Charlie Dittmeier's Home Page
This building on Monivong Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in Phnom Penh, shows a varied history. Probably a respectable colonial era building before the Khmer Rouge, it subsequently had a utilitarian top floor added. Now it is being renovated again—or maybe will be replaced. Will any of its colonial beauty be preserved? We’ll have to wait and see.
So many countries are talking about re-opening businesses to counter the downturn in the economy because of the coronavirus. This woman never closed down her little rice shop. She’s open every day or her family doesn’t eat.
In a recent scholarly article, Phyllis Zagano thoughtfully draws out the theological implications of her research, but her main point is historical: There is simply no precedent on which to base the exclusion of women from the diaconate in the Catholic Church.
Zagano continues: The most famous example of a woman deacon comes from Scripture. In fact, the only person in Scripture called “deacon” is named in Paul’s Letter to the Romans, where he addresses the deacon—the woman deacon—Phoebe.
Eric Hoffer, American philosopher
In times of change learners inherit the earth; while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.
Most of the dwellings in Phnom Penh are shophouses like the one above, three or four-story buildings one room wide, with a ground floor shop opening onto the street and the family’s living quarter behind and above the shop. Now to keep customers, who may be infected, out of their homes, many of the shops have put up string barriers which allow for sales but prevent people from entering the shop. The two shops below have similar strings blocking people from walking in.
