tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47986946727266208582024-03-06T04:53:50.616-04:00The Wrestling PlaceAshford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-63830591352161343962012-01-11T13:32:00.000-04:002012-01-11T13:32:13.078-04:00Marijuana Healthier Than Cigarettes<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><h4 style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-family: Rockwell, Georgia, "Palatino Linotype", Palatino, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 1.2em; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.8em 0px; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;">“…those who occasionally<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_%28cooking%29" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Smoking (cooking)">smoked</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabis_%28drug%29" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Cannabis (drug)">marijuana</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>as compared to smoking<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigarette" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Cigarette">cigarettes</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>had less damages to their<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lung" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Lung">lungs</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>than the participants who smoked cigarettes.”</h4><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Alcohol and<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Smoking">tobacco use</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>have been legal in our societies for many years now. marijuana use, though, is out lawed and sometimes seen as a taboo. Yet many persons who support marijuana use strongly contend that alcohol and cigarettes use are statistically more damaging and deadly than use of marijuana.</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Marijuana activists seem to have been given a shot in the arm from the results of a new study just released in the</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="zem_slink" href="http://jama.ama-assn.org/" rel="homepage" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Journal of the American Medical Association">Journal of the American Medical Association</a>. Over the last twenty years, the study worked with some five thousand<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.history.com/topics/states" rel="historycom" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="The States">Americans</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>who engaged in smoking marijuana and smoking cigarettes. The striking results show that those who occasionally smoked marijuana as compared to smoking cigarettes had less damages to their lungs than the participants who smoked cigarettes.</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I can just imagine that marijuana defenders would be all delighted with this new study; however, this news has to be accepted with a “spliff” of caution. Yes, smoking little amounts of marijuana is not as dangerous to your health as smoking cigarettes. This is true if one smokes marijuana in moderation about once per week.</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Even before this new study was released, it was already scientifically proven that marijuana as a substance does have some<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_substance" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Chemical substance">chemicals</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that are actually good for your health. For example, marijuana has proven to be a good reliever of pains. There are some four hundred or so chemicals in the marijuana plant; however, just about twenty-five per cent of these chemicals are good for the body. So the problem lies with the majority of chemicals. No one can say how these “bad” chemicals will affect the smoker, and the effect on no two smokers is the same.</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">According to the Journal persons who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were in just as bad a position where their lungs were concerned as those who indulged in<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tobacco_smoking" rel="wikipedia" style="border-bottom-color: rgb(168, 239, 157); border-bottom-style: dashed; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; color: #a8ef9d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Tobacco smoking">cigarette smoking</a>. So we should not take this new study as a license to proliferate even more the use of marijuana.</span></div><div align="justify" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: 2; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; font-size: x-small; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Maybe what can be done is that the pharmaceutical industry can extract the beneficial chemicals out of the marijuana plant and offer these chemicals for public use. Or, at the very least, step up the public education campaign about the good and bad chemicals/benefits from marijuana use.</span></div><blockquote style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: #1c1d21; background-image: url("http://s0.wp.com/wp-content/themes/pub/motion/images/whitetrans.png"); border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; color: white; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: italic 16px/24px "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal; margin: 0.7em 0px 0.3em; orphans: 2; padding: 0.4em 1em 0.7em; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div style="border-image: initial; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0.6em 0px 0.2em; text-align: justify; text-shadow: rgb(68, 68, 68) 0px 0px 4px; vertical-align: baseline;"><br />
</div></blockquote></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-55471283365390023352011-12-02T20:16:00.002-04:002011-12-02T20:16:57.750-04:00Why You Should Have Sex<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Sex is indeed a sweet, honorable, decent and pure act that climaxes the expression of mutual love. However, with the constant public overkill of the sex topic it seems that the word “sex” has become a <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four-letter_word" rel="wikipedia" title="Four-letter word"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">four letter word</span></a>; on the contrary it is a common acronym <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Unlawful-Carnal-Knowledge-Van-Halen/dp/B000002LPD%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dzemanta-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000002LPD" rel="amazon" title="For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge</span></a> that has become a <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profanity" rel="wikipedia" title="Profanity"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">dirty word</span></a> but refers to the act of sex.<br />
I am presenting to you some of my reasons why sex has always been and will continue to be a very positive and healthy activity. I hope you not only read but also think deeply on the rest content of this blog post.<br />
Sex is one of (but not) the most enjoyable act you will ever take part in<br />
• Sex offers you the chance to show that you are ready to start your family<br />
• Sex allows you to share with someone special what you hide from everybody else<br />
• Sex is the best human way to bond and be committed to another person<br />
• Sex is God’s gift to you to ensure you are HAPPY with someone else while you live<br />
• Sex is the ultimate act that shows your innocent childhood days are forever gone<br />
• Sex is the final act that shows your days of adult responsibilities have come<br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><strong>YOU SHOULD KNOW…</strong></div>• That when you take off your clothes to have sex, you are also taking off your innocent childhood and your simple happy future as a teenager or young adult<br />
• That the blood spilled by a virgin during sex is the blood of a covenant established by God, binding the persons having sex together forever<br />
• That covenants are God’s trademark when dealing with humans<br />
• <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginity" rel="wikipedia" title="Virginity"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">Virgins</span></a> find it hard/impossible to love anyone else the way they love the man whom they gave their virginity to<br />
• That when you take a girl’s virginity you are robbing her future husband<br />
• That many women “butt” their boyfriends/husbands because they cannot forget about the man who took their virginity away<br />
• That God expects you to stay forever with the FIRST person you have sex with<br />
• That having your first sex in marriage is the best way to make your marriage work<br />
• That a man is less committed to a woman because he didn’t take her virginity<br />
• That whoever you have sex with remains a part of you forever, even if you break up<br />
• That men and women alike say if they could live over their lives they would wait until an older age (and for another person) to have their first sex<br />
• That the person you choose at 15 is not the person you will choose at 25<br />
• That SEX IS NOT JUST A PHYSICAL ACT<br />
• That if you play with the Sex Covenant, God WILL curse your life<br />
• That if you honour the Sex Covenant, God WILL bless your life</div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-74806690813944085662011-12-02T20:12:00.000-04:002011-12-02T20:12:42.860-04:00Girls Breasts IRONED To Keep Away Boys<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">I guess there is no parent who finds it easy to relinquish their protective hold on their growing children, particularly the girl children. It is nature that from the onset of puberty and the activation of hormonal changes, the child now enters a world of some experiences that at first may be scary or unwelcomed. I am certain if you quiz a sample of the ladies you know about their reactions to their first menstrual cycle, or “period,” you will almost certainly get at least one tale of a very frightened little girl who was scared to death because she believed she was about to die from bleeding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And that female baptism into puberty has propelled many a parent to say to their baby girl, “You can’t play with boys anymore now.” The confused child is left wondering why.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">But in some parts of Africa, the motherland of us Blacks here in the Caribbean, parents have found an easier way to safeguard their young adolescent girls against an unplanned or unwanted pregnancy.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">As soon as the girl begins to develop physically into the coca-cola shaped adult, she will begin to have a daily dose of breast ironing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Older readers may recall rural life before electricity and the electric iron. Do you remember having to keep the “iron” in the coalpot until it was red-hot? Two alternating irons would be used to maintain the required heat at all times during the ironing process.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, for these girls in Africa, it was not school uniforms or church clothes that are being pressed; it is their precious growing <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast" rel="wikipedia" title="Breast"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">breasts</span></a>. (Their parents really do not want the girls shaking what God gave them.)</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The idea behind the ironing of the breasts is that the repeating exposure to the intense heat would slow the growth of the breasts; therefore, if the breasts do not become protruding or give rise to cleavidge, then the boys and young men will find the girls less sexually attractive and will not pursue any relationships with them.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">You will have to determine if the ends justifies the means.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are also documented situations among tribal groups in Africa where, instead of ironing the breasts at puberty’s inception, an older male relative of the girl will have sex with her and make her pregnant, thereby averting any future relationships with the boys in the village.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Again, you decide if the ends justifies the means.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, most of us are in the Caribbean because our foreparents came across the Atlantic as slaves. Who knows, if not for slavery, maybe you would have been in Africa right now under a hot iron, having your breasts ironed.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Slavery actually has some good in it, right?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">On the other hand, the annual statistics released from the statistical department continues to show that teenage girls in this country continue to give over 300 births. That is a staggering realization. Each year, over 300 of our age 13-16 girls are getting pregnant.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And if you can get pregnant then you can also get a <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexually_transmitted_disease" rel="wikipedia" title="Sexually transmitted disease"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">sexually transmitted infection</span></a> like <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDS" rel="wikipedia" title="AIDS"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">AIDS</span></a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In 2000, the St Vincent and the Grenadines Family Planning Association conducted a research called Save the Nation’s Face in which they found out that by age 13, one of every four (25%) Vincentians was already having sex; by age 18, three of every four (75%) Vincentians were having sex.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">In light of the just mentioned figures, will our society benefit if we start the practice of ironing the breasts of our young girls here in St Vincent and the Grenadines?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The above stats will mean that only 25% or one-quarter of the Vincentian population at the legal adult age are virgins. But that was almost twenty years ago. There has been a proliferation of condoms, even for women today, so one might probably be safe to assume that the percentage of Vincentian virgins has decreased since the early 2000s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">So, was a former Vincentian prime minister right when he said that Jesus could not have been born in St Vincent because there are no virgins on the island?</div></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-51195944023194335752011-12-02T20:09:00.000-04:002011-12-02T20:09:28.457-04:00Hang Them High<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The debate on <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment" rel="wikipedia" title="Capital punishment"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">capital punishment</span></a> in developing countries is a never-ending one. In St Vincent and the Grenadines capital punishment has existed in one form: <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging" rel="wikipedia" title="Hanging"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">hanging</span></a> by the neck until dead. This form of capital punishment is as old as the island’s colonial history. In fact, hanging would have been the means of execution in the commonwealth nations because it was borrowed, like so many other things, from Britain.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The socio-economic development of nations have given birth to <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights" rel="wikipedia" title="Human rights"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">human rights</span></a> organizations. Unfortunately (or fortunately) a popular area of contention as held by these human rights groups has been that of capital punishment. They have always argued that no human being should be executed. It amounts to murder. So even if the state carries out an order from the courts it is a murderer just like the executed. Well, the term executed implies here that is being taken for granted that capital punishment is on the law books for the offense of murder or treason. That is the case in our Caribbean territories.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Persons who have been angered by the voicing of the human rights groups’ opposition to capital punishment has always asked why should we protect the rights of the convicted murderer when that murderer did not extend that privilege to the victim. And that is quite understandable. When one reads of some of the premeditated acts of brutal violence and murder it often leaves one feeling that there must be an eye for an eye. I recall several years ago when a young man used a rope in the way that cowboys would to catch a wild animal, and pulled a young lady out of a public transport vehicle in the capital city. In the presence of all he proceeded merrily to use his cutlass and remove the young lady’s head from her shoulders.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Some said he even smiled in the process.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Crimes like these seem to want to make the average law-abiding citizen become a hang man or executioner. But since 1995 we have not seen an execution in these parts. A significant cause of this has been the ruling of the Privy Council in England that after a person has spent five years on death row their sentence is to be automatically commuted to life imprisonment. The rationale is that after waiting and wondering for five years when you will have your neck popped, then that is enough psychological torture and suffering.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Since that ruling it seems all on death row have filed one constitutional motion after another, sometimes on the most trivial of grounds such s lack of protein in the form of beef on a Sunday. So the system of due process has seen the five-year period elapse with no execution being done.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Those in favour of capital punishment have always said that it is a deterrent to committing violent crimes; that if someone knows he will be hanged then he will think twice. As it is now, convicted murderers of some of the most heinous crimes have been released on parole for good behaviour. The sting seems to be that the family of the victim is never in any way compensated or put in a position to make life easier because of their loss.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">An interesting situation has developed in the UK recently where an attempt to allow the public to be actively involved in determining what their elected officials discuss has brought up the topic of capital punishment and hangings. In an e-petition poll conducted it was revealed that 53% of those who participated were in support of the reintroduction of hangings. This is interesting. The politicians and House of Commons will be discussing it later this year.England has not hanged anyone since 1964.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Let’s suppose that the public gets its way and the execution of persons through capital punishment is reintroduced then all in the Caribbean will be expecting that the old barricade from the Privy Council be removed immediately. In fact the Caribbean has also been trying to get its own final court up and running–The <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caribbean_Court_of_Justice" rel="wikipedia" title="Caribbean Court of Justice"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">Caribbean Court of Justice</span></a> or the CCJ as it is commonly called.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">There are others a well who believe that it is the method of capital punishment that should be changed, not the total removal of capital punishment. In that light they claim that it is time to execute persons by more humane means such as a lethal injection. I suspect that whatever the outcome of the debate in England later this year that the saga will continue. However, whenever any mechanism that acts as a check and balance is removed or made inoperative then common sense will dictate that some other equally or even more effective means of achieving the same goal be put in its place.</div></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-73297721188306085542011-12-02T20:06:00.000-04:002011-12-02T20:06:17.093-04:00Remembering LIAT Flight 319<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;">This year, 2011, marks exactly twenty-five (25) years since Vincentians at home and abroad were plunged into their most horrifically tragic air disaster in the history of commercial air flight in St Vincent and the Grenadines.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was on August 3, 1986, that LIAT flight 319 disappeared while attempting to land at the Arnos Vale airport (now renamed The ET Joshua Airport). While all incidents that result in loss of lives are tragic, the untimely deaths of the thirteen souls on board were particularly stinging to all sections of the Vincentian society. That single flight combined a unique mix of some of the most progressive nation builders in our country at the time.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Quite possibly the face that comes to the minds of those of us who were around twenty-five years ago and now recall that stormy Sunday night, is that of Donna Young. Donna epitomized the youthful beauty, charm, female empowerment and potential of St Vincent and the Grenadines. Donna was a bank worker. She had just turned age twenty. She had won the Miss SVG and Miss Carival show right here at home in St Vincent during the same year. Her smile lit up the stage like no other. One could not help but love Donna Young. To fully appreciate the connection that the Vincentian public had with Donna Young, think of her as the late <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.myspace.com/everything/diana-princess-of-wales" rel="myspace" title="Diana, Princess of Wales"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">Princess Diana</span></a> of the UK or of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/john_f_kennedy_jr" rel="rottentomatoes" title="John F. Kennedy"><span style="color: #a8ef9d;">President John F. Kennedy</span></a> (JFK) of the United States of America.. Indeed, Donna was our own Vincentian Princess. She was royal.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Also on that ill-fated flight was a watchmaker who wa physically challenged in that he was an amputee. Imagine a gentleman in his wheel chair and is out and about daily taking orders and repairing watches. Disability was never going to be his inability!</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then there was an entire family of husband, wife and twelve-year-old son who perished that August night. Again, it is expected that anybody’s death will be mourned, but, alas, this was not the average Vincentian family. At just seven years into its political independence from Great Britain, St Vincent and the Grenadines was unfortunate to lose its political opposition leader and his family. Hudson Tannis, along with his wife and son, were returning from a wedding in St Lucia and happened to be aboard flight 319.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Grenadines also felt the loss of lives because a native of Bequia was returning home with his fiance, both of whom were soon to tie the knot in holy matrimony. But that was never to be.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">It has been said that the pilot captaining the flight, although he had been to SVG before, was now doing so as the pilot in command. Apparently, he had an idea where the runway was. Unfortunately, owning to the mountainous terrain of the country, the airport is right next to the Caribbean Sea. Because of the rainfall that night, the place was foggy. Later, residents of Cane Garden will say that they heard the aircraft circling and then the sound of a sputtering engine.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">For days and weeks after, all able-bodied man, woman and child, took to the sea and shore to do what they could to find any signs of remains. Apart from a sighting of some floating oil, the remnants of that plane was never to be seen again. At least up to this day. It is said that the waters in the Grenadines are among some of the deepest in the hemisphere.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">The following weekend one of the largest and most sombre memorial services was held at the Victoria Park, where everybody who is anybody in St Vincent turned out to sympathize with a grieving nation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">This is the last recorded air mishap that LIAT has had which had a direct impact on Vincentians. For more information on this historic day in the life of St Vincent and the Grenadines feel free to check our national archives.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I hope that our younger generation will at least take a moment today and pause in reflection of the wealth of human and Vincentian potential that we all lost that night. One cannot help but feel that somehow our lives in St Vincent would have been better off as a result of the contributions made by the “unlucky 13″ of LIAT flight 319 back on August 3, 1986.</div></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-15171721635778852802011-12-02T19:56:00.000-04:002011-12-02T19:56:59.816-04:00How To be Encouraged<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div align="justify">To be encouraged is to be filled with inner hope. And hope is life. People and animals will kill themselves if they find no hope in or around them. I tell you that hope is just the self knowledge that the end of a situation is going to be good, or at least better than the present reality.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Do you know anyone who does not want to be hopeful?</div><br />
<div align="justify">Do you know anyone who does not want to be encouraged?</div><br />
<div align="justify">I believe it is safe to say that the minor and major problems we face as individuals, as families, as villages, as towns, as cities, as constituencies, as parishes, as states, as countries, as nations and as a planet have to do with lack of hope within one or both parties in the conflict.</div><br />
<div align="justify">I dedicate this blog to truths from my life and experiences. I am sharing with you a method of encouragement that has worked for me and I will put my life on the line that it will work for you as well.</div><br />
<div align="justify">I am a product of faith and divine selection and it is from my Saviour, Jesus Christ, my method of encouragement comes. Now, don’t be too eager to close the browser because you read the name of Jesus. After all, won’t you agree that anyone who is mature and independent will not be scared or frightened away by a simple name?</div><br />
<div align="justify">Thanks for being a real person who is not afraid to learn something.</div><br />
<div align="justify">A simple father had his daughter sick and dying. He asked Jesus to come and help. All his other “hopes” had failed. A drowning man will snatch at a straw in a bid to save his life. People often do not take Jesus seriously until they know for a fact that nothing or no one else can help.</div><br />
<div align="justify">And Jesus does not mind that at all. In fact, God will have it no other way. God begins and takes over when human beings end and give up.</div><br />
<div align="justify">As the loving daddy who asked Jesus to come help his very sick daughter get better started back home with Jesus, guess what happened? A message came from home that the daughter had died.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Daddy was overcome with grief and lost all hope. But then Jesus told him,”Don’t be afraid. Just believe.”</div><br />
<div align="justify">Follow me here. Whenever hope is lost or dying, it automatically calls on its tag team partner of fear to occupy the heart.</div><br />
<div align="justify">If you are seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, smelling or experiencing news that is killing your hope, then I say to you to continue to believe. Do not be afraid.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Someone once said that FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real</div><br />
<div align="justify">I have come to find out that feeling afraid DOES NOT change the circumstances. In fact, when you allow yourself to be afraid all you are doing is paralyzing your will and sending up your blood pressure by worrying.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Listen, if fear does not change the conditions that make you afraid then might as well you use the same energy it takes to be afraid and use that energy to believe…to keep hope alive in your heart—for your own peace of mind and wellbeing.</div><br />
<div align="justify">The second lesson on the road to your own encouragement is in the next action of Jesus.</div><br />
<div align="justify">After He told daddy not to be afraid, He stopped all the people who were following just to be observers and have something to talk about. Jesus continued to the house where the dead girl now was with only three persons, apart from daddy.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Hear this. If you are serious about getting to new, unchartered, virgin experiences and levels of happiness that you have not before experienced, then you have to allow for some measure of loneliness and unpopular trails. </div><br />
<div align="justify">Imagine the guts it took for daddy to stay walking with Jesus when everyone else there was saying Jesus has to be crazy. Who ever heard of somebody helping a DEAD person?</div><br />
<div align="justify">Do you have what it takes to walk the road less travelled in order to receive the encouragement and success that no one else enjoys?</div><br />
<div align="justify">But there is another lesson in our story. When daddy arrived back at the house he saw all his neighbours and friends comforting his wife and crying as well.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Daddy then heard Jesus saying something that didn’t make sense. Jesus was telling them, “The girl is not dead.” </div><br />
<div align="justify">The folks who were there and had already seen the girl, knew she was dead. So how did they respond to what Jesus, who had just physically arrived, said?</div><br />
<div align="justify">The people LAUGHED JESUS TO SCORN. Yes, that is right. No one there thought anything sensible of Jesus. Daddy had a choice to make. He was seeing all his friends and family laughing at Jesus as though Jesus was the most stupid person on the planet. Daddy knew to stand with Jesus meant that his friends will also laugh him to scorn. </div><br />
<div align="justify">But he wanted to give Jesus a chance to do His do. After all, what more could he lose at this time?</div><br />
<div align="justify">Our next lesson is from Jesus’ next action. He put everybody who was laughing out of the house.</div><br />
<div align="justify">You must understand, as you get close to your place of miracle, to your ground zero, to your ashes from where the phoenix is about to rise, that no ordinary human being can stand in support of you there. </div><br />
<div align="justify">To see hope when the average person sees hopelessness is not going to put you on the popular list. It is not going to send you viral and increase your “likes” or followers on social networks.</div><br />
<div align="justify">just the opposite might happen. Your number of friends may suddenly dwindle.</div><br />
<div align="justify">And it was at this time when daddy was really alone Jesus did for him what no one else could have done. Because daddy was man enough to stand with Jesus and allow Jesus a chance to help, his daughter was brought back to life.</div><br />
<div align="justify">I want to say, finally, that no body can stop you from believing what you choose to believe. But no body can stop Jesus from doing what He does when a person believes and waits on Him.</div><br />
<div align="justify">People spend hundreds of dollars to hear motivational speeches. But you know what? All the feel good advice you will ever need is in the Bible. Read Mark chapter 5 to see what I am talking about.</div><br />
<div align="justify">Be encouraged!</div></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-77101972988860332752011-11-27T07:24:00.000-04:002011-11-27T07:24:04.797-04:00Vincentian Traditional Sunday Mornings<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">You know when you look on a map of the world and you only see nothing more than a dot representing the size and location of your island home, it can be quite disconcerting at first. Nonetheless, St Vincent and the Grenadines has been a comparatively tiny island that held much golden humanitarian values for its approximately 100 000 inhabitants over the years.<br />
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Sunday mornings were a special time of family, friends, food and faith that sowed some irreplaceable seeds of universal values within us while we wee young and growing up.<br />
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I can still recall that on a Sunday morning very much like this one, as children we would awake to the sound of our parents in their bedroom having their extended morning devotions. If you paid attention long enough you would really think it was an early version of the Sunday service which we would all later attend. Daddy would be quoting scriptures and giving his interpretations and mini exhortations pretty much as a pastor would do. My mother would be the song and worship leader. They would go back and forth between singing and reading of scriptures.<br />
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When the sun began to knock on our windows all of us children would be told to awake at that time. Sleeping in after sunrise was never allowed it seems. So beginning with my oldest brother, we would each have to kneel at our bedside and "say the Our Father Prayer" and a prayer dictated by either parent. Our parents would not leave the bedroom until they themselves had prayed; this was the time that we would hear our mother praying extensively for each of us in the family.<br />
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Sunday breakfast was also a uniquely anticipated time in the family as well. After Saturday grocery shopping in town mommy would have brought back some tasty bread and condiments which would be our Sunday treats. It was the norm that you ate meals on Sundays that you would not usually consume during the rest of the week. Back in those growing years the kitchen would have been a wooden structure separate from the "wood house" as we called it. <br />
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My mother and my sole sister would proceed to the kitchen and commence the making of chocolate tea, flavoured with cinnamon and ginger. I always had my chocolate volcano hot--never liked tea at any other temperature. My mother would then prepare the bread and fried fish or other protein servings which would accompany the bread.<br />
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During all this time, my brothers and I would be sweeping the yard or washing the dishes from Saturday evening dinner. Sometimes as well, we would have to be about the backyard and even the garden collecting wood or pieces of dried sticks to be used for roasting breadfruit, if that was on the menu for that day. <br />
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By mid morning all movements would be to get to church. At one time we attended church with our parents but that changed because their church was located so far from where we lived. So as children we would walk across to a nearby village to participate in Sunday School and later on morning worship service. It was an adventure getting to church, especially on wet mornings. You see, the path to the church was really a shortcut--a dirt track through shrubs and uncultivated lands. We also had to cross a river by jumping across stones. To slip from a stone because of its slippery surface was to have your "Sunday best" shoes, socks and pants foot drenched in the muddy water of the river.<br />
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But through it all we learned some lessons in those days that are still embedded in us as adults today. I, along with my siblings, would have been left with a heritage of prayer and motivation to keep working. Because living conditions may not be the ideal today does not mean that tomorrow will not be better. We all must keep on moving. <br />
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Another thing that stands out about our Sundays long ago is the neighbourly sharing of Sunday lunches. Food was always in abundance, and we always knew what the neighbours were eating, and vice versa.<br />
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Sundays were the quietest of days. All commercial and business activities ceased for that day. Public transportation was at a halt. Shops were closed. Loud music was silenced. Farmers stayed out of their mountain lands. t was the Lord's Day. It was family day. It is now that we are all grown up and gone physically apart, mommy is in heaven, and yet life goes on that I appreciate the significance of those old and seemingly insignificant Sundays back then. Family and good parenting are essential inputs into the life of a growing child. <br />
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It is my hope that my readers are able to appreciate their own Sundays and other occasions when their family is sowing good things in their lives that will help them to stand productively as future adults.</div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-47606669203815978852011-11-26T17:35:00.003-04:002011-11-27T19:48:32.002-04:00Welcome to The Wrestling Place<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Thank you for visiting The Wrestling Place (TWP). Some of my readers may have followed me on my previous blog "Ashford Daniel Writes" which was hosted by Wordpress. Unfortunately, since early September, I have been unable to have any new article published on Wordpress because of a technical issue within Wordpress. Wordpress has been unable to resolve the issue. As far as I am aware, no action has been credibly taken by them to solve the problem. I postponed leaving for as long as I could, but life must go on. Indeed, it is something I also "wrestled" with. You may still see many of my past articles on Wordpress at<br />
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<a href="http://www.risingdano.wordpress.com/">www.risingdano.wordpress.com/</a> <br />
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First of all, this blog is not a WWE partner activity. I have decided to call my newest blog The Wrestling Place (TWP) because I want it to be symbolic of the times and seasons in every life when a person has to do some personal wrestling or struggling with opposing circumstances. It is only after we have faced our challenges and have <em>wrestled</em> with them that we can grow and move to a happier place in our lives. <br />
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You can rest assured that there will always be some post of interest and innovative worth for you as a reader, no matter your back ground or walk in life. Let me invite you to become a subscribed member to TWP and spread the word. After all, readers are leaders and world changers.<br />
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STDCXQG7WTKU</div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4798694672726620858.post-37306100523917770862011-11-25T22:35:00.000-04:002011-11-25T22:35:43.149-04:00When Men Hurt<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div align="center"></div><div align="justify">Western societies continue to evolve on all levels. The shifting focus and inter dependency of gender roles on our social well being is taking a somewhat obviously subtle turn towards violence and retribution. In the twentieth century it was the women and children who were regarded as being the helpless ones in the context of situations involving domestic violence or relationship breakdown. </div><div align="justify">The empowerment of our independently driven women over the last decade has brought a fair deal of balance to the vulnerabilities of the sexes. In fact, our females have almost been enclosed by a legal regulatory frame work that acts as a force shield from the traditional domestic disputes and conflicts. </div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center"><a href="http://www.leapalternativestoviolence.com/images/mens_program.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="http://www.leapalternativestoviolence.com/images/mens_program.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div align="justify">The socialization of both genders has seen our females in general not being invited to empathize with any emotional vulnerabilities of the opposite sex. The men also have been ruthlessly trained that a critical criteria which determines manhood is to not show any sense of emotional fear, intimacy or failure, especially as it relates to their relationships. </div><div align="justify">The unwelcomed reality is that after many decades of man being the sexually dominant figure and the economic centrepiece in the home, men are now having to face some hard changes. Their women are no longer willing to just be a frightened puppy when the treacherous situations of cheating and insensitivity pop up in their intimacies. Ladies are actually prepared now to move out and move on with their lives, largely due to the supportive frame work put in place over the years. </div><div align="justify">On the other hand, men are finding that, as their home lives deteriorate, they have no one or nowhere to really go to for some sort of solace or resurgence. They definitely cannot approach their brethren with whom they hang out and share their inner pain or pending family loss. The vibes from the Gaza culture and Hollywood instant retributive side leaves them with a seemingly easy and cost effective alternative of violence and swift murder. </div><div align="justify">Each time a man goes on the killing spree and slaughters his girl friend or woman there exists another man somewhere in the dark heartlands of despair, fear and frustration with his own family who is all the more encouraged to follow suit and rid the world of the persons he sees as representing his pain and loss. Such persons in effect have taken away his manhood. And a man without his manhood is no man. </div><div align="justify">The growing sense of domestic alienation of our men and young boys is sending a strong wake up call for balanced emotional support for the male gender. Many men now seem to have so very little to live for within a happy monogamous relationship. It is far easier for them to just see the need to satisfy their current sex drive and not necessarily to value "settling down" with one woman and their resulting offsprings. </div><div align="justify">The many teenage boys who have little choice but to become a man before they see puberty because of a missing father represents a flashing amber light in the social dynamics. Upcoming is a generation of tomorrow's men who have much disappointment, anger, hurt and confusion as to why their should-be role models never stuck around practically in their lives. They have to somehow deal with all the resulting pain before they can even think of having their own successful family. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="justify">Women and men have been hurt so much in relationships that a growing percentage of both sexes is starting to have little or no expectations of a future relationship that is built on stability, trust and commitment. The sweetness has been removed from many homes and so there are little incentives to anchor the heart there. </div></div>Ashford Danielhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05685069489353296886noreply@blogger.com0St George, St Vincent and the Grenadines13.145502954873642 -61.21547354443362113.099984454873642 -61.262062544433618 13.191021454873642 -61.168884544433624