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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The True Gift of Christmas

Burr,burrr. . . . burr, burr . . .

It's 4am and I stagger sleepily toward the ringing phone. Who on earth could it be at this hour I wonder?

Hello? I inquire.

Xhoni? (John?)

est Belga! (It's Bella)
Mere Menges, (Good Morning) and


Gezuar Krishtlindje! (Merry Christmas)


It was our Albanian friend Bella ringing to wish us a Merry Christmas. I was wide awake now. It had been nearly four years since we had last seen her, but in those few waking seconds since I answered the phone the years between us had dissolved, The past had catapulted into the present and the miles that divided us erased.

It was as though we had never been separated.

Then it hit me, That's what Christmas is really about! It's about God eliminating the barriers.

Making all things just as they were when Man and God walked together in the garden. Catapulting the past into the present and erasing the miles that divided us.

That's the real gift of Christmas.

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Social Justice & Human rights

Perhaps the most significant thing to come out of the Annapolis conference last week is a story which, understandably, the western media have failed to focus on Olmert's after conference statement to Israeli media that did not even seek to disguise his deepest fears.

"If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses, and we face a South African-style struggle for equal voting rights (also for the Palestinians in the territories), then, as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished."

For almost 30 years now the (impossible) idea of a two state solution has failed, mainly because one state, Israel, would control all the resources, and now Israel is left exposing its true Apartheid like nature:

As in all international conflict the bottom line is always social justice and human rights.

Perhaps it's about time Israel showed it's neighbors the same sort of compassion God once showed them?

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No bad people, just bad choices

Once in a while you hear something. Probably a word or a phrase you've heard before but this time it comes like a shaft of light, a sonic boom, blowing away the cobwebs you hadn't even realised were cluttering your mind.

It was like that for me this morning when a friend was telling about a series of seminars he was involved in running for some men preparing for release from prison. 'What's that like', I asked, my mind flashing me images of scary villains with striped pajama type clothing, a black ball and chain, stubbly chins and facial scars.

"Oh, mainly nice people who've just made bad choices," he said with out a pause - then continued right on in to his story.

'The thing we are trying to get through to them' he said, 'is that even though they may have made bad choices in the past, they are only one decision away from putting all that behind them, if they want to.'

No bad people, only good people who have made bad choices. . . . . .

No bad people, only good people who have made bad choices!

It made me think how quick we are to label someone bad. To judge them, rather than their actions. To distance and disassociate ourselves from them because they're not like us.

But they are just like us. Good people. It's just that some of us have made better choices than others.

At least, for my sake, I hope that's the rationale God will adopt when he and I eventually meet up.

What do you think?

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So, what's in a name?

Anyone who has visited this site previously may notice that I've changed its name.

Why?

Well, when I began this particular blog, just one year ago, I was a full time trainee granddad, 'Home Alone' while Anthea completed personal commitments in the UK (where we had been living), and I got a new home together for us here in New Zealand and cared for our granddaughter while her mum worked.

Well, baby is now walking, the renovation complete, Anthea is home.

I am no longer alone and the name 'Home Alone' seems somehow redundant.

Anyway, looking back on recent postings it seems this blog has evolved (degenerated?) in to the ramblings of an elderly discontent rather than the benign reflections of a trainee granddad.

So, welcome to the Meldrew Factor.

For further explaination read he sidebar opposite.

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The Prying Game

Several days ago New Zealand police released details of the terrorist surveillance program that lead to the arrest and detention of a number of Maori activists under NZ's new anti terrorism laws.

Much of the emerging argument centers around weather or not the media have been overly selective in the information they published but the real issue is not that journalists may have conveniently paraphrased the report, but that this report exist at all.

The fact that more and more intrusive surveillance technology is available to our police should frighten rather than reassure us. Researchers at Georgetown University in 2002 developed what they called 'Gait recognition profiling'. This technique uses CCTV monitors (as seen in banks, railway stations, etc. in NZ) to map any individuals walking style, which is as unique apparently as their DNA profile, with out that persons knowledge or consent.

Coupled with existing face recognition capabilities this technology, potentially enables CCTV systems to identify any individual from a crowd, confirm their ID by matching to their 'Gait' profile and, again potentially, link to and access any other data held about the person under surveillance.

This is fine if we only use on in rare occasions to identify real terrorists.

The question is,

. . . . is that all it will be used for?

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No peace till there's justice

The lead story and editorial in todays Dominion Post confirmed that not only has New Zealand entered the arena of international terrorism, but that personal surveillance by phone tapping, bugging and cctv footage is now an acceptable police tool and part of our daily life.

Of course there is a necessity to fight fire with fire and the ends of national security, it can be argued, justify the means: that civil liberties must be weighed against internal security. Like most New Zealanders, I accept that argument, but what would it take to eliminate terrorism?

One thing that 'terrorists' everywhere have in common is that they are marginalised both socially and economically. They are, generally speaking, the have nots of our society: Syrians, Palestinians, Pakistanis, Gazans, Irish Catholics and now, Maori.

We can try our hardest to control terrorism by surveillance but history shows there will be no peace until we share our wealth and address the underlying issues of social justice and equity that are the breeding ground of discontent, rebellion and, latterly, terrorism.

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Insomnia

The wall calendar on my kitchen fridge reminds me that it's just 21 more BIG sleeps till Anthea returns. There is much I could write about the excitement I feel at the thought of her return, but this small poem I found today says it so much better.

When I am with you, we stay up all night,
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.

Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.

Rumi. Persia (1207-1273)

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Home again!

The restoration work at St Barnabas is now complete.

The Bishop re consecrated the Church yesterday, and this morning Archbishop David Moxom presided over our first mass.

Great joy and celebration.

It may be a sad commentary on my rather dull life but I had the BEST time, ever!

Seems my 'Viaje Interior' had bought me full circle. I'm Home.

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Eid Mubarak

Asalam Alaykum Eid Mubaruk.The greeting is similar to the one we used at the beginning of Ramadan, though Eid Mubaruk heralds the feast of Eid ul-Fitr or Id-Ul-Fitr which marks the official end of the month of Ramadan.

Made it! :-))

Eid celebrates the compassion and forgiveness of Allah and is a time of great family celebration, a little like Easter and Christmas rolled into one. On a spiritual level it is also a time to receive and and extend forgiveness one to another.To mirror our relationship with Allah to brothers and sisters.

For me Ramadan has been a significant part of my own personal pilgrimage and has enriched my understanding and experience of God greatly.


But will I become a Muslim, you may ask? The answer is no.


Much as I love Allah (God/Yahweh) my God wears a suit not a salwar kameez,

He has a western world view, like mine

and He understands the subtlties and sensitivities of my pampered western nature: And I'm comfortable with that arrangement.

I can love Him by any name, but I can only worship Him in he way that is most natural for me.

I suppose we all ultimately create God in our own likeness, depending on weather our world view is eastern or western, but it's good to know the commonality we have in God, and to carry a bit of that as part of our individual God experience.


I have tried to express it this way;


If I wasn't a catholic,
I might have been . . . a pastor in a black pentecostal church,
praying for the sick and casting out demons.

. . . . . . If I wasn't a catholic.

If I wasn't a catholic,
I might have been . . . a high church Anglican,
rejoicing in sung pastoral liturgies and red robed choirs,
clouded in a sea of incense.

. . . . . . If I wasn't a catholic.

If I wasn't a catholic,
I might have been . . . a Tibetan Buddhist
contemplating my Ying and my Yang,
and the meaning of life,
or a fat Muslim cleric with more than one wife.

. . . . . . but I'm not,

I'm just a homogenized (monogamous?) blend
of all of the whole jolly lot


Eid Mubaruk. wa'salam

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Poems

It must be all the lack of food during Ramadan but I felt overcome to write a poem or two today.
They are my first so no serious critical comments, please.

The first is mildly religious. its called . . . .

Church

I went to church last Sunday,

though I'll never forget the Brukner Motet,
and Bach's Toccata in E sounded magic to me,

I can't remember a word the preacher said,

Who me, Shallow? . . . .

John Mullis October 2007


the second is my recollection of a night safari we did on Africa last year looking for Leopards. which we found . . .

The Leopard

The hot night air tore at my skin
as our jeep sped silently through the Serengeti.

The starless sky pierced only by the sweeping beam of our powerful spot light,
restlessly searching for eyes in the night.

Suddenly, they were there.

Her sleek outline silhouetted briefly in the beam,
Majestic, graceful, elegant, serene -

and way too cool to let on
she knew we were watching.

No struggle, no kill, just the chase and the thrill.

then she was gone again,

light beams flash like huge Jedi swords,
fighting to pick out her image . . . . in vain.

It reminded me of my teenage years.

Skin tight Levi's and hair Brylcreamed down,
Posing and posturing, for some girl down the town.

me pretending I hadn't seen her,

and her, way too cool to let on
she knew I was watching.

No struggle, no kill, just the chase and the thrill.

John Mullis - October 2007

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Fasting & Feasting

Ramadan is a time for prayer and fasting . . .

But in the evening it's a time for feasting!

Ifaar is celebrated at sun set when the days fast is broken and just prior to Isha, the evening prayer.

Here are some wonderful middle eastern recipes posted by one of the people in our group. If you want more mouth watering examples of Ramadan food check out Sara's blog site

Sep 26, 2007 (yesterday)
"Kunafa"
from Sara's Blog by Sara



Kunafa means a lot to Arab people, a special dessert, to be served everyday in Ramadan after breakfast. You can have them crunchy and round or soft and flat, there's actually lots and lots of shapes and sizes. Of course, Kunafa is served with a cup of tea with or without cream/milk. It is absolutely a must-have in any Ramadan visit to relatives or friends.



You buy the dough from the supermarket and mix it with some corn oil very well and spread it at the bottom of a oiled cake pan, in the middle you add a mixture of walnuts, raisins, coconut shreds mixed with sugar. Then, you add the top layer of kunafa dough and press down on it well. Now you can put it on the stove and keep checking the bottom layer until it's golden yellow and flip the cake pan over making the top layer at the bottom and wait till it turns golden yellow.

Of course, before all that you make the honey by mixing 2 ups of sugar with almost one cup of water and leave them on the stove to boil and thicken and voila! your kunafa's honey is ready.Add a cup of honey to the kunafa and leave it for a while, then ur kunafa is ready to be served with a cup of tea. LOL... Yummy!!


Sep 15, 2007 11:58 PM
Ramadan Secrets
from Sara's Blog by Sara

Now you're in on the most secret ingredient of Ramadan... LOL

It's called "Amar El-Deen" it's made of apricot fruit that has been hardened, gelatinized and sweetened. It is used a lot as a juice served with breakfast and Ramadan dessert just like Jelly. Decorate your dish with yummy raisins, coconut, crushed almonds and a sprinkle of cinnamon.




In order to serve this wonderful juice u need to soak a packet for 6 hours in a jug in water until it softens and vigorously stir it every few hours making a nice thick cup of Amar El-Deen. It's really sweet and healthy after fasting because your blood sugar drops during ur fast. This juice with its sugar content and fruit helps boost ur blood sugar a bit and gives u that extra energy to help clear the tables. LOL

Yesterday at the Masjid (Mosque) during the taraweeh prayer, the Imam finished the third section of the Qura'an which means Surat Al-Baqara has ended and 'Al-Emran has begun... Simply wonderful! I actually love praying in the Masjid's garden, they open it for prayers during Ramadan only and Eid. Just when you think the weather is getting a little hot, Allah sends a quiet cold breeze to help us through...
Subhan Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful...
اللهم إنك عفو تحب العفو فعفو عنا

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What shape is your God box?

This time last year we spent a month in a small lakeside town a few miles south of Kathmandu. It was a quiet town but like most quiet towns, Pokhara had its share of drama. The most significant, during our stay, concerned several young Hindu girls who had to be taken to the local hospital after swooning and fainting as the result of an intense religious experience during a school retreat.

Nothing unusual about that, you might say, and you'd be right.

Young girls have been fainting and swooning for just about as long as God has been revealing Him/Herself to mankind. My point is that no matter what our cultural background or social world view is, if we are genuinely looking for God, He will reveal Himself to us, no matter in what context we interpret or perceive Him.

This has certainly been my experience in sharing Ramadan with my Muslim brothers and sisters this year. To my delight I've discovered God where I least expected to find him.

A friend who worked as a radio broadcaster in the days when it was call "The Wireless" said that radio is its own wardrobe mistress. By this he meant that because the medium was non visual, each listener was forced to imagine for themselves how each of the characters looked, thereby making each character unique to each listener.

If this is so, then why couldn't the same parallel be used to describe God, whom many of us have experienced, but none of us has seen.

Could it be that we simply interpret God as either Christian, Jewish Muslim etc according to our own cultural predisposition?

David du Plessis, a respected Pentecostal world leader and advisor to Pope John Paul II's Ecumenical Council in the 1980s was sent to Madgegoria to report on the sighting by several young children of the Virgin Mary.

In his report David said that whilst he personally had no paradigm to understand or interpret their religious experience in the terms they used, he had no doubt whatsoever that they had all had an intense personal encounter with the Living God, and quoted Jesus' own words

"By their fruits shall you know them".

Perhaps God is more interested in the fact that we respond to His initiative rather than the shape of the box we put Him in.

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Pickles, cheese, lettuce, onion and tomatoes.

Today is the end of the first week of Ramadan, and if there's one thing I learned so far, it's that Islam is a very uncluttered religious code.

Simply expressed there is one God, the God of Abraham, Isac and Jacob (same as Christianity and Judaism), Mohamed is/was His prophet and the the Muslim (believers) job is simply to worship Allah and live according to His word.

No complicated dogma, formula or theological premises, just 'Trust and Obey, as the old Christian Evangelical Hymn says.

And in it's simplicity there is beauty.

Like Christianity, Islam has made a major contribution to architecture, literature, art and astronomy and these are perhaps the world's best guarded secrets. The absolute breathtaking splendor of Khiva, Bukhara, Samarqand and Tashkent, which we were privileged to visit last year, are the equal of the ancient wonders of Egypt or the majesty of Rome, but unspoilt by commercial exploitation or physical decay. No ruins!

And all build & kept in perfect repair, simply to glorify God.

As I see it, our faiths are a bit like a hamburger, actually.

When you remove all the pickles, cheese, lettuce, onion and tomato, what's left is the bun and the pattie: and no matter what else you add, unless you have the bun and the pattie, you don't have a hamburger!

From where I stand today, the essence of our shared belief is God, and His word, the bun and the pattie of each of our faiths.

Anything else is just pickles, cheese, lettuce, onion and tomatoes.

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Seek first the Kingdom of God

This year I'm sharing a spiritual journey along with more than a billion others, as together we pray and fast for the Muslim month of Ramadan, the 9th month in the Islamic calendar.

Like Advent, Ramadan is a time of introspection. A time to focus on myself and God and my relationship with Him.

To check my progress on the plan He has for my life, and to put this relationship FIRST, above all other demands that my worldly life style would place as distractions from that purpose: the many distractions that, unless I stop and examine then, I scarcely realise have crowded Him out.

And this takes some doing!

Esentially the demands of Ramadan are simple, fasting during daylight hours, observing works of mercy and praying 5 times each day. Apart from the fasting, pretty basic Religion 101 stuff.

However, changing your daily routine to to make sure this actually happens requires planning and commitment.

It means,for example; cooking breakfast (ready to be heated next morning) before I go to bed, making sure my alarm is set so I wake in time to pray and eat before sun rise, planing my morning prayer BEFORE baby arrives at 7:00am, ordering daily activities in order to fit in other prayer & study times and watching I don't break my fast accidentally, like licking the spoon or tasting babies vegetables, making sure I have a well balanced evening meal ready for sundown!

Because I don't understand the Arabic prayers I need to plan my prayer regime as well. For me using the Christian Monastic Office is the easiest. The 5 daily set prayers, psalms, reading and intercessions seems to fit well. But it all takes forethought.

And most of all, time to reflect and listen to what God is saying to me.

All things we should all do every day: but how easliy and subtly life helps us put God on the back burner.

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Ramadan Kareem?

Ramadan Kareem? - Pretty much Happy Ramadan in Arabic. It's a traditional greeting and extends a wish that the person you are addressing will feel happy & strengthened by their fast.

Well this has been my first day of my first Ramadan and I have been privilege to share it with a small on-line group who have keep in touch with what they have been doing, and why. So it's been a great vantage point and enabled me to share in it from the inside, so as to speak.

The day begins with early morning prayer and a hefty breakfast before sunrise. As the Quran requires that you neither eat nor drink between sun rise and sun set it's important to get the blood sugar off to a good start and fuel up for the long day ahead.

Then it's pretty much business as usual till sunset.

The day is peppered with occasions of prayer. There are the 5 daily prayer times (Salah) which are formal prayers said in the home, or where ever, and there are spontaneous (D'ua) petitions and alms giving or Zakah.


Breaking of the fast happens at sun set when the whole community gather at the mosque (masjid) for evening prayers (Isha) and a communal meal called Iftar.

This is as much a social as a spiritual occasion with feasting and praying going on till late.

What struck me was the sense of excitement (passion even) with which everyone embraced a month which would demand so much of them physically and emotionally, but which they wouldn't miss for the world. Their expectations of personal renewal are high. Many even make lists of things they want to achieve (spiritually & emotionally) during Ramadan. I even read on the BBC web site that people from the remote hill provinces in Kashmir have moved into more populated areas just to be involved.

I'm no stranger to religious festivals, meetings etc but I've never struck such a sense of excitement or such a ready willingness to embrace personal hardship

. . . . . . just for the love of God.

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Autumn is a time to make ready

It's autumn in Albania now and our friends are working long hours to bring in the last of the summer crops and prepare for the cold winter days ahead.

Hay stacks are being covered, tobacco leaves and the last of the seasons capsicums have been cut and hung out to dry on the wire fences, fermenting grapes distilled into Raki and figs, apples, summer fruit & vegetables preserved.

Autumn is a very busy time.

Village men make sure the animal barns are warm and dry then scour the hillsides with their donkeys in search of fire wood so the family can cook and keep warm.

It's a very different picture from the one we are used to in an industrialized world where summer days are carefree holiday times. In an agricultural economy summer & autumn are times when we need to think ahead and work hard to be ready for the dormant winter months when work will no longer be possible.

I was reminded of this scene today by friends with whom I am sharing this internal voyage on-line. It's an inter-faith experience focusing on Ramadan, the 9th month of the Islamic calendar and has a harvest time theme unlike Lent, which is full of spring images.

The autumnal timing of Ramadan is in many ways more like Advent and this, mixed with my memories of Albania, provides a strong imagery for my own internal voyage, my viaje interior. Like the wise virgins who needed to make sure they had enough oil for their lamps to last till the bridegroom arrived, we must work now, in the autumn, to prepare our hearts and order our lives so that we too will be ready for Him.

I'll continue to blog my journey over these next few weeks, but if you wish to join us you can use this link.You can share in the reflections by recording your comments, if you wish, or just slip in & out anonymously and unnoticed. Either way you'd be very welcome.

Asalam Alayakom (Peace be with you)

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Being in Unity

As someone who was at the forefront of the ecumenical movement in New Zealand for almost 20 years, one of my guiding scripture was Psalm 133 in which the Psalmist clearly says that God's blessing of eternal life is for those who dwell in unity.

This year. as part of my own personal pilgrimage, I am making an on-line inter-faith journey through the month of Ramadan. It's an informal format, responsibility for providing the reflective input lies with fellow blogger Yosra and these reflections, along with remarks and comments from readers, like myself, create a virtual support group format.

But what, you might well ask, would a Christian have in common with a Muslim?

Well, apart from cultural differences, quite a lot actually. Obviously our understanding of the Trinity and therefore the Divinity of Jesus are areas where we differ but hay, Judaism shares those same concerns about us too, and many Christians would identify quite strongly with Israel.

Otherwise all three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Judaism & Islam) would see them selves in unity on all other important issues and this is supported by ongoing dialogue at the highest level.

That is, we all believe in the one God and we all share the same (Hebrew) Scriptures.

But more importantly, at grass roots level, we all love God and want to deepen our relationship with Him and with one another.

. . . . and that's a lot to share in common.

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Building a new identity

For many years I has a poster on my study wall. It showed a rag doll caught between the huge wooden rollers of an old fashioned washing mangle Beneath it the caption read,

'The truth will set you free, but first, it will make you miserable!'

The image was a great sauce of consolation and hope to me as I struggled to get my life together back then and the rag doll and I shared many adventures over the years.

I'd all but forgotten her, and her depressingly jaundiced view of life, till today as I tried out day one of living outside my old identity. I knew she was right, and that truth was the one thing that would allow me to move on, but what is truth and do we really have to do the misery bit again?

Afraid so John . . . . .

Alright then, where do we start? What's here beneath the ego that I Can use? Let's see, hmmmm transparency, haven't seen that in a while . . . (last used 10 September 1992.)

OK, lets start rebuilding with that. At least we'll all be able to see what's going on then.

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Becoming who I already am

I closed my past posting by saying,

"Maybe the next big journey should be the one the Spanish call un Viaje Interior, a journey inside. The road least traveled, the spiritual voyage of faith we are invited to undertake each Lent that leads to the discovery of God within."


Well it's not lent, but it is Ramadan . . . so I decided to follow my own counsel. It was wonderful. Just me and God, then . . .

"To be what you want to be, you must give up being what you are.Yusef Islam (formaly Cat Stevens . . . .

"We cannot become what we need to be by remaining what we are," Max DePree.

And the words of Jesus, 'If you want to find your life, you must lose it.'

Party Pooppers!

So.

What do I want to be?

The words bounced like thunder around the mountains of my mind. Despite all the self awareness courses I had been on I had no idea, in that moment, what I wanted to be, or what I needed to stop being in order to become it. All I wanted was some warm fuzzy time with God. To give him the benefit of my undivided attention for a while. Is that too much to ask God?

Like it or not, my viaje interior has started to kick in - and I didn't like it.

Was there anything holding me back? I searched my mind. My first thought was of the memory of my youngest daughter who died of natural causes just 4 days before her 20th birthday. She is in my every thought, still, so was God going to ask me to leave her memory behind as I moved on?

I went to sleep heavy hearted.

Then out of the blue this morning He showed me a burning bush. He began to show me how, in returning to my old life here in NZ, I had tried to pick up the mantle of my old reputation - and this was chaining me to a past which, though very rewarding, was none the less, past.

To move on all I needed to stop being was 'Mr Got it all together'. Simple!

For the first time I felt myself peeping under the covers of my own ego

But now I'm 'Mr Got it all, but not sure how to put it together. Oh well, back to the viaje. Maybe I should throw in a little fasting this time, just to make sure!

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un Viaje Interior

I can't remember the exact date it happened, but it was some time in July 1995 that we decided to take an adult 'Gap Year.' To abandon our orderly timetabled lifestyle and celebrate millennium year with a full 12 months traveling.

An overland Odyssey of discovery through south east Asia, the sub continent, the middle east and finally, wintering over somewhere on the west coast of Ireland in a small fishing village: any fishing village.

Because an Odyssey is not something you can timetable very precisely, planning gave way to spontaneity and we began to see our lives in small rather than large bytes of time. A day here, a week or two there, several weeks to make our way down from Istanbul to Jerusalem then, sometime in the Autumn, to head for Ireland, etc. etc. We had never lived like this before. It was vaguely irresponsible but very exciting.

Then, as is the way with Odysseys, one year rolled over in to two, two became four and then, before we knew it, seven years had elapsed and our life style had become permanently transitory, spontaneous and subject to sudden change. Over the course of those seven years we lived at 9 different addresses in four different countries, spent 18 months traveling and visited over 50 different nations.

The exception had become the rule and short term ruled us absolutely.

Now that we have decided to re settle in New Zealand, part of us feels we should revert to our previously well ordered long term outlook on life, like everyone else, while the rest of us wonders if we can - or even want to anymore?

Maybe the next big journey should be the one the Spanish call un Viaje Interior, a journey inside. The road least traveled, the spiritual voyage of faith we are invited to undertake each Lent that leads to the discovery of God within.

Now thats a journey that required flexibility, an openness to radical change and a readiness to embrace the unknown!

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