There's always an alternative

Persecution and cruelty feed the human spirit and are the manure from which patriotism and nationhood are forged.

The Roman treatment of the early Christian community and the German Concentration camps of the Second World War did not wipe out Christianity or Judaism but resulted in the worldwide spread of Christianity and the establishment of the Israeli State, for example.

So what is the likely outcome of inflicting continuing human suffering on innocent Palestinians and Gazan civilians ?

Israel's Prime Minister says, 'they left us with no alternative'. 

But there is always an alternative.

Peace with our neighbours comes through dialogue & respect not aggression and cruelty.

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Upside of the Credit Crunch

Contrary to what my children think, I'm not that old. But I can remember,clearly, a time when the credit card was not a feature of our social landscape.

I got my wages, in cash, each week in a brown paper envelope, My employer built and sold widgets. He financed the business out of sales, but had a small development loan, from the bank, to buy bigger machine to make better widgets. I lived out of my income but had a small overdraft facility to cater for emergencies. Our property values didn't sky rocket (up or down!) but it didn't seem to bother anyone.

Now with the advent of our flexible friend, our model has changed and we are pressured to live, not out of what we have, but out of what we don't have. And that;s fine as long as you can keep all the balls in the air. But, if they fall, we realize only too clearly that credit (compared with real money) is a little like the Emperors New Clothes - pure fantasy.

The upside of this economic turmoil however, is that even if I can't now afford to retire, my widow can always rely on MasterCard to make sure I'm buried in a smart new designer T shirt and Nike sneakers, rather than the cheap undertakers shroud I would have been forced to wear in the good old days.

I guess thats progress?

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World Leaders tackle credit crunch

Great news that our world leaders are now poring mega trillions into the international economy to resolve the global credit crunch and revive our falling property prices. The disturbing question for me however is, where is all this money suddenly coming from?

Did governments have it stored up in new notes, hidden away for a rainy day? Not a very responsible investment plan I would have thought. Perhaps they borrowed it. But from whom? Did they blow the dust of their gold reserves and are they putting in real cash, or just signing off against some sort of international journal entry,

And who will pay for it all in the end ?

What ever the answer the question still remains, where's it coming from and why should the world put itself into hock to rescue a bunch of irresponsible, under regulated financial cowboys.

And If there is this sort of 'bottomless pit' financial resource available, how come it hasn't been used to solve the worlds huge humanitarian problems, feed house and educate the poor, fight cancer etc., etc.

Perhaps it's simply because there's no profit in it?

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Empty Pram Syndrome

It felt strange, sort of silly really.

There I was, walking home pushing an empty pram.

She had been our daily companion for the last 18 months and today was her first full day at daycare.
The first of many goodbyes that she would say as she moved on through life: primary school at five, her secondary education as she entered her teenage years, university, marriage and so on.

It all flashed through my mind in a few seconds as I looked down at the empty pram before me.

In some ways it felt like an end of something - but then too, it was a new beginning. The start of the next new and exciting phase in her life.

Several minutes later I found myself at home sending greetings to my closest friend on the occasion of his 65th birthday and wondering how his mum felt the first time she let him go out into the big bad world alone?

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Hey Mom, I'm famous!

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Never to be repeated bargain prices?

Almost 80 years on and history, as it has a habit of doing, repeats itself.

To quote David Letterman, " It's the 79th anniversary of the stockmarket crash and to commemorate that event, stocks are now selling at 1929 prices.'

It's amazing how quickly we forget the lessons of the past.
At the end of the day there's no such thing as a quick buck, just an advance that must ultimately be repaid,

. . . . all too often by someone else.

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Going out with a BOOM!

They came thundering out of the 50's & 60's like an out of control tidal wave.

A post war baby boom so large that it would fracture every social infrastructure it came in contact with for the next 60 years.

In the 50's it swamped pediatric services, burst out of undersized classrooms, created the worlds first teenage generation and fired the protest movement of the 60's. It took control of industry and politics in the 80's and, because of its shear size, now threatens to collapse retirement funds, superannuation schemes and health care services as these Boomers, as they became known, enter retirement years.

This week the New Zealand press association release details of a financial package designed to put more money into palliative care and hospice services. I also notice that my local funeral home has just spent mega thousands enlarging it's chapel and expanding (four fold) its adjoining processing and storage (mortuary) facility.

These are sure signs they, and the health care service providers, expect more business in the days ahead and that the BOOMERS next big social impact will be on an increasing level of departures from planet earth. Going out with a boom?

The wave that began in the late 40's has now crashed onto the beach. Its frothy brown foam has settled on the sand any the roar of the sea dragging its remaining waters back across the stones can be clearly heard.

A sobering sound for people of my generation.

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Building on Sand

It started years ago.

Like a distant rumor, or the first signs of a leak in the dam. There was no doubt that it would ultimately result in the total collapse of the entire dam with all of the devastation that would cause. But that was something we couldn't even contemplate. It was too unimaginable, so we worked away to patch up the leak and encourage each other with positive statements about the situation. There was too much at stake.

But eventually the unthinkable happened, Wall Street collapsed under its own weight. And still we tried to talk it all back together again.

Two thousand years ago a Jewish Rabbi told a story about the folly of trying to build a house on the sand. Perhaps the sand of the 'live now pay later' credit society has finally been washed away leaving us the opportunity to rebuild - this time on the rock of reality.

Save now, buy later.

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The Cold Peace

Hearing both sides of news story certainly makes you stop and think.
We spent 4 glorious weeks in Georgia recently. We had a great time and made lots of wonderful friends in this warm and hospitable country, so naturally we were horrified to see the advance of Russian tanks on the streets of Gori and feared for our friends in Tblisi.

Yesterday however I watched the Russian TV News Channel and was equally disturbed to see first hand the death and destruction wrought on the citizens of South Ossetia, and the very real humanitarian crisis that exists there.

It showed a perspective I've not seen explored in any western media, and it makes me wonder, who are the true victims of propaganda -

- them, us or both of us? .

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We cultivate hope

Here on the slopes of hills, facing the dusk and the cannon of time
Close to the gardens of broken shadows,
We do what prisoners do,
And what the jobless do:

We cultivate hope.

Mahmoud Darwish died on Saturday at age 67. He was famous throughout the Middle East and widely respected for his non violent quest for peace, and as Palestines national poet.

Delivering harsh criticisim for the factional fighting between Hamas & Fatah which he described as 'a public attempt at suicide in the streets,' he gave a voice to Palestines dreams of statehood.

Amidst all the chaos that surrounded him he did, as the opening lines of his poem, Under Siege state, live a life which cultivated hope.

His voice of prophetic wisdom will be much missed.

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Higher walls or wider bridges?

I have now exchanges several emails with the gentleman who accused me of being anti semitic. He is a 79 year old survivor of the Holocaust who now lives in the US and I have been surprised how easy it has been to find issues on which we can both agree. One of the thing we are both certain of is that even if a peace is brokered between Israel and Palestine it will take a generation or two to rebuild good will and trust between the two parties. To build wider bridges rather than higher walls.

When Chinese and Irish Catholic immigrants came to New Zealand in the late eighteen hundreds, they brought their culture with them choosing to remain close to each other, but by doing so, on the fringe of main stream Kiwi culture. As seven years olds my friends and I would wait outside the local Catholic school of an afternoon chanting taunts, throwing stones and scaring each other with tall tales of friends of friends who had been captured by the devil after running into the church. Fear and mistrust separated us as surely as any wall. Now, fifty years on, second millennium children would shrug in disbelief of such prejudices.

As a fifty year old, having learned absolutely nothing from this lesson, I headed off from New Zealand, back pack and culture in tow to travel overland through Asia and the Middle East to Europe, As it was hot we wore the kind of clothing we would wear at home: cotton t shirt (or skimpy blouse), shorts and flip-flops. Cool, comfortable, light and totally acceptable - or so we thought, And we were fine in countries that had embraced western tourism, but once we reached Pakistan we realised folk were not so impressed. From their perspective we were immodestly and offensively clothed. We quickly learned that replacing the Kiwi summer uniform with used local clothing from the markets immediately opened previously un known doorways to friendship and hospitality from a warm and very friendly people. A lesson that served us well through out Central Asia, the Middle East and the Balkans.

Now I'm not suggesting peace in the Middle East will be won by George Bush swapping his stetson for a turban, or by Osama bin Laden shaving his beard and waring a three piece suite, but I am saying ,that in the long run, peace is impossible unless we respect one another's differences.

Building walls may keep us safe, but it shuts us in, and it shuts out dialogue. Building bridges is more risky, but opens the way to friendship and trade.

Jesus said, 'Love your enemies.' Loosely translated, that means, ' don't have any!'

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Is prejudice something we inherit?

Because of my sympathy for the plight of Gazan's I was recently asked if my views were anti semitic. It made me think.

You see the New Zealand I grew up in during the 50-60's was a country that prided itself on its egalitarian attitudes and practices. It was 'God's own country' and we were lucky to live here. Yet Maori were invariably rural dwellers, educationally and economically disadvantaged, the few Chinese who came here during the gold rush days, were limited to selling vegetables and emigrants were all winging Poms who should go home if they didn't like it here.

Apart from them we were mainly white, protestant and proud of our colonial uniqueness.

Yet I grew up believing the myth of our equality and laid back acceptance of all: well, anyone who was exactly like us that is. - or unless they were Australian, of course!

It wasn't until I contemplated backpacking through central Asia and the Middle East where I would be the foreigner that I became aware of my fear of non Christian religions, my mistrust of Asia's poor, my suspicion of anyone who dressed differently from me and especially, my frustration with those who didn't speak English as their first language. I was afraid of what I didn't understand and there was much I didn't. Acceptance of others was great in theory but, like Siberia, it's may be a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

Despite misconceptions about my egalitarian culture I began to realise that I was just as racist as the anti Pommie jokes that were so much a part of my colonial heritage.

What I discovered in realty was that beneath the cultural cloak we all wear, we are all the same. We share the same need of food, shelter, affirmation, justice and love because we are all made in the likeness of the one God - whatever we call him/her. However we dress and regardless of our social practices I began to learn that there are no bad men, just bad decisions.

That doesn't mean I support every Hamas policy or that I oppose every action taken by Israel. Just the political game playing of the few (on both sides) who ruin it for the majority and cause unnecessary pain and suffering on innocent people.

I wonder, is that prejudice or just the sign of an open mind?

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Vivere

Most corporate entities these days have a mission statement.
Something that, like a motto, endeavours to capture and express the very 'heart' of the organisation.

As individuals we too sometimes need to focus on what our own mission statement would be if we had one. Personally I can think of no better one for myself than Vivere.

It is from the Italian verb, to Live, and in this song is translated as Dare to Live, and Pausinni's English translation of the complete song is electrifying and deeply challenging.

I offer it for myself, and for all who are facing personal darkness and difficult times in their life right now. ( you know who you are).

To each of you . . . . Vivere!



Click here for full lyrics in English and Italian

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Gaza cease-fire could take effect later this week

Haaretz, the official Israeli News Agency ran this story in todays issue saying that Israel could announce their acceptance of the Hamas peace proposal later this week, insha'Allah.
Check it out!

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Whatever happened to the good old days?

It was dark as I rose at 6:30 for the arrival of my young granddaughter.

"Whatever happened to the good old days, I thought, when you only worked 9-5, retired at 60 and got a pension?' When interest on your housing loan was fixed for the length of the mortgage and education was free?

This was the social landscape my generation inherited and almost as instantly, shattered. The sheer volume of post war births meant there were more of us than them and we strained housing resources, overflowed kindergarten facilities, shot classroom sizes from below 20 to over 40, created the first teenage generation, introduced the world to Rock & Roll and took over the workplace.

And we continued to strain the resources of every emerging phase of our lives till at last we've exhausted pension funds and now threaten to overwhelm morticians as we begin to shuffle off, stage right.

So I asked myself, whatever happened to the good old days?

And then it hit me - whose been in control of world government, economics and trade for the past 25 years? Oh yes, it was us, the BOOMERS - architects of our eventual demise.

I yawned, scratched, stepped out of bed and into the darkness and commenced my 12 hour child minder shift.

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Two sides to every story - The Nakba

Air Force One will travel back in time this week, banking low near the southern Mediterranean coast and touching down on contested soil where the past is always present.

In the Holy Land, the battles over the historical narrative surrounding the founding of Israel in 1948 are as hard-fought as the contemporary struggles over West Bank settlers, Palestinian refugees, and negotiations for a two-state solution.

In a long and bitter dispute, there are profound consequences for the "honest broker" (as the US government has long described itself) in identifying with only one side's history.

Yet when George Bush, the US president, steps off his plane to help Israel mark its 60th birthday, he will stride firmly into the past of one side.

Officials of the Jewish state will sweep the US president into their own powerful and compelling narrative: The birth of Israel from the ashes of the Holocaust on May 14, 1948, the invasion of the state a day later from Arab armies marching from the north, south, and east and the loss of one per cent of the Jewish state's population in a fierce defence that evokes Israel's unofficial motto - "never again".

What the president will not hear is the Palestinian story.

He will not be told that one side's "War of Independence" is the other side's "Nakba", or "Catastrophe".

And no one is likely to mention that Israel's heroic survival was, to the Arabs, a dispossession in which 750,000 Palestinians fled or were driven out of their homes.

Here then, is a brief Nakba primer for the US president, a chronicle of the untold to accompany him on his visit to Jerusalem.

Palestinians mark the Nakba with wooden keys symbolising the homes they had to flee

In the spring of 1948, waves of fear gripped Arab Palestine following the April 9 massacre of more than 120 unarmed Palestinians by extremist Jewish militias in the village of Deir Yassin, near Jerusalem.

Thus, even before the war officially began, Arab villagers were fleeing for safer ground, fully intending to return when the fighting stopped.

Later that month in Galilee, Yigal Allon, commander of the elite Jewish brigade known as the Palmach, implemented a plan to spread more fear among the local Arabs.

Allon would later write that he gathered Jewish leaders "who had ties with the different Arab villages, and I asked them to whisper in the ears of several Arabs that giant Jewish reinforcements had reached the Galilee and were about to clean out the villages ... [and] to advise them, as friends, to flee while they could ... the flight encompassed tens of thousands. The stratagem fully achieved its objective."

The next month, May 1948, a similar campaign took hold in the village of Na'ani, according to local Arab and Israeli sources, when a Jewish neighbour rode into town on horseback shouting: "The Jewish army is coming! You must leave or you will all be killed!"

The villagers fled en masse, many going a few miles north to the Arab town of Ramle. There, they hoped, it would be safe.

Two months later, on July 12, Israeli forces overwhelmed local Arab defenders and occupied the refugee-choked Ramle (now the Israeli city of Ramla) and neighbouring Lydda (now Lod). The same day they began expelling the Arabs of the two towns.

According to the memoirs of Yitzhak Rabin, then a young Israeli major, the orders came directly from Isreal's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion. Three days later, Ben-Gurion wrote in his diary, "there are 30,000 refugees moving along the road between Ramle and Lydda ... they are demanding bread ... "

Deaths of children

The people of Ramle and Lydda had left in haste and packed little, unprepared for a long hike across stony ground of cactus and Christ's thorn in mid-summer temperatures that reached 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).

Decades later, old men and women in refugee camps would recall, above all else, their thirst and how they attempted to quench it with stagnant water found in old wells and, in some cases, with their own urine.

John Bagot Glubb, the British commander of the Arab Legion, would write that "nobody will ever know how many children died".

Sixty years later, the Nakba lies at the core of the Palestinians' identity and of their view of history and justice.

Official US ignorance of that, passed down through generations and embodied in Bush's visit only to the Israeli side, has, unsurprisingly, angered Palestinians.

"It is a slap in the face," said Diana Buttu, a prominent Palestinian analyst in the West Bank, told The New York Times, adding that the US is essentially saying: "You have no history and your past does not matter."

But more than the insult or even stupidity of such a one-sided position is the tactical bungling of an administration that wants to be seen as a fair arbiter of a long-standing dispute.

That is pretty hard to do, if all you can see is one side's pain and glory.

Sandy Tolan is the author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East, and a visiting professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (USC).


Source: Al Jazeera 12/05.2008 Sandy Tolan

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Operation Canterbury?

Several posts ago I hinted that something was brewing for us, and I offered the cryptic clue, Operation Canterbury.

So was it a hint that I wanted a new Polo Shirt, did I intend moving to Kent or perhaps to read Chaucer again? No.

It does however have something to do with the Cathedral - though not much!

Canterbury Cathedral in Kent, as you may know, is the one of the oldest Christian structures in all of England and the Cathedral church of the Archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the church of England in which I now hope to be ordained a priest in 2010.

Hence the code name, Operation Canterbury. Bit cryptic I suppose, but it's the best I could do.

Those of you who know me won't be surprised to learn that it's a step I've contemplated for over 25 years, but only now does it seem right to make it.

So, pray for us, or if it's your way, think good thoughts for us and wish me well.

Like the traveler in Robert Frosts poem, The Road not Taken I'm not sure exactly where it will all lead, but like the traveler I'm committed to it and:-

'I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference'.

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Carpe Diam

It used to be called ' Mid-Life Crisis.'

It occurred in your mid forties with the realization that the goals you set yourself in your 20's were overly ambitious, and that time was running out.

It's a social 'gloom & doom' phenomena that is all too familiar in western society.

However today sociologists are more likely to talk about second half of life issues and a quick search of Google will bring up over 27,000 occurrences of the term in less than 0.8 seconds.

But is this just a positive spin on a negative value, or is there something more to it?

Whilst I'm not a Greek scholar I believe the term dire crisis, which we use to imply impending doom is actually derived from two Greek words that more literally translate 'on the verge of change'.

. . . . . .Change, not doom!

For my generation (Boomers) the concept of second half of life presents a crossroad of enormous choice & opportunity.

A much better option than mid life crisis. It's a (last) chance to do the things you've always wanted to do, but never had time.

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Is this their official response?

I've been combing the news sites to see if there had been any official response to Hamas offer of a 6 months cease fire - see previous posting, perhaps this is it?

I do hope not.

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Hamas propose truce with Israel

Within days of Jimmy Carter meeting with Hamas leaders, the Palestinian group has proposed a six month truce with Israel, aimed at easing a blockade on the Gaza strip.

Key points of their proposal are:

1. The truce between Israel and the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip would be for a period of six months, during which time Egypt would try to extend it to the West Bank.
2. The truce must be reciprocal and simultaneous on the part of Israelis and Palestinians.
3. Israel must lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip and re-open all its crossing points, including the Rafah crossing point into Egypt.
4. If Israel rejects the truce, Egypt will re-open the Rafah crossing point. If Israel reneges on its truce commitments, Egypt will keep the Rafah crossing open.
5. Egypt will supervise the process of reaching a consensus on the terms of the truce with other Palestinian factions. Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, will invite whichever Palestinian factions Egypt sees fit to the country next Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the Hamas proposals.
6. Once the Palestinian factions have agreed to the terms of the truce, Suleiman will contact the Israeli side to ensure that they are committed to the truce and fix a starting time.
7. Egypt has promised to start immediate contacts with the Israeli side to prepare the atmosphere for the truce and to provide basic needs to the Gaza Strip, especially fuel.
8. Egypt will contact Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, to make sure his rival Fatah faction does not obstruct the opening of the crossing points.
9. Egypt must try to persuade Abbas to put an end to abuses and violations in the West Bank - a reference to Fatah's harassment of Hamas members there.
10. If Israel does not meet its truce obligations by stoping attacks and ending the blockade, then the Palestinians have a right to defend themselves by all legitimate means

So, once again Condoleezza, how hard was that?

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How hard was that Condoleezza?

(Aljazeera 21 March 2008)

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has called for Hamas to be included in peace negotiations, saying they are willing to "live as a neighbour next door in peace" with Israel if Palestinians approve a deal.

Carter said on Monday that Hamas leaders told him they would accept a negotiated peace agreement, if voted for by the Palestinian people.

His comments come after he met several Hamas leaders, including Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas politico, in Syria last week.

Carter said Hamas leaders had told him they would accept a peace agreement negotiated by their rival Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president whose Fatah faction controls the West Bank, if Palestinians approved the deal in a vote.

Peacemaking

"They said they would accept a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders if approved by Palestinians ... even though Hamas might disagree with some terms of the agreement," Carter said.

The Carter proposals

The former US president has put forward the following guidelines in an effort to start peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis:

1. An end to hostilities, or a truce between Hamas and Israel, which includes a halt to rockets attacks.

2. Securing the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas fighters.

3. The release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.
"It means that Hamas will not undermine Abbas's efforts to negotiate an agreement and Hamas will accept an agreement if the Palestinians support it in a free vote."

Carter, who has angered Israel by meeting Hamas, also said the peace efforts had "regressed" since a US-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.

He said: "The problem is not that I met with with Hamas in Syria. The problem is that Israel and the United States refuse to meet with someone who must be involved."

In his speech to the Israel Council on Foreign Relations at the King David hotel in Jerusalem, Carter reiterated that he has no mandate to secure a peace deal between Israel and Palestine.

Speaking of the captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was seized by Hamas in a cross-border raid in June 2006, Carter said he was disappointed that his proposal to Hamas to release Shalit has been rejected.

But Carter said that he understood the Palestinian group could not free the Israeli soldier outside of a prisoner exchange with Israel.

'Side by side'

Speaking to Al Jazeera after his news conference in Jerusalem, Carter reiterated that he believe Hamas would accept the existence of Israel, if the Palestinian population voted to accept it.

"There has been a lot of conflicting statements about this issue. But from what I understood, and announced, if Abbas and [Ehud] Olmert [the Israeli prime minister] agree to a peace deal, that would ultimately allow the two states to live side by side. Hamas was asked whether they would accept the decision - they said yes."

Carter also said the "deplorable" situation in the Gaza Strip made establishing a peace deal more urgent.

"A resolution needs to be made, as people [in Gaza] are continuing to suffer. I believe however, a greater, and more effective American role is needed here - going beyond the commitments made by the Bush administration to reach a peace agreement."

Engaging Hamas

Amani Soliman, Al Jazeera's Middle East analyst, said Carter's attempt to engage Hamas was a major breakthrough.

"What he has done was a long time coming, considering that Hamas needed to be involved in the peace process," she said.

"Despite the engagement with Abbas, Tzipi Livni [the Israeli foreign minister], and other Fatah negotiators, Carter is adamant that Hamas be included in the equation – which can be viewed as a breakthrough for a Western diplomat to take this route."

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Gaza, said that Hamas's willingness to continue to secure a peace deal, implicitly reflects the movements recognition of the state of Israel.

"This effectively pulls the rug from under Israel, as they have constantly maintained that the reason they will continue isolating Hamas is because they will no recognise their state. The ball is now in Israel's court."

'Breaking the ice'

Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna, reporting from Damascus, said that Hamas had expressed willingness to go along with Carter's proposals.

"However, also from the Hamas side, the point being made that something must come in return," he said.

"What Jimmy Carter is trying to do is to break the ice - trying to get some sort of momentum going in a situation that has been utterly static."

Hamas officials said they talked with Carter about an internationally backed Israeli embargo on Gaza and a possible Israel-Hamas prisoner swap.

But Hamas did not respond to Carter's requests that it halt rocket fire on Israeli border towns and agree to talk to Eli Yishak, the Israeli deputy prime minister, about a prisoner exchange.

Over the weekend, Israel killed seven Hamas fighters in a series of air strikes after the group detonated two jeeps packed with explosives at an Israeli crossing on the Gaza border.

Israel and the US, which both consider Hamas a terrorist group, have criticised Carter's efforts to broker negotiations.

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Rounding the first bend!

Having traveled a lot I know that most of the energy in any journey goes in to the departure, and in to the arrival. The middle bit is relatively easy.

And today, I discovered that project Canterbury had successfully taken off.

We're off the ground,
we've rounded the first bend,

and I'm very excited.

So, what were those two clues again? '

My first is in Rome and also in Gnome.....

My second (and 9th) are in more and also in door

. . . . .so that's OR_ _ _ _ _ _ O _

It's got something to do with a change in direction

and, it's something I've thought about for a long time.

Mmmmm . . . what on earth could it be?

Stay tuned.

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Can you guess?

When we were traveling through the Middle East and Central Asia we learned to refer to anything of value by a code name.

Being over heard to say you needed to catch up with 'Charlie' (our code name for the bank) was much safer than saying that you needed to go to the bank and cash a travelers cheque, for example and it's a custom we have continued. In this regard we have code named our new journey 'Operation Canterbury'.

So what is Operation Canterbury? Is it:

a/ a brand of sports clothing?

b/ a series of short stories by Geoffrey Chaucer?

c/ a town in England?

d/ all or none of the above,

and how does it relate to the first steps I took last week?

Can you guess?

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First steps

Today I took the first steps.

Small and faltering steps, but steps along a new path. Steps I've considered for some time now, but taking them moves me from the dream world of wishful thinking into the realm of reality, whatever the outcome.

As yet it's too soon to know where, if anywhere, the path will lead, but it's for certain I'll find out once I round the first bend. And no matter what's there, the future will be different than if I had never taken courage to step out.

Looks like my Viaje Interior is moving me out of myself and into ???

Watch this space

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It must be a girl thing

I have been looking after my 16 month old Granddaughter since she was a tiny baby.

Her mum drops her off around 7am, then she's mine till after five. Each morning we have breakfast, cereal and fruit, then I dress her for play.

However this morning, just after I had dressed her, she vanished back into her room emerging several minutes later waring only her singlet and nappies and carrying a replacement set of clothing, cloths more to her liking and different shoes.

Shoes that weren't the ones I had chosen.

Although she doesn't talk yet she, never the less, made it abundently clear that this was the outfit she was waring today and that I should re dress her.

Immediately.

Funny how we strive to make children independent then, as soon they are we wish they weren't.

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Five things that made me smile today

1/ My beautiful Easter wife



2/My city on a summers day



3/ Walking on the beach and watching children building sand castles



4/ Seeing happy tourists enjoying the Easter sun




Oh yes and. . . . . . . .

5/ seeing someone with a good sense of direction!



see the compass?

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When all else fails, crime pays

Today's BBC website carried yet another story of the humanitarian crisis that has resulted from the blockade of Gaza over the past nine months.

It focused on two stories. Both are tragic but both all too common. The first concerned Nael, a young man with terminal cancer. Despite numerous official appeals to the Israeli authorities for a medical visa to leave Gaza for treatment in Egypt, treatment not available in Gaza, Naels application was continually refused and he eventually died in poverty in Gaza age 21 years. His mother left to harbor the resentment alone.

The second concerned another young man, Samir who had been an employee at Abudan as a garment machinist. The factory were he worked, like many others closed through the strangling effects of the blockade. He said he returned to the factory every day just to check if, by some chance, it was working again and he could have his job back.

He took the BBC reporter to his home: a small, dark construction of breeze-block and corrugated iron.

There his wife held the youngest of their five children as she sat on a thin mattress on the floor. Two other toddlers ran around barefooted while they spoke.

He explained how he managed to make a little money by selling bread from a cart he wheeled through the town. It was not enough, he said, to feed his family.

His eyes welled up as he told the reoprter he had not been able to pay his rent for four months but that his landlord had taken pity on him.

There was an alternative, he said, one which he had refused but which nearly half of his former colleagues had taken up.

It was to join a work-force that was still well paid in spite of the troubles everywhere else: that is, the security forces of Hamas.

The pressure being put on Gaza - not just by Israel but the international community and even the Palestinian government in the West Bank, which is run by the Fatah faction - is seen as a means of weakening Hamas, strengthening the moderates and stopping the rocket fire.

But, in fact, the rockets continue to be launched and mothers like Nael's are calling for revenge while working-age men like Samir are accepting Hamas' offer to pick up arms.

It's the same scenario we saw in Northern Ireland where unemployment and financial hardship left the IRA as the only reliable employer.

When will they ever learn?

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Palm Sunday - a victory for the little people

Today is Palm Sunday. In the secular world perhaps the least publicised of any of the Christian feasts. It doesn't have the commercial pull of Christmas shopping or the warm fuzzies of the Good Friday Easter bunny, but the message of Palm Sunday is perhaps more profound than either.
Jesus enters war torn Jerusalem on a donkey. Pilot, the symbol of Roman authority and might would have pranced in along the same road on a white stallion accompanied by legions of troops and the cheering of the gathered crowds. The comparison presents a satire playing off humility and individual weakness against power and corporate strength. Two thousand years later Jerusalem is still war torn, the Roman empire has vanished into the pages of history but, Jesus lives.

The lesson of Palm Sunday is the message of David & Goliath: that we, the little people, week and powerless as we seem, have the ability through that weakness, like Jesus, to effect enormous change on the world around us. More even than the Goliath oil barons and coprorate giants!

Yea, the little people!

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One picture is worth a thousand words

Brazilian cartoonist Carlos Latuff reflects upon the ongoing conditions in Gaza and the middle east.

He titles this carton The Mother of all Wars

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New Horizons

Today I took my 16mth old granddaughter to her first play group.

Since she has discovered walking, only a few weeks ago, the boundaries of her old world have dissolved and new horizons have become the order of the day. Life is BIG and big is good.

Her eyes grew as large as saucers as she spied the vast array of play equipment, then settled immediately upon a small dolls pram (and doll) which she proceeded to push at 'top speed' around the room, knocking into walls, doors or children: what ever got in her way, going wherever the speeding pram took her.

It reminded me that no matter how much energy or enthusiasm we have, if we don't know where we're going we'll just go through life bouncing off the nearest wall.

Hopefully over the next few months she will discover this truth for herself and learn how to be in control of her own destination.

It's something I've known for some years now but still need to remind myself of. It's just so easy to let the momentum of life direct our path.

But is it taking us where we want to go?

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Terrible things are happening in Gaza

Terrible things are happening in Gaza.

Civilians, including women and children are being shot and killed by Israeli soldiers; the supply of adequate drinking water, sewage treatment, supplies of oil, gas and food are not being allowed through the Israeli controlled border. Helicopter gun-ships hover continually overhead and supersonic fighter planes swoop low over populated civilian areas at night.

Any yet, western press, especially here in New Zealand say little or nothing about this humanitarian disaster that looks more like controlled genocide or at best, ethnic cleansing of a democratically elected government and it's people.

If you want first hand civilian accounts of what is actually happening on the ground read what local bloggers Heba and Laila have to say or read some of the in-depth editorials of the BBC or other reliable sources such as the Independent.

And it's not a new phenomena.

When I visited this part of the world in 2000 as a 'Christian Pilgrim' I was horrified to see the plight of Palestinians who were robed of their lands, left stateless, economically trampled and forced to live as refugees wherever they could. More than 6 million of them with many still living in temporary camps through out the middle east.

You'd have to ask if Israel was serious about wanting peace with Palestine, to hand back the land it creased during the 6 day war and having a viable Palestinian Nation as its neighbor?

Well, wouldn't you?

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Congratulations Gina & Martin

(Gina, John & Anthea)

Weddings are a big event in anyones life, particularly the brides and especially the parents.

Congratulations to you both and happiness always.

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Ethnic Cleansing in Gaza?

It's an impassioned term, but on reflection. the only one I can find that adequately describes Israels current military assult on Gaza. The term in ethnic cleansing.

A recent report published by the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem highlights Israeli atrocities in the occupied territories. Israeli forces killed this last year six hundred and sixty citizens. The number of Palestinians killed by Israel last year tripled in comparison to the previous year (around two hundred). According to B'Tselem, the Israelis killed one hundred and forty one children in the last year. Most of the dead are from the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli forces demolished almost 300 houses and slew entire families. This means that since 2000, Israeli forces killed almost four thousand Palestinians, half of them children; more than twenty thousand were wounded.

I am the first to admit that the launching of Palestinian rockets in to Israel from Gaza must stop, but is Israel's current arsenal of responses helping or inflaming the situation?

And does Israel really want to eliminate the rocket attacks or just eliminate Gaza?

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Boxes!

We were having guests over for dinner later that day, so early in the morning, while it was still cool, we decided to go supermarket shopping.

A simple enough exercise (I thought), just a few grocery items and home again in time for me to gallop through my todo list; wash the car, mow the front lawn and tidy up around the garden.

The weather was good and it was shaping up to be a great day.

But after nearly three hours we had

- tried on 3 outfits,

- closely examined 4 pairs of shoes,

- visited the pharmacy,

- chatted to a couple of passers by

- admired the ear rings in the Jewelers window and exhausted,

- stopped for coffee.


'This is such fun, Anthea said, I'm so glad we could come out together this morning, now what else was it?'

'Oh, yes, the groceries.'


I was getting tense. . . . VERY tense.

Whoever wrote Women are from Venus knew something I didn't, that women's heads are wired differently from men.

The attached video says it all - perhaps I just didn't have enough boxes open!

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Time changes everything

The New Zealand theologian who was tried in the 1960's on heresy charges is today heralded as a national hero.

Holder of New Zealand's prestigious Order of Merit Award, the equivalent of a Knighthood in earlier years, Lloyd Geering, Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies at Victoria University is now very definitely a respected part of the establishment, and the church that once persecuted his 'outrageous' beliefs is now to hold a special service commemorating the 40th anniversary of his heresy trial.

This illustrates how yesterdays radicals become todays conservatives, that every 'ism becomes a 'wasim' and that every 'doctrine' has its day.

As much as this evolution in our understanding of 'truth' appeals to me, it does makes me wonder (worry) about how we will view George Bush in a hundred years?

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Children learn by imitating.

I remember a cartoon I saw many years ago in a local newspaper.

It showed two young boys. One was crying in a corner while his elder brother, who had been fighting him, was being 'punished' by his angry father.

The caption simply read

'Boy, I'll teach you to fight with your little brother!"

The sad thing was, that is just what the father was doing. Modeling violence for his older son.

The attached video shows much the same thing. It depicts Arab & Israeli children 'at play' though it could just as easily be Catholic and Protestant children in Belfast or playground violence in your local school.

Despite the political bias of the video the end result is the same: violence hatred and prejudice is being invested into the future as children on both sides imitate their parents behaviour and practice how to behave themselves when they grow up.

A two nation solution in Palestine by 2009 may tear down the 'Walls of Shame' that physically divide Israel and Palestine but it will take generations to remove the walls that divide their hearts.

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Looking outside the square

Today they arrived.

When I set up the tree and placed the crib beneath it, they were on top of the window sill, on the other side of the room.

Day by day, through the 12 nights of Christmas, the 'Kings' journeyed across my living room till this morning (January 6th) when they reached their destination.

The stable in Bethlehem

Each year, as we approach the Christmas season, our preparations include revisiting the events surrounding the birth of Our Lord. Bethlehem, the shepherds, and the angels are familiar to us all. But not much is generally known about the mysterious "Magi" who came to worship the infant Jesus.

By tradition we refer to them as 'Wize Men from the East' or 'The Three Kings', though general opinion is that they were priests from Persia. Probably the Kurdish area of what is now modern day Iraq.

Their visiting Jesus in Bethleham, referred to as the Epiphany, a word meaning sudden realisation, is important because it illustrates the openness of these men to see the importance of something outside of their cultural expectation.

To find 'an answer' somewhere they would never have thought of looking.

We celebrate this every year. But how often to we take their example into our daily life?

How often do we have the courage to step outside of the comfort of our own western world view to discover truth hidden in the lives and practices of people who may not talk, dress or believe as we do?

Understand them rather than war against them?

Perhaps the significance of the Epiphany is that we need to make that journey.

To quote Neil Armstrong, it would be one small step got man, but a giant leap forward for mankind.

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A one-off stance or the thin end of the wedge?

Today Egypt defied an Israeli request and opened its border with Palestine to allowed more than 1000 religious pilgrims to cross back into Gaza through the Egyptian border with Palestine at Rafah.

But why was this such a big deal?

The pilgrims had left Gaza via the Rafah crossing prior to Christmas to make Hajj at Mecca. They had done this with the full approval of the Israeli authorities (as Palestinians they have no political status) and naturally expected to return the same way.

When they did arrive back at Rafah several days ago they discovered to their surprise that the border was closed to them. Israel was insisting that they returned home via an Israeli controlled checkpoint and had put political pressure on Egypt to support them by closing its border fearing some of the pilgrims might be bringing money with them which could be used in support of Hamas.

The pilgrims were 'held' in a nearby transit camp, political wrangling pursued and in a surprise move today, Egypt took control and allowed the Gazans to return to their homes without passing through Israeli controlled territory.

So, has Israel suddenly gone soft and developed a conscience?

Will Egypt's actions turn a political spotlight on the humanitarian crisis that has gone largely unnoticed since Israel 'blockaded' Gaza last June?

Or is it a one-off gesture that will be smoothed over and quickly forgotten by the international media?

Watch this space!

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