Monthly Archives: June 2011

Time for something light…

30 Thursday Jun 2011

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Lawyers for the Department of Transport were busily preparing their case in defense of the charge relating to the station owner’s lost prize Brahman bull. It had gone missing around the same time that the weekly train had gone through and, as far as the squatter was concerned, there was only one conclusion.

The government’s young top gun lawyer swung a deal, and the station owner was willing to settle out of court for half his claim. After he had signed the deal and the cheque was in his hands, the brash young lawyer, proud of his efforts, said, “Well, I can now tell you, off the record, that the driver had dozed off and the stoker was attending to something at the back of the tender!”

The squatter replied, “Crikey, and here was I worried about how I was going to say to the court that my bull came home this morning!”

A Thousand Splendid Suns – a book review

29 Wednesday Jun 2011

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This morning brings the news of a Taliban raid on an international hotel in Kabul. Innocent lives lost have added to the growing tally that amounts to the tortuous agony of Afghanistan. It takes a book like A Thousand Splendid Suns, however, to reveal the complexities of a society that lives with violence almost every day. Tribal factionalism, domestic oppression, international politics, resource exploitation, religious fanaticism and climate extremes – all are potent ingredients in themselves, let alone when mixed together and baked. Khaled Hosseini, also author of the well-acclaimed The Kite Runner and himself an Afghan refugee, traces thirty years of recent history through the eyes of two women almost literally thrown together by arbitrary acts of war. From the Russian invasion and expulsion, civil war, the rise of the Taliban and the American led “war on terrorism”, Mariam and Laila survive on their wits. At the same time, readers are afforded the opportunity to glimpse the aspirations and beauty of Afghan culture, albeit through the fog of war. Beautifully and sensitively narrated.

Report on Children in Immigration Detention

28 Tuesday Jun 2011

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The government proposed deadline for removing children from immigration detention centres is only 2 days away. In March, The Minister for Immigration told parliament all was on track for this to occur. A more recent report by the Australian Government to the UNHRC admits that this deadline will not be met.

ChilOut, a citizens’ group campaigning on behalf of children in immigration detention, has just launched a report into detention conditions on Christmas Island, No Place for Children.

It is chilling reading. Concerned citizens need to keep speaking up. These places are highly inappropriate for the locking up of children whose only misdemeanor is to accompany those fleeing persecution and danger (not that they are not at risk anyway). It is time this mandatory detention regime ended for all asylum seekers.

Solar rocks!

27 Monday Jun 2011

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This is a cropped version of :Image:Zonnecolle...

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Even on this cloudy day, the church’s newly installed solar energy system is neutralising what we are currently taking from the grid. (It is a low activity day with just the office and kitchen fridge consuming power). Nevertheless, did you know that one unit of energy will:

  • drive a car (@ 6 litres/100km) 2 km
  • heat 20L of water 42°C once @ 100% efficiency (no losses)
  • heat a room 3.2m x 3.3m x 2.3m by 5°C once @ 100% efficiency (no losses)
  • lift 650L of water 600m (Perth water from Yarragadee aquifer @ 100% efficiency)
  • run a pool pump for 1 hour (750 watt pump + salinator)
  • run a big plasma TV (500watts) for 2 hours
  • run a small TV (50 watts) for 20 hours
  • run a twin outdoor security lamp for 3 hours
  • run a small fridge for 1 day
  • run a pond pump (50 watts) for 20 hours
  • run an electric resistance heater for half an hour
  • run a reverse cycle air conditioner (small – 1 large room) for 1.25 hours
  • run an evaporative cooler (whole house) for 1.5 hours
  • keep an old 60W incandescent globe on for 17 hours
  • keep a 15W fluorescent globe on for 67 hours
  • keep a 7W LED globe on for 143 hours
  • keep a 15W standby load standing by for 67 hours
  • collect, produce, deliver and treat (as waste water) 1000L of Perth drinking water
  • add 1kg of greenhouse gas to our atmosphere if obtained from fossil-fueled electricity as our coal and gas fired power stations provide
  • add ~250g of greenhouse gas to our atmosphere if obtained from natural gas
  • be produced in 1 hour by full sun shining on a 1kW photovoltaic system (with near zero greenhouse gas emissions)

Fallout from today’s harangue

26 Sunday Jun 2011

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Contemporary stained glass window at the Melki...

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Well, no-one said that preaching on Genesis 22 would be easy – YHWH tests Abraham’s faith by calling on him to sacrifice his son Isaac then stops him mid-strike of the knife.

The story contains all the things that shock and offend modern sensibility. We find it almost impossible to get beyond the ancient patriarchy, child sacrifice, and seeming divine capriciousness  that are the hallmarks of this narrative.

We either flee from this story or fight it hard. Its so-called testimony to Abraham’s “blind faith” seems disingenuous. Better to strive with the human dilemma of long awaited realised hope challenged by unimaginable choices and a trust that comes through struggle. These are themes that find expression in stories people have told me this week and which are present in the Abraham story.

This morning I told a story of a preacher who, in wrestling with this text, found nothing beautiful and uplifting in it, and could only weep before the congregation. In doing so she gave them permission to embrace their own lament and find a place where their faith spoke of providence. Indeed this was good news.

Feedback over coffee was varied and vigorous. There were those who wanted to defend Abraham as someone who was on a learning curve. There were others who felt a connection with the struggle and who could begin to name the tensions between hope and ultimate trust, even when facing some significant blows.

Maybe not much was resolved, but there was some significant engagement.

In the end, Abraham and Isaac on Mt Moreh is a Hebrew story – and such narratives are invariably open-ended, inviting us in. Maybe that’s why they’ve been around for a long time!

God sanctioned infanticide?

25 Saturday Jun 2011

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Fresco with image of Abraham to sacrifice his ...

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Genesis 22:1-14 is one of the texts up for tomorrow. Although I’d rather spend time on Matthew 10:40-42, the call of YHWH on Abraham to offer his son Isaac as a sacrifice is the one that will have everyone asking questions.

“What sort of a God would ask this of a parent?” we ask. The fact that we do not ask the same question as we send our sons off to war or sacrifice our children’s environmental health on altars of economic expediency does not lessen the impact of this ancient story upon us.

It’s often told as a story that illustrates the superiority of blind faith. There’s more at stake here. In the big story, Abraham and Sarah represent those who are the recipients of a fragile promise of continuing life. For Abraham, it is through the long awaited gift of a son and thus future progeny. Now he is asked to surrender the evidence of even this slender hope. He is fully present both to the provider of hope and to the apple of his eye, Isaac. When YHWH speaks, and when Isaac questions, Abraham’s words are the same “Here I am.” The narrative understates Abraham’s emotional state of mind – in fact doesn’t discuss it at all. It’s left for the reader to imagine the anguish of proceeding in trust “that God will provide” even though circumstances seem to cry out and contradict such a stance.

Abraham’s testing – the cruel craftiness of a capricious Creator?
Or a setting that provides encouragement for those who ponder providence?

Super 8 – a movie review

24 Friday Jun 2011

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Not my normal pick – sci-fi with a lot of teenage angst thrown in. But it’s the late 70s and there’s enough nostalgia for the technology of the era to catch a baby-boomer’s attention. Directed by J J Abrams, it seems to have been inspired by the “coming of age” flicks of the era. I detect a nod, however, to the themes that I have noted before in 21st century cinematography – the quest to overcome alienation (an alien is even the star turn here!) and the role of shadowy government agencies in “protecting” the population. However we won’t go too far there – it’s basically a good tongue in cheek romp that pokes fun at some horror and sci-fi genres. 7 out of 10!

Toiling against the spin…

23 Thursday Jun 2011

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Children at a refugee camp in Chad

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There is an unsound mythology surrounding Australia-bound asylum seekers that is taking a few hits this week. Tonight SBS will screen the final episode of its three part series, Go back to where you came from. There has been much conversation around my neck of the woods as folk from all walks of life have been responding and identifying with the six “pilgrims” seeking or avoiding the truth of the well-beaten refugee path.

The media is also slowly chipping away at the so-called Malaysia solution that consigns 800 hapless arrivals to Malaysian detention in exchange for 4000 “proven refugees” for resettlement in Australia. Information continuously seeps out, such as Malaysia-bound detainees ‘denied medical care’ – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), contradicting government spin on how altruistic this arrangement is.

Online petitions are hitting social network sites and indications are that there is a surge of support for a more humane policy with regard to “irregular maritime arrivals.” Time will only tell when those in power judge it politically expedient to revert to more humane policies.

Constant dripping wears away the stone.

Grim statistics

22 Wednesday Jun 2011

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CSIRO scientists have established a raw data page to counter accusations that their work is “not real science” – see it at aptly named Cape Grim Data.

I guess it is very difficult to communicate objective, uninterpreted information when the population is caught up in an emotive and political ideological storm surrounding the proposed carbon emissions tax scheme. Anything that supports or detracts from the other side’s argument becomes ammunition for hyperbole and innuendo and those who drift by the cross-hairs become fair game.

Kudos to the CSIRO scientists for making the attempt.