Thokozani Bema

Public Health Specialist

[ali @gaforrevibes]

the people's real final match

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Deep inner suffering inevitably arises when the human person is reduced to performance, consumption, or a statistical datum. Many young people today live under the yoke of expectations to perform, immersed in an exasperated competitiveness that generates anxiety, fear of not measuring up, and disorientation.

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Connecting young people to digital networks serves no purpose if they remain disconnected from themselves, others, and their own interiority. We must help young people rediscover silence, reflection, the ability to ask questions, the depth of relationships, and openness to transcendence. To listen to the soul, we must lend an ear, because the soul's voice is not a shout, but a whisper.

[Thokozani Bema @thokobema]

@ADFmagazine I g1

[Ben Sasse @BenSasse]

Friends-

This is a tough note to write, but since a bunch of you have started to suspect something, I’ll cut to the chase: Last week I was diagnosed with metastasized, stage-four pancreatic cancer, and am gonna die.

Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff; it’s a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too — we all do.

I’m blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, “Sure, you’re on the clock, but we’re all on the clock.” Death is a wicked thief, and the bastard pursues us all.

Still, I’ve got less time than I’d prefer. This is hard for someone wired to work and build, but harder still as a husband and a dad. I can’t begin to describe how great my people are. During the past year, as we’d temporarily stepped back from public life and built new family rhythms, Melissa and I have grown even closer — and that on top of three decades of the best friend a man could ever have. Seven months ago, Corrie was commissioned into the Air Force and she’s off at instrument and multi-engine rounds of flight school. Last week, Alex kicked butt graduating from college a semester early even while teaching gen chem, organic, and physics (she’s a freak). This summer, 14-year-old Breck started learning to drive. (Okay, we’ve been driving off-book for six years — but now we’ve got paper to make it street-legal.) I couldn’t be more grateful to constantly get to bear-hug this motley crew of sinners and saints.

There’s not a good time to tell your peeps you’re now marching to the beat of a faster drummer — but the season of advent isn’t the worst. As a Christian, the weeks running up to Christmas are a time to orient our hearts toward the hope of what’s to come.

Not an abstract hope in fanciful human goodness; not hope in vague hallmark-sappy spirituality; not a bootstrapped hope in our own strength (what foolishness is the evaporating-muscle I once prided myself in). Nope — often we lazily say “hope” when what we mean is “optimism.” To be clear, optimism is great, and it’s absolutely necessary, but it’s insufficient. It’s not the kinda thing that holds up when you tell your daughters you’re not going to walk them down the aisle. Nor telling your mom and pops they’re gonna bury their son.

A well-lived life demands more reality — stiffer stuff. That’s why, during advent, even while still walking in darkness, we shout our hope — often properly with a gravelly voice soldiering through tears.

Such is the calling of the pilgrim. Those who know ourselves to need a Physician should dang well look forward to enduring beauty and eventual fulfillment. That is, we hope in a real Deliverer — a rescuing God, born at a real time, in a real place. But the eternal city — with foundations and without cancer — is not yet.

Remembering Isaiah’s prophecies of what’s to come doesn’t dull the pain of current sufferings. But it does put it in eternity’s perspective:
“When we've been there 10,000 years…We've no less days to sing God's praise.”

I’ll have more to say. I’m not going down without a fight. One sub-part of God’s grace is found in the jawdropping advances science has made the past few years in immunotherapy and more. Death and dying aren’t the same — the process of dying is still something to be lived. We’re zealously embracing a lot of gallows humor in our house, and I’ve pledged to do my part to run through the irreverent tape.

But for now, as our family faces the reality of treatments, but more importantly as we celebrate Christmas, we wish you peace: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned….For to us a son is given” (Isaiah 9).

With great gratitude, and with gravelly-but-hopeful voices,
Ben — and the Sasses

[Dr. Simon @goddek]

🚨🇮🇱 I CAN‘T STAND THIS PROPAGANDA ANYMORE.

Yes, I’m glad that Israeli hostages have been freed. And just as glad that Palestinian prisoners have been released. But a few things need to be made clear:

FIRST: It’s absurd that Israelis are called “hostages” while Palestinians are labeled “prisoners.” That’s propaganda. It’s the same thing: human beings who’ve had their freedom taken away, on both sides.

SECOND: The released Israeli hostages appear well-fed, smiling, not a single kilo lost. Clearly treated well under the circumstances. In contrast, the Palestinian prisoners look like they’ve just walked out of a death camp: emaciated, scarred, aged by years of abuse. Tortured. And no one talks about it.

THIRD: Everywhere I read: “Hamas killed all the women, only men were released.” That’s simply a lie. A malicious one. The women who were still alive had already been released in earlier exchange deals. But facts don’t matter when it’s time to push the next hate-driven narrative for $7000.

FOURTH: Everyone talks about a handful of Israeli hostages, but no one mentions the tens of thousands of Palestinian hostages abducted by Israel. Many of them children. Imprisoned without charges, without trial.

FIFTH: And no one talks about the tens of thousands of civilians killed in Israel’s genocide.

SIXTH: While the ‘ceasefire’ (it’s just a matter of time until Israel breaks it again) is being celebrated, radical Israeli settlers are still violently stealing land in the West Bank; with full impunity. They break international law daily, and no one seems to care.

SEVENTH: Politicians across the world are shamelessly cucking for Israel, offering blind support while refusing to even mention the crimes committed in Gaza, the ongoing apartheid in the West Bank, or the endless aggression toward neighboring countries.

EIGHTH: The same governments and media that claim to stand for human rights, international law, and “never again” are now either silent or fully complicit: funding, arming, and excusing an apartheid regime in real time. When Palestinian lives are dehumanized, erased, and bombed into dust, suddenly all those values vanish

So no, I will not take part in this propaganda. I will not whitewash Israel’s crimes.

And yes, I still stand by my words: A STATE LIKE ISRAEL SHOULD NOT EXIST.

[Thokozani Bema @thokobema]

@yousef_ki1 .

[Forbes @Forbes]

In an interview with Forbes, Mentalist @OzTheMentalist guessed a reporter's ATM code.

Since his breakthrough appearance on America’s Got Talent, Oz Pearlman has been working his magic on Corporate America.
Read more: https://t.co/1ENPqSstRd

[Thokozani Bema @thokobema]

@JulianaLunguzi @TheNGO You are right. They have no proper and visible mechanism for paying + they are inconsistent. Next time you go, you will find the gate wide open.

[The Culturist @the_culturist_]

Where did this depressing architecture come from?

Is it really designed to demoralize us as @TuckerCarlson says?

A thread... 🧵

[Nadeem Ahmed @Muqadaam]

Jeremy Corby: “Protesting against the mass slaughter of civilians is not a threat to democracy”

Retweet if you agree with him

[Nadeem Ahmed @Muqadaam]

Jeremy Corbyn “If Israel carries on with its bombardment of Gaza, then surely every government around the world is going to ask: what is the point of international law if we can do what we like?”

Retweet if you agree with him

[John McGowan OCD @johnmcgowan50]

9 Carmelite (ODC) Bishops, one a cardinal, from all over the world (Sweden, Malawi, Ecuador, Bolivia, Australia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Madagascar, Peru) addressing our meeting in Lisieux. Interesting. None of them wanted to be Bishops.

[The Sigma Mindset @thesigmamindset]

1.

[The Sigma Mindset @thesigmamindset]

TED TALKS ARE LIFE CHANGING.

HERE ARE 8 MOST POPULAR TED TALKS WORTH YOUR TIME:

[Save the Children Malawi @SCIMalawi]

During the #DayoftheAfricanChild commemoration, @SCIMalawi supported three young people who showcased their initiatives towards promoting the use of technology among children and the youth.

Read more at https://t.co/jikQhoBFVx

[Save the Children Malawi @SCIMalawi]

Today, we're celebrating #WorldEnvironmentalDay in Mzuzu with an amazing children's event where they are cleaning the city and raising awareness against plastic pollution!

Let's empower our children to become stewards of the planet! #BeatPlasticPollution

[Save the Children Malawi @SCIMalawi]

🤝 Empower African children, families, and young people for safe and responsible technology use. Educate, produce & share relevant content, and provide access to digital tools. Let’s shape a responsible digital generation! 💻📚👦🏽 #LogInAfricanChildrenSafely #DAC2023