Danny ChaiI mentioned before how medicines are different here, like Benadryl is not the same as in the US. I found out that Benadryl here is equivalent to Zyrtec in the US. Because that’s not confusing at all.
You know a random thing that’s impossible to find here? Chicken noodle soup. Kids have been pretty much continuously (well, alternately) sick for over a month now so I’ve been out to get soup a lot, and I’ve yet to find a single place that sells chicken noodle soup. Not even instant. They’re all these weird British kinds. This country is missing out. Oversalty Campbell’s chicken noodle always makes me feel better when I’m sick.
This Christianity Today article on circumcision in Kenya is interesting to me, not just for the issue itself (circumcision helps prevent HIV transmission so there’s a drive in the church to have men get it done) but because of the tone of the argument against it. Roughly that the fundamental problem isn’t being uncircumcised, it’s a promiscuous lifestyle. Circumcision doesn’t solve the real problem; only changed hearts can do that.
I find that interesting because it sounds exactly like what certain pro-gun conservatives say about gun control. That reducing access to guns doesn’t solve the fundamental problem; it’s violent hearts that need to be changed. (Guns don’t kill people; people do.)
I think the CT article helps me understand where the conservative pro-gun side is coming from. Conservatives, especially religious ones, tend to be all about addressing the fundamental issues. It’s the same reasoning behind their support of abstinence education – sex-ed and contraceptives for teenagers wouldn’t be needed if we could address the fundamental issues of the heart.
Personally, I disagree with any line of reasoning that pursues the ideal while ignoring reality, and I think there’s Biblical precedent for that. Jesus says ideally, there would be no divorce at all, but given the reality of how people are, Moses permitted it, and there’s a place for it. Perhaps ideally, teenagers would abstain from sex. But in reality, given how they are, and especially since the majority don’t share Christian values, yeah, we should have sex-ed to help prevent STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Ideally, there would be no crazies around that want to kill people. But given that there are, and really that there always will be, seems prudent to limit their access to tools that can hurt massive amounts of people quickly.