Blogging against Poverty – Blog Action Day

Ever wondered what more you can do about world poverty? It’s a bit like the kid throwing beached starfish back into the ocean – not a hope of saving the thousands of stranded ones so why bother at all – what difference does it make? “It makes a difference to this one,” he says, chucking another into the deep. Today, I learn is Blog Action Day 2008. Blog writers everywhere are being invited to write about poverty and register through this site. The day is still young as it beginns to unfold around the globe and there are already 9394 sites with over 10 million readers registered. What’s more it is already choc-a-block full of ideas and suggestions. It’s a bit like a crowd gathering on the beach to throw stranded starfish back into the ocean.

Wall Street – bankruptcy over bailout

OK, having owned up to my own sense of economic bewilderment and yet a gut feeling that congress made the right decision when it denied a $700 billion bailout, I’ve found an article that makes sense to me. (Click here). It clearly advocates bankruptcy over bailout.  I think it’s right because it’s an honest acknowledgement of the consequences of greed. Yep, we all bear the brunt of the pain – but at least we get the chance to start over and build a more realistic and equitable economic base that is prepared to wear the cut and thrust of free market economies from a more compassionate point of view. 

None of this is new or unexpected. Have a read of Micah and Amos and some of the other minor prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures. The same dynamics are being addressed. There is also a solution – but how many would find it palatable?

Off to Adelaide

Time to catch up with all my kin in my home town of Adelaide – lately I’m managing to get over there every couple of years or so. This means things will be quiet here over the next week. Plenty of good blogging material out there at the moment. I’m not an economist – but what a day! What does congress’ rejection of the $700 billion bailout mean? Why do I feel relieved at congress’ rejection when I don’t comprehend how a gifting of squillions of imaginary dollars can have any effect at all? Some things are more of a mystery to me than infinity!

The Visitor – more movie dipping

 

 They told me I should see this one.

 So I did.

 The Visitor certainly evoked memories from not so distant times when folk from my church and I sat through tribunals, negotiaited immigration interviews and confronted officialdom on behalf of “illegal immigrants,” otherwise deemed by the international community to be legitimate refugees entitled to protection under United Nation conventions of which my country is a signatory! It was all there, the infectious humanity and joie de vivre of those under the heavy burden of having to prove they have the right to exist in safety, the intransigence of governments and their enforcement authorities, and the ordinary “joe bloe” who innocently gets caught up in it and finds his own passions awakened.

 The story has no resolution and some will find it unsatisfying.

 For me it was cathartic.

Movie Dipping

How could two films be so different yet so similar? I saw them randomly and almost back to back (give or take a week or two). Both drama/comedies, both dealing with the paradoxical art and escapism of cinema, both unconsciously aware that the “acting out” before the camera mirrored the real life dramas of the central characters, both reflecting narrative movements from alienation through conflict to reconciliation and resolution, and both focused on that iconic war of the late 20th century in Vietnam. Yet one was a spoof (that was hardly worth the ticket) and the other a warm-hearted “feel-good” that lingers. I remarked in yesterday’s sermon that the cinema is a good indicator of the mood of the age. Some films are discerning a cultural yearning for the reclamation of community building and reconciliation in the face of the enmity and rancour that has embittered and dehumanised the community since 9/11. Maybe two seemingly disparate stories are using archetypes with a contemporary face to give expression to the reality behind Peter’s question in Matthew 18:21. Jesus’ reply is even more shocking and compelling.

Oh! – the films are Tropic Thunder and Son of Rambow . Visit MRQE for a host of reviews

Despair by chocolate

I sit at the desk opening mail while tucking into a Father’s Day chocolate – a delicious indulgence. My eye falls on World Vision’s Action News – the lead article takes the chocolate industry to task for failing to meet yet another deadline to meet certain measures to curtail the use of child labour in the production of cocoa in West Africa. This was a voluntary deadline self-imposed under the Harkin-Engel Protocol which aims to set standards of public certification that ensure cocoa production in Ivory Coast and Ghana is free of forced labour and the worst forms of child labour. The industry failed to meet its own deadline of July 2005 and the extended deadline of July 2008. World Vision is calling on the industry to have a full and detailed plan for action ready by 1 December 2008.

I’m not quite choking on my chocolate, but I think I’ll do as they suggest and sign the petition supporting World Vision’s call at donttradelives.com.au

The morning after polling day in Western Australia

So here we sit with an undetermined result – neither major party has sufficient seats to form government in its own right. Minor parties and independents will have a major say in how WA’s next government is formed. This is parliamentary democracy at work. In the end a small portion of the electorate will ultimately determine how political power will be wielded over the next four years.  The test of the effectiveness of democracy has always been how the majority treats the minority. It will be interesting to see if the reverse is true. The next few days should be most informative.

So – who are you going to vote for?

Elections are in the air. Campaigning has moved into high gear in the USA as Barak Obama and John McCain begin to slug it out. We go to the polls here in WA this Saturday. Will we vote for more of the same last eight years or take a gamble on a hastily revamped opposition? Or will we protest again by voting for a minority party or independent?

Should church leaders seek to influence how those within their orbit should vote? Political parties of all brands are recognising the significance of what they call the “Christian” vote. Note the singular – as if there is such a thing as the mono-morphous Christian vote. Certain parties and lobby groups appear to target church leaders in the hope they will use their influence, powers of persuasion and authority to help voters see political reform through their particular lens.

I wll not reveal how I intend to vote, nor seek to persuade another in any electoral direction. It behooves each individual to ensure they are well enough informed on the many issues that have a multiplicity of colours that apply in different ways to different parts of the community. As a preacher under the rule of the God who is fully revealed in the Way of Christ, I can hold up a prism that displays these colours, but it’s up to each voter to use their powers of reasoning and discernment to decide how these colours fall on the choices they make.  I can be no more directive than that. 

And why should any voter’s responsibility stop after the poll? Recent times have seen the growth of online grass-roots movements that seek to monitor the activities and decisions of those who represent us. Rather than list them here, for all have biases that could leave me exposed to charges of favouring either the left or the right, I will simply point out one, Open Australia, which simply provides a very direct means of accessing and monitoring the parliamentary speeches of your representative in both houses of Federal Parliament and giving their contact details.

There is plenty of scope for Kingdom oriented learners of Christ’s way to test their understanding and influence in dialogue with their parliamentary representatives – no matter which way the vote falls on Saturday.

The Enneagram – my take

I’ve just linked to Dave’s Enneagram Blog. Since the early 1980s I have been fascinated with the enneagram system, used primarily for identifying and exploring personality styles in both secular and Christian spiritual direction circles. There are many instruments out there for identifying temperament behaviour in vocational, management and therapeutic settings, some better known than others. The danger of all such instruments is the tendency to predetermine and reduce one’s likely behaviour – “Oh, I’m a (insert label) so I am doomed to act or behave in this way when this thing happens.”

What I like about the enneagram (which is also prone to being abused in this way) is it’s full dynamic. “Yes, when under stress I habitually use this coping strategy, but there are a number of options that are also open to me which, according to my choice, either enhance or diminish my growth and enjoyment.”

Exploring the enneagram system has certainly enhanced my capacity to understand how I and others tick, even helping us to work together more effectively. It is a strong aid in contemplative prayer, as each habitual coping pattern has it’s attendant traps and giftings, and the contemplative traditions are replete with experience in integrating all of these in our journey into the fullness of God (which, for the follower of Jesus’ way, is revealed most strongly through Christ’s example and presence).

Sustainable September

It being the first day of Spring, a PeaceChurch sojourner draws my attention to Sustainable September, a Western Australian initiative involving church and community groups.

Earlier discussion here revealed several correspondents who have reservations about climate change discussions. Whichever side of the debate we fall on, and whether we believe the cause of climate change is natural or human or some of both, careful stewardship of natural resources is part of the biblical shalom for which many on all sides of the discussion yearn.

 

So let me give three cheers to all who seek to be informed, discerning, and a friend of the Creation God has given.