Potholed Road

How many potholes must a road contain, before you can call it a road? I count 20 to 30 potholes here. It is a major tributary, in the township of New Rest, on the outskirts of Kareedouw, South Africa. OBSERVATION: A year ago, this road had no potholes. The neighbouring suburb is nicknamed Baie Gate (Many Holes).

POSTSCRIPT: Whoever built this road, however, was asking for trouble. It should be much thicker.

Something Wrong Here

I sit on a rainy day, this New Year's Eve, looking from a window over three South African townships. Yet there is something wrong here. All three are in a state of considerable disrepair. Nobody could call it normal. I took the photo a year ago.

POSTSCRIPT: These townships' entire water supply stopped for the second time today in as many weeks. Personally, I think that is a new low. I shall mercifully draw a veil over which party administers this district.

‘Excellent Work’

I have been attempting a paper for a theological journal. I almost completed a first draft. AI, for what it is worth, considers: "This is a high-quality, publishable paper in the field of political theology. Its argument is original, well-researched, and intellectually serious. ... You have successfully constructed a formidable philosophical-theological scaffolding and reached the fruit. Now, just ensure that fruit is presented in its most potent and unmistakable form. You have done excellent work." Yes and no. AI has got ahead of itself. It is not yet excellent work.

First Day In The Mission

I remember my first day in the mission, as a young boy. We weighed anchor off Ocean Island (now Banaba). It was hot and humid. The sky was clear, and the ocean heaving. We needed to jump from a rope ladder into a launch. Timing was critical. With every swell of the ocean, the launch drifted from the ship, then slammed back into the side. I was already in the launch when my father jumped -- but he mistimed it.  He fell into the breach between the launch and the ship. The launch slammed into him. His Polaroid sunglasses -- his only pair -- went to the bottom of the ocean. An islander pulled him from the ocean with a badly grazed leg. I could see that he was suffering. “Look!” someone said. “Sharks!” We saw their fins in the water all around us.

Mobbed for Photos

I get mobbed in the townships by children looking for photos. Afterwards I develop a few and send them back to the townships. I say to myself, these may one day be the only photos that they have of their young years. Here's the last photo that I took, just over half an hour ago. It is a Leica simulation.

Stock Market Crash

Son M wrote to me: there may be a stock market crash -- maybe, maybe not. It seemed to me that this might be visible in English language corpora. In fact, I found that the corpora predict crashes with 100% certainty (see the graph), if one looks at the use frequency of key phrases. However, my researches were superficial so far, and I used DeepSeek to fill in this graph from 2022 onwards. AI comments about a use frequency surge of "stock market crash" in 2024: “Despite the frequent use of the phrase, the U.S. stock market did not crash in 2024.” Of course, it didn’t -- because it predicted a crash. My superficial researches show: a major stock market crash is certain, about now. I shall name this the Scarborough Indicator.

POSTSCRIPT: I like to say, "You read it first on this blog." I hope my Scarborough Indicator is wrong. A day after I predicted a crash "about now", a week has been wiped off some major shares. 

Rowdy Youth

In city ministry, our Church's youth group, over many years, became increasingly Black. Black children are more rowdy, and we now needed to contend with the real possibility of injury (there were up to about forty children). In fact there were sporadic injuries -- thankfully all of them small. The only serious injury was to an adult, who dislocated his ankle while playing soccer with the children. OBSERVATION: With possible injuries in mind, the youth leaders developed a zero-tolerance policy towards rowdiness. They began to send youngsters home. This upset them very much -- and had the desired effect. We also appointed more youth "helpers".

Brothers- and Sisters-in-Law

This might be a first on my blog: a group photo of me and my wife E and brothers- and sisters-in-law who live to the east of Cape Town -- most of them. It is our tradition to take group photos on Christmas day.

Iconic Christmas Tree

Here's another photo of South Africa's iconic Christmas tree, Erythrina lysistemon (a flame tree) -- in the foreground. I took this in the grounds of the Dutch Reformed Church Riviersonderend, 100 miles east of Cape Town. You may click on the photo to enlarge.

Pre-Christmas Crush

This shot of Cape Town's central bus station shows a typical pre-Christmas crush as Capetonians travel mainly east -- back to their roots. Due to this annual migration, Churches may lose much of their congregation over the Christmas season. OBSERVATION: Many Churches don't fill up for Christmas, but empty out.

Sermon Assessment

I completed the first draft of a sermon, to be delivered at a theological seminary. DeepSeek AI considers, "This is a fascinating and highly unusual sermon for a theological seminary setting." It continues, "The preacher correctly identifies the need to preach differently to a seminary. ... The phrase-by-phrase breakdown of [the text] is easy to follow. ... In isolation, several conclusions are biblically sound." Having said that, it dislikes a few things. OBSERVATION: Yet AI was trained by everyone. It seems to me that the AI critique has too many voices in its head.

Fisheye Portrait

Adults are horrified by fisheye photos. Kids love them. This is a fisheye photo of my youngest niece J, taken at very close quarters. She is six years old.

A Circular Trap

I was pleased to receive the proofs today for an article I co-authored with social scientist Shirley Yandiswa Mthembu. Proofs are a try-out before something is printed. I generally only write things that I think are important. This one is titled, "When the Path Forward is a Circular Trap". The article explains how personal progress is not open to all. Millions of people the world over find themselves in a trap.

Line and Page

My son wrote people a letter recently, in which he said about me, "One can read any line from a book in his library, ask him on which page it is found, and he will tell you from memory the exact line and exact page." OBSERVATION: I have done that, but I remember the things best that interested me -- and even then, I might find them fast, though without naming line or page numbers. I once had fellow-students at Fuller Theological Seminary in stitches when someone asked me, "Where do you find that?" and I gave them the line and page number from memory.

Sister-in-Law

This one's just a pretty picture. It accidentally captured a well colour-coordinated scene. It is one of my three sisters-in-law.