This is amazing ...

Raj Patel, a London-born American academic and activist of Indian descent shows up on The Colbert Report, a comedy show on TV.

People from a little known religious group, Share International, proclaim that he is their awaited Maitreya.

He is then inundated with email from them. He denies it by posting on his web site (more detailed here), only to have those fans believe in him much more!

The similarities with scenes from the movie, Life of Brian are startling.

The irony is that Patel is opposed to the "savior" mentality, and rather believes that there are no easy answers to complex problems.

The article mentions Stephen Louis Cooper, a homeless man with gender identity disorder, also from the UK who was identified as an incarnation of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata and now lives in a temple in Gujarat.

From this Guardian article.

Worth a read for sure ...

Update:
What is funnier than the original article is how people who perceive Share International, Maitreya and Raj Patel as threats, a conspiracy, and started to attack them via web sites and Youtube videos.

Examples on Youtube are authors by the name of http://www.youtube.com/user/MaitreyaTheBetrayerMaitreyaTheBetrayer, TheTruthIsFromGod and maitreyaisthebeast.

Red Moon Rising compares Maitreya to the Anti-Christ, and Hidden Codes comments below that Raj Patel is indeed a mouth piece for Share International.

I received this photo via email (thanks Yehiya!)

The Arabic sign is بيع الدواجن المذبوحة for which the correct translation is "Sale [of] Slaughtered Chicken", meaning that they are not sold alive, already killed according to Islamic law.

The creative translator of the sign decided to use "Sale of Chicken Murder", not knowing how to express that they are already slaughtered.

In this MSNBC article, research at Columbia University showed that, among other findings:

• For an average person, lying invokes negative emotions and that can reflect in, say, fidgeting in a chair or changing the rate of speech.
• Conversely, people in power do the lying more easily, and feel positively when doing it.

No wonder at many multinational corporations, CEOs are psychopaths, and many politicians too.

According to this CBC article, an IPSOS Reid survey shows that Canadians now spend more time online on their computers over watching TV.

No wonder social networking sites, such as Facebook have a big share in this ...

On Friday March 19, 2010, Muslims attending the weekly congregation prayer at the Waterloo Masjid were greeted by vandalism of their house of worship.

The 666 number of the beast was sprayed on most windows and doors. Two windows were broken, including the funeral room, where the deceased are washed and shrouded in preparation for burial. Pentagrams, symbols of magic, were sprayed, as well as many insults, most of them misspelled, "Satan", "Deat [sic] to you all", "Devel" [sic], "soul collector".

The BBC has an interesting look at the African-Palestinians in Jerusalem.

Their ancestry comes from Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, and Senegal.

They settled and married from other Muslim Arabic speaking non-African Palestinians in Jerusalem, and face the same challenges that the broader Palestinian community faces.

Limits on the Prime Minister's power to prorogue parliament have been passed.

A few days ago, on a Hamilton TV channel a news presenter mentioned that he saw a robin.

Today, I saw one here in Waterloo. The first one this season.

Spring is near ...

The sea gulls have been back for a couple of days. Circling high and making their distinctive calls.

Today, another spring visitor was in our backyard: the colorful house finch with its long and distinctive song ...

The following are some proverbs أمثال. You can tell by the content that they are either recent in origin (from 1960s and some in 1990s), or adapting old sayings with modern metaphors (e.g. Rabso and Omo detergents, or mobile phone balance).

قليل الاصل لا تعاتبه ولا تلومه ، ده زى البقعه لا يطلع برابسو ولا بأومو

العيلة اللى مفيهاش صايع ... حقها ضايع

اضحك والضحك رخيص قبل مايغلى و يبقى فى قراطيس

طلعت فوق السطوح هز الهوا كمى .. كل العيال اتجوزوا و انا لسة جنب امى

الحياه من غير نسوان زى المسقعه من غير بتنجان

اللى يسكت و مايقولش لمراته ليه ؟ رحمة الله عليه