

The Sun: Nostradamus Prediction (The End Is Nigh)

Time: Person of the Week (Human)

Newsweek: Person of the Week (Corporation)

Cosmo: What He Really Wants In Bed! (You!- To do all the work!)

O!: The Best You! (New Exercise! New Mantra!)

Vogue: Hot New Looks for the Season (Under $100.00 (Each seam))

Good Housekeeping: The Five-Minute Meal (Chicken, Rice & Vegetable)

Better Homes & Gardens: Easy, Breezy Nook & Cranny (Redecorate)

Readers Digest: 5 Ways to Save (Clip, Trim, Keep, Recycle, Trade)

Soap Opera Digest: Who Will Die? (Not Sonny Corinthos)

Horoscope: Your Lucky Numbers (0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)

The Price Tag Of Truth

My fellow Americans, brothers and sisters in spirit, dear friends, kinfolk, neighbors, strangers, and global cyber passerbys, we come to serve and service Truth for you. This mission - now a life's work - is nothing more or less than a response to the prompt from Who Whom has chosen this vessel for Truth duty.

Dear ones, we bring this urgent revelatory message from Who Whom: Truth is not and can not be free.

Upon reading this revelation, many of you will be startled. We anticipate your defiance, your rejection, your rebellion against these words of Truth. We expect your mind will be confused and your heart will be troubled. Depart immediately to the quiet place where the sea waves splash, the mountain air refreshes, the hoot owl lulls, or the card swiper signals positive. Reflect on the imperfect nature of you, a mere human in the grand scheme of all that is, was and ever will be. Return to our words when you have seen the light of open-mindedness and have felt the melting of your heart.

Hear ye this, beloved: Orderly earthly existence demands that Truth be told. The way of telling is narrow and twofold; it rolls either off the presses or the tongues of the chosen. Both methods require amplification. Amplification, properly and effectively conveyed, requires human effort. This, dearest ones, is your cue.

Cyberspace access and presence, recording and transmission devices, publication instruments, and lecture halls are the bare necessities of Truth conveyance. Essentials to be secured for the vessel of Truth are transportation, lodging, and meals.

Beloved, let's not do this on the cheap. Consider the impact of Truth in HD sound with special effects graphics, broadcast from the paw of the Sphinx or the altar of the Chrystal Cathedral. Ruminate upon the numbers reached by embedding the vessel of Truth in locations such as Jerusalem, Mecca, Fatima, Tibet, or the International Space Station. Reflect upon the impression of a well-dressed, professionally fresh-faced, manicured, and shiatsued vessel.

Little ones, you shall awaken to your sacrificial tasks. The very least of you have services or coins to offer which will please and glorify Who Whom assigns this vessel of Truth.

Your rewards are forthcoming if - and only if - you will place your trust in Who Whom appoints this vessel. Remember good and faithful people that life after life is a known unknown. We urge you not to be left behind or unpositioned. The best is yet to come for those who morn, weep, toil, suffer and bleed. If you the dimmest lights shine together to move forward this vessel so that Truth can be sold to all seekers, your names will be branded in the gold book adorned with silver trim and precious gemstones that is located in the other-dimensional temple.

To the rich human who is poor in spirit, we say: Send in a million dollars, and make this one a millionaire vessel. What better evidence, what more demonstration, could Who Whom ask from one whose pampered and sassy self will not otherwise fit through the eye of the needle?

Think upon these things, oh ye in confusion. An eternal glorious destination depends on faith. Faith must abide in a sturdy and magnificent vessel if it is to survive the greatest trip ever a human may make.

Delay not! for the costs of vessel construction are skyrocketing and the number of utopia-bound vessels are limited.

Act now and you too can be an investor in what shall be the greatest vessel Who Whom has ever anointed.

The Program

In the year of the harmonic convergence, the sun set on my young adult life and I grabbed on to Alcoholics Anonymous in fear of everlasting drunkenness. Over the course of the next seven years I went through three sponsors. Year fourteen, the homeless year, I accessed online support at the public library. Sixteen years in, the last sponsor died and was not replaced. Year twenty was the last I saw of the rooms.

In the beginning when the mind fog cleared and I began trudging the road to happy destiny, it became obvious to me that some folks got to cruise instead of trudge. Later I realized how that was possible: rule bending by select interpretation of the texts based on knowledge of AA's hidden history. Still I did not give up the idea that if I would continue working the steps to the best of my ability, the promises found on page 89 in the book would come true for me. Or at least half of them. In the end days I searched diligently to find one or two once or twice.

Recently reminded of meditation by Pope 266, I was inspired to revisit the website of Agent Orange, an investigative critic of Alcoholics Anonymous. New information specifically of interest was that on the Pacific Group's Clancy Imislund. Clancy is an AA superhero; skid row mission founder, media darling, and pigeon of the late Chuck Chamberlain.

Chuck's and Clancy's tapes were required listening during my first seven years in AA. I was trained to worship them and emblazon their words in my memory banks.

One day while listening to a Chuck tape that had always grated on my nerves, I had the sudden thought that Richard Chamberlain was his son - the young child he mocked with one of his smart remarks in the annoying tape. At the time (the pre-google era) I couldn't prove my intuited theory and forgot the offending remark by not listening to that particular Chuck C. tape ever again. Those guys tell the same stories over and over anyway so my sponsor and the group busybodies never detected any deficiency in my chuckisms. The experience was one of the first indications that the gods of AA weren't as advertised .

About a year ago I spotted Richard Chamberlain's autobiography at the public library and stayed up the night to finish it. He is indeed the son of Chuck C. There was satisfaction in reading that Richard turned out to be a gentleman of integrity and purpose. Chuck never had a clue what those words meant outside of the AA definitions. That is why I was willing to leave poor old Chuck undisturbed in file storage - until today.

After catching up with Clancy antics at the Orange Papers, I got the sudden urge to google Chuck. Looks like the anonymous alcoholic made a name for himself with the beltway bandits.

On September 27, 1969, Chuck C. testified "anonymously" before the Senate Drug and Alcohol Abuse Subcommittee. He was introduced and led by fellow AA member Senator Harold Hughes. Indications are that they did not acknowledge their brotherhood for the record. I do not know if any of the other senators in attendance (Dominick, Saxbe, Cranston and Murphy) had any knowledge of the program.

Skipping past Chuck's AA-qualifying self-introduction, his purpose in testifying begins to unfold:

Now, we in Alcoholics Anonymous think that alcoholism is a disease. You have heard it spoken of this morning several times as such. I think informed medical opinion throughout the country recognizes it as a disease. It is defined as a disease of twofold nature, an allergy of the body coupled with an obsession of the mind.

However, most of us, or many of us, think that there is a third factor. We think it's a living problem. We do not deny the allergy of the body or the obsession of the mind.

At this point, Chuck reverts back to his AA story in support of his theory that there is a "third factor" in the "disease" of alcoholism called a "living problem". Then he gets back on track:

Now, we feel that the medical approach and psychological approach, and the religious approach are all good. We feel that all approaches to this disease should be brought to bear upon it, but most of us are convinced that if we're going to get rid of the bottle we have to replace it with something better, with a state of being that makes drinking unnecessary.

Again, he goes off to Chuck land before getting on with the big set up:

We think that before long it might be the legal opinion that they can't throw us in jail any more just for being a drunk, that we have to be taken care of as sick people. And it looks as though there will have to be detoxification enters and halfway houses throughout the country.

And it's going to take a lot of money. It's going to take a lot of know-how. We are very pleased about the fact that there is a separate committee now that is very much interested in this problem and that it is manned by knowledgeable people. We think that perhaps through the medium of these meetings throughout the country more interest will be brought to bear on the Senate as a whole and that as a result you will get appropriations which will make it possible for you to do some things -- such as setting up these detoxification centers and halfway houses. (Emphasis added.)

Chuck then asks his own question, "In this event what would be the position of Alcoholics Anonymous?" To which he answered himself:

Traditionally we neither endorse or oppose any causes. We cooperate but we do not affiliate. We are on tap in most of these things, but never on top. So I think our position would be this: That when the detoxification has been accomplished, that we would, as individual members of Alcoholic Anonymous, then be available to share our experience, strength and hope with those who are coming through the halfway houses. And it is from this angle that I think that it would be of the greatest benefit to your program. We cannot take an active part as a society, but we can take an active part as individuals.

"On tap . . . but never on top"? How obsequious. Nevertheless, Chuck has cut "AA" a piece of the pie and offers his fellow AAs in sacrifice to the great work:

[W]e are most happy that you, all of you, are headed in the direction in which you're headed. And we want to help as much as it is humanly possible for us to help, both in seeing to it that you get an appropriation - maybe by doing a little work on the rest of the Senate by letters, and so forth - and also by being on tap when you need to call on us later on.

Senator H interrupts to clarify AA's position in the scheme of things. Furthermore and in conclusion and while still on tap, Chuck pours a sparkling future for the industry:

They are going to be sent to these detoxification centers. But they're going to be sent there by the court or by the police instead of being sent to jail. They will have to go through that. But to a large extent they will have to go to the halfway houses once they are set up.

Only one other senator cross-examined Chuck:

Senator Dominick. That program has worked; that's what I want to know?

Mr. Chuck C. Yes.

Senator Dominick. Where they say you go there or you go to jail?

Mr. Chuck C. Very definitely. I happen to be very familiar with Judge Harrison's work up in Des Moines. But I believe Judge Taft in Santa Monica was one of the first to use this approach many, many years ago.

And I've talked at meetings where there were over a hundred men and women who had been sober a year or more who had initially been sentenced to the program by Judge Taft and it worked.

Senator Dominick. Let's use another word. Let's say recommended.

Mr. Chuck C. Recommended. Okay. (audience laughter).

During the testimony, there were no facts or statistics requested or provided to show the effectiveness or success rate of the alcoholics anonymous program. The numbers that Chuck offered concerned the potential market of a recovery industry:

Now, we have been in existence as Alcoholic Anonymous for 34 years. We have a membership of perhaps some 500,000 but we see that's just a slight percentage, it may be 2 percent, of the problem drinkers. And that's all we've been able to accomplish in 34 years. But we're not selling it short. We love it, but much more has to be done.

And so it appears that Chuck C and Senator H established the foundation of the recovery industry by casting the magic words "common knowledge" upon the "disease" of alcoholism. A disease that demands government attention and intervention. A disease which led to an industry that 41 years later saturates politics with influence. An industry whose founding movement continues to enjoy media protection, as suggested by this 2000 headline from the UK Guardian:

"Drink advice service confronts sex abuse"

Drink advice service? Oh come on. Given the story content, the damn thing should have blasted: Thirteenth Step Exposed! I won't count how many times it was suggested - after slogans and steps proved ineffective for myself and others - that lecherous behavior be forgiven because the book says that "whenever I'm disturbed, no matter what the cause, there's something wrong with me".

My arguments against this particular AA principle were dismissed by the grand ones yet they themselves would come up with a commandment or slogan to justify their own questionable advances and score-settling activities. Nevertheless and again, I kept working the steps. I imagined that my own sense of integrity and goodwill, in the hands of the higher power, would lead to a life that was "happy, joyous and free". It took me twenty years to figure out that I would not benefit from the real meaning behind the slogan "it works if you work it".

Chuck Chamberlain and Senator Hughes were following in the footsteps of AA's founder, Bill Wilson. All three, and their AA friends, successors and agents, were/are fast-talking schemers convinced that some are more equal than others. That, for the most part, is the secret knowledge of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I-75 Jesus Bursts Into Flames

A poster at Above Top Secret had a great story for the mid-morning coffee break, picked up from a staff report of the Dayton Daily News:

Solid Rock Church's King of Kings monument struck by lightning

MONROE — Charred remnants remained this morning, June 15, of the large Jesus statue iconic to Interstate 75 that was destroyed following an apparent lightning strike during a thunderstorm late Monday night.

The Lawrence Bishop Music Theater at Solid Rock Church on Union Road endured smoke damage, according to officials. Damages to the King of Kings statue and the theater were estimated to be around $700,000, said Monroe Fire Chief Mark Neu.

Monroe, Ohio must be a very small town if the fire chief is also the insurance appraiser; after all, human resources compartmentalization is nearly complete in here in the good ole US of A.

According to WLWT, initial financing for the 2004 erection was $250,000. This means that the smoke damage at the Lawrence Bishop Music Theatre must be just awful. On top of that, there's more damage estimates to come according to Fire Chief Insurance Appraiser Neu:

Also lost in the fire was audio equipment stored in the attic that Neu said was to be used for a Fourth of July event at the church. No damage estimate will be available until 10 a.m. today, said Neu, who added that church leaders indicated to him they planned to replace and rebuild all that was lost in the fire.

In researching the Solid Rock empire which gave birth to the late Butter Jesus, a church video was selected but unfortunately Pastor Lawrence Bishop was not involved in the production. Instead there was a visiting preacher hosted by the pastor's wife, Co-Pastor Darlene Bishop. Darlene is the understanding founder of a 501(c)3 for troubled girls (provided said 501(c)3 is assured of the "applicant’s ability to benefit from our program"). Judging from the photo splash at the website, one benefit seems to be a new attitude for young women "Ages 18 and over". Of course, none will ever match the style and pizzaz of the founder herself, no not even one from the congregation or the choir. Darlene has the same shopping god as Joyce Meyer, Paula White and other select holy first ladies.

Pastor husband horse-trader and holy crooner Lawrence can afford for his wife to dress exclusively judging from the photo splash on his for-profit (we say that on faith) LB Ranch. They certainly are the busy couple. Fortunately they have established a low-maintenance congregation; bible-believing, penitent, rejoicing, hard-working, kind, and generous human beings. The kind of human beings who have been fleeced by prosperity pushers through the financing-for-everyone decades. The confidence preachers that convinced their flocks that "doors were opened by God" and therefore a tithe was due on that dining room set from Rent-a-Center.

The game is nearly over for the mega churches and their confidence men and women, the diddlers. CEO 44's purpose-driven diddler, Rick Warren, begged for money last Christmas, got more than he asked for, then leased Schuller's Crystal Cathedral retreat. The Robert Schuller empire is crumbling as did Oral Roberts', James Kennedy's, Jerry Falwell's, and Jim Baaker's. Warren's won't last either but there seems to be some punch behind his recent lease acquisition. If the Bishops pursue another Touchdown Jesus erection, Warren's financiers might consider plucking up the Solid Rock campus before dispatching Warren to bankruptcy and a blurb in the Presidential trivia books. Somewhere up the mergers & acquisitions ladder at least one pair of eyes is monitoring the disposition of church property in America and making bids thereon.

Last night the King of Kings was struck on the right hand, burst into flames and was reduced to a charred black frame. Haunting - like an Edgar Allen Poe sentence. Poe, who had a little something to say about the confidence game:

"Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence, and grin".

Church Recovers From Enemy Strike

Number 266 on the papal list, Benedict XVI, offered a Sacrifice of the Mass on 11 June 2010 to conclude the Year of the Priest.

MSNBC ran the headline, Pope begs forgivness, promises action on abuse. AP Writer Nicole Winfield takes us out of the gate:

VATICAN CITY - Addressing the clerical abuse scandal from the heart of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI has begged forgiveness from victims and promised at a Mass celebrated by 15,000 priests from around the world to "do everything possible" to protect children.

From the vatican website, the very long sentence* spoken by Pope 266:

We too insistently beg forgiveness from God and from the persons involved, while promising to do everything possible to ensure that such abuse will never occur again; and that in admitting men to priestly ministry and in their formation we will do everything we can to weigh the authenticity of their vocation and make every effort to accompany priests along their journey, so that the Lord will protect them and watch over them in troubled situations and amid life’s dangers.

Heads up for a new clergy resources division offering lots of seminars and correspondence courses and mandatory online workshops for this year's - and subsequent classes of - recruits. No word on the fate of the fallen, although there was word about the greatest of the fallen, the enemy himself. Winfield puts it simply:

Benedict implied the devil was behind the timing of the scandal, saying the Year of the Priest was supposed to have been a year in celebration of the priesthood and encouragement for new vocations.

His holiness 266 was more eloquent:

We have to beg for workers for God’s harvest, and this petition to God is, at the same time, his own way of knocking on the hearts of young people who consider themselves able to do what God considers them able to do. It was to be expected that this new radiance of the priesthood would not be pleasing to the “enemy”; he would have rather preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the sacrament of the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light – particularly the abuse of the little ones*, in which the priesthood, whose task is to manifest God’s concern for our good, turns into its very opposite.

*This clause is the first mention of the allegations. The very long sentence followed. Then the pope went on:

Had the Year for Priests been a glorification of our individual human performance, it would have been ruined by these events. But for us what happened was precisely the opposite: we grew in gratitude for God’s gift, a gift concealed in “earthen vessels” which ever anew, even amid human weakness, makes his love concretely present in this world. So let us look upon all that happened as a summons to purification, as a task which we bring to the future and which makes us acknowledge and love all the more the great gift we have received from God. In this way, his gift becomes a commitment to respond to God’s courage and humility by our own courage and our own humility. The word of God, which we have sung in the Entrance Antiphon of the liturgy, can speak to us, at this hour, of what it means to become and to be priests: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble of heart” (Mt 11:29).

From here the pope announced the celebration of the Sacred Heart Of Jesus which was pierced by a Roman sword to allow a double flow of knowingness of God's heart as interpreted through the liturgy. He spent a moment meditating on chanting. Then he expounded on the verses of Psalm 23 as applicable to the new shepherds. He told them that the priesthood was more than an office, it was a sacrament that bestowed the power to forgive sins. He spoke to their responsibilities for the flock (men and women - nothing about children). He hit a few history notes. He advised them on the care and wielding of the rod and staff.

Other than the clause and the long sentence, the pope made no mention of the pedophile accusations, coverup charges, perpetrators' dispositions, victim settlements or preventative measures to-do list. However, Winfield was good enough to puff the piece by recounting three other occasions of papal responsibility assumption; one in a letter to the Irish Catholics, a second at a private meeting with victims in Malta, and most recently on the papal plane en route to Portugal.

Returning to the celebration, Pope 266 opened his homily with an ending:

The Year for Priests which we have celebrated on the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the death of the holy Curè of Ars, the model of priestly ministry in our world, is now coming to an end.

Cure d'Ars: St.Jean-Baptiste-Marie Vianney, France (8 May1786-4 August1859). Director of souls, founder of a home for destitute girls which became a French institutional model ("closed in 1847, because the holy curé thought that he was not justified in maintaining it in the face of the opposition of many good people"); a military deserter; educationally-challenged; and a saint in three miracle categories:

• first, the obtaining of money for his charities and food for his orphans;
• secondly, supernatural knowledge of the past and future;
• thirdly, healing the sick, especially children.
  

South Africa Confirmed

Raymond Perrier, Director of the Jesuit Institute, South Africa, reckons that the World Cup is South Africa's celebration of transformation into more than just a Soldier of Christ. He explains:

South Africa celebrated in 1994 at the birth of our new nation, witnessed like all miracle births with awe and wonder by an unbelieving world. The country celebrated again in 1995 as Mandela wore the Springbok shirt and South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. But maybe that was a bit like a Baptism celebration – slightly staged, a bit constructed. We could all see what was happening but perhaps not everyone felt it.

But now in 2010 the adolescent South Africa is celebrating its coming of age. This is Confirmation and Dvija and Bar/Bat Mitzvah all rolled into one. And the celebration is spontaneous. And it is infectious!

Johannasburg street vendors might debate Perrier that the celebration was not spontaneous in that corporate solicitations were advanced and secured for the vendors' locations, which knocked the locals out of business. Neither is the celebration infectious for anyone without the wherewithall to enjoy or profit from the partying of an overindulged adolescent as described by the holy-type padre Perrier:

You cannot tell a teenager how and when to celebrate. All you can do is give them permission and leave them to get on with it. The World Cup has given South Africa permission and, under God’s benign smile, we are making full use of it. And if a teenage celebration involves a lot of noise and mess and hangovers and a few things being damaged....well, that is teenagers for you!

As a rule of law, adults are forbidden to permit underage offspring to drink, disturb the peace or to engage in acts of vandalism. There are no exceptions for Confirmation, Dvija and Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebrations. One would assume this holds true everywhere in the world where the cross, crown or democracy reigns. But of course Perrier is of a social strata where the same rules do not apply as those law-enforced upon others. His are the folks partying down in South Africa. They are the logos that brought to life the World Cup. And the logos do nothing out of the goodness of their own hearts, nor do they spend a dime of their own money.

Dave Zirin of The Nation quotes The Anti-Privatization Forum of South Africa:

Our government has managed, in a fairly short period of time, to deliver "world class" facilities and infrastructure that the majority of South Africans will never benefit from or be able to enjoy. The APF feels that those who have been so denied, need to show all South Africans as well as the rest of the world who will be tuning into the World Cup, that all is not well in this country, that a month long sporting event cannot and will not be the panacea for our problems. This World Cup is not for the poor -- it is the soccer elites of FIFA, the elites of domestic and international corporate capital and the political elites who are making billions and who will be benefiting at the expense of the poor.

Along with his own non-neoliberal opinion, Zurin offers the estimated tax burden before damages:

In the hands of FIFA and the ruling African National Congress, the World Cup has been a neoliberal Trojan Horse, enacting a series of policies that the citizens of this proud nation would never have accepted if not wrapped in the honor of hosting the cup. This includes $9.5 billion in state deficit spending ($4.3 billion in direct subsidies and another $5.2 billion in luxury transport infrastructure). This works out to about $200 per citizen.

Green cleanup logos are expected to add a respectable amount to the total bill, after which a new reality emerges but not before the sound and call of the meantime. Perrier explains:

Of course, after the party we will have to face the reality of our new responsibilities as a mature member of the family of nations. And we might continue to make some mistakes. And will hopefully learn from those mistakes. But in the meantime, the trumpets are sounding. And they are calling us to party!

Perrier's party report:

Many Mass-goers in Johannesburg this coming Sunday will be clad in the vibrant yellow and green of Bafana, Bafana, the national football team. This is not some change in the liturgical calendar; but instead an invitation by the bishops to celebrate Soccer Sunday. And whether the national team win, lose or draw on the opening day of the tournament, the city will be celebrating the fact that for the next four weeks they are the centre of the known universe.

It may be easy to dismiss all this as an attempt by dull Church people to leap on the trendy bandwagon. But I would ask you not to dismiss so quickly. Celebration is key to our lives as people, and as people of God. Our Mass is a celebration. Our baptisms and weddings are celebrations. As Christians, even our funerals are celebrations.

The Ignatian tradition challenges us to ‘see God in all things’. So where do we find God in this celebration of 2010? Despite the corporate sponsors and the politics and the FIFA control freakery, God is in South Africa. And dressed in yellow and green!

God is logos; Confirmation is Dvija and Bar/Bat Mitzvah; and neoliberals are the enemy. Roger that.