Vision-however short term

Some discussion is transpiring about population growth in South Australia. A business lobby seems to be advocating the traditional policy of populate or perish. This seems to be largely meant to deal with the aging population that is going to cut in around 2011 (see here) though as is rightly remarked this sort of solution is only time shifting the problem. Indeed it is aggravating the problem for those who will then have to deal with it in 2021 and 2041.
The business lobby seems to have little insight into what the reality of this problem is. There is no sense of vision, there is only the process (get bigger) which itself is part of the problem. Simply allowing Adelaide to double in size does not address the problem, indeed it creates more.
Commentators this morning raised the question of whether this particular lobby represented the interests of the state, or indeed whether they represented the interests of anyone!
They are the same interest group which seems to remind us that everyhting ...yes everything... should be deregulated. In particular that we should be allowed to shop ad nauseam (Oh My goodness what if a tourist comes on a public holiday and can't get into David Jones?). It is the same problem, this same unregulated opportunism simply lacks vision, and at worst contributes to these problems rather than solves them.
The famous mistranslation....where there is no vision the people perish...could equally be mistranslated....and where the vision is shallow and opportunistic the people flounder and die.

And on top of all that Little Johnny is leading us to the next election. If he sees out his term he will be 72. Is that a good thing ( nothing against 72 year old but.....) I think not!!

Same, same...but different

A recurring theme I know you will admit......(see here for example just over a year ago and then again here and maybe even here ) And you can but meditate on what the picture means...but it seems to mean something to this theme.
Not the least of which is that we can see why all these squares, modified each time are indeed the same but isn't it all too remarkable that by the time you get to the last one there is a great difference.
Some things that are the same as when I was growing up

• Cornflakes with hot milk are yummy in cold weather for about the first two bites. Then they are just soggy.
• Children's shoes need to be cleaned every day.
• Israel was deeply under threat and in the hands of aggressive military nuts ( may have been the case since the (first) Exodus,)
• And as Professor Tom Lehrer put it...everybody hates the Jews or at least the Jews think they do.
  
• Listening to the radio about inflation I hear people totally confused about what it's about, but certain that prices go up.

Some things that are different from when I was growing up

• There are forty million types of breakfast cereal, which promise to start your day properly ...but all still full of sugar
• In my day I cleaned my own shoes ( and often those of my siblings every day...I didn't expect my father to do it...or assumed I could do it once a week!! Yes I did clean Sophie's shoes this morning!! And the thought of my father cleaning my shoes....laughable!!!
• Maybe Lehrer's National Brotherhood critique
  

  Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics
  And the Catholics hate the Protestants,
  And the Hindus hate the Moslems,
  And everybody hates the Jews.

  is not quite so fierce...I am mightily please that Catholics and Protestants don't hate each other quite so much. The Jews still think everyone hates them!!
  
• I know I've become old because now I write about what has changed since my childhood and tell my children about the price of petrol when I was at school. And I just haven't eaten a banana for months!!
  

  /pre>

Reality a la Lebanon

As we head towards the denouement of the war in Lebanon and in BB06 we could perversely wonder, which represents "reality"?
It is with a sense of foreboding that the dictionary definition above of 'denouement' speaks of a final resolution. Am I alone in hearing the echo of a catchcry of WWII which also had a sense of finality in its solution (see here)? Don't we all feel uncomfortable that the same agressive violence used against the Jews,the unremitting propaganda, the unquestioned orthodoxies that are demanded....seem now to be used by the Israelis against their enemies.
Is this reality? I hope not.
On Sunday night (for my sins) I watched the equally constructed "reality" of Big Brother, as 2 of the remaining 3 women were evicted from the house. When the truth dawned on the 3 original housemates (Jamie, Camilla and David) because the erstwhile intruders--Chris and Max-- survived where the much-loved Claire and Crystal didn't; there were floods of tears and an outpouring of tears which was scorned mercilessly by the heartless Killeen and the sensationally emotionally avaricious audience. As Camilla and David were beside themselves the audience laughed time and time again. Is this reality? I hope not.
So it all begs the question with two such bizarre examples of "reality" before us (and many more) what is reality all about.
Some other considerations: my friend's mother died this week and she said to me "I'm an orphan now!" I resonated with this new reality having felt this myself when my mother died.
Another couple of parish friends went through the roller coaster of desperately desiring that all and any treatment, orthodox and complementary, might work. Summoned to his bedside interstate he died within 24 hours of their arrival. Aged 42.
We prayed, too, on Sunday for a young man...pray for Luke if you do and can....aged 15 with bone cancer. As we prayed I felt overwhelmed by the sadness of this sickness. Something about this sadness seemed more real than I had experienced before...ohhh what is reality?
And an aged mate, a garrulous man of whom I am very fond, is declining and giving up. he lacks stimulation and the ability to concentrate. His body is weakening. I can do little to personally alleviate his state of affairs. I feel so sad about this sudden decline.
This would all seem to be important stuff.

Calculated Risk?

The real problem with the nuclear industry is that the "calculated risks" have some what long term effects.
The recent furore over contaminated drinking water at a uranium omine at Beverley reminds us of this.
Accidents will happen (see here), no one denies that. However when you are the "recipient" of accidental largesse, an employer's assurance that "all will be well" (see here) requires an assurance that they have an adequate crystal ball to gaze into the future...maybe 10, maybe 20 years. And worse than that, an assurance that they can adequately tell any genetic damage that you may incur or pass on. This is a problem for most of us who do not find ourselves able to give unqualified support to this industry!!

Birth Giving

Margaret Guenther in her book Holy Listenings offers the rich imagery of midwifery to explain the role of the spiritual director. Giving (new) birth to the child of God. This image is so rich in critical Christian symbolism that it barely needs clarification. The director is involved at once in both a life and death task, and also the honour and privilege of birthing. It is the dynamic of life changing experience which is at once both ordinary and miraculous.
It is a powerful idea, particularly if we do not confine it to the limited circle of object-subject (directee-director) relationship but rather see it as the responsibility of each individual.
To enable others to give safe and proper birth.
It is the responsibilities of parents towards children, of governments to the governed, of spouses to each other.
Birth-giving is such an utterlytransforming experience that, as the proverb says...it requires the whole village.
What would our world be like if each one of us thought that today we would try to ensure that another one of us gives safe birth to a new idea, a new step along the road, a new phase, a new beginning...a new day.

Boom go the strings of our world!

I am sure if you saw former Israeli PM Ehud Barak on Lateline last night you would have more than a few twinges of anxiety, the typical assertive style of the Israeli politician seems always to suggest that they are above reproach
One exchange with Tony Jones went : I keep telling you, but you for some reason do not want to hear or to heed to it. We are not attacking the Lebanese Government. We are attacking the Hezbollah.

At the very least Barak was failing to see that he had not convinced Jones or many others (like myself). Jones asked, why if Syria and /or Iran are actually behind Hezbollah do you not wage war on them?
Barak cajoled Jones for being thick and not understanding, but in truth I could tell you the answer. Bullies habitually like to smack little boys rather than big boys who might hit them back!!!

Another frightening thought that has occurred more than once to me in the last week or so, although we carry on about North Korea and nuclear weapons, we don't hear much critique from the US or our own beloved leaders about the nuclear weapons that our beloved friends the Israelis undoubtedly have. (Ask Mordechai Vanunu) And though I imagine that they may have some qualms about using them, essentially you don't have them if you are not prepared to use them

What is real?

There have been times when sitting in august gatherings that we have talked about TV. Such bodies as synods and meetings are interesting because it would appear at times that the conservative folk with whom I largely associate (Anglicans and the like) seem to talk as though there is only one TV station...the ABC (here). While this represents a lot of my viewing habits it is quite clearly given the lie by ratings. Reality TV continues to rate more highly than intensive current affairs, and commercial news (often characterised by focus on the flippant and the very parochial) usually outrates more comprehensive coverage as on ABC and SBS.
This was characterised on Saturday when, God bless 'em, Premier Mike and his affianced one were united in holy wedlock. Despite the fact that the Israel was blowing the guts out of Lebanon, and we looked like we might be on the edge of WW III, at least one station ("Yes, we're Local" their proud cry) the erstwhile wedding took precedence.
Now I think it was news, but not THE news.
It begs the question, doesn't it, what is reality? Perhaps the above cartoon illuminates that for us.
Watching ourselves being roasted. Unaware that it says more about us than it does about what what we watch? Desperately glad that it is them and not us whose version of reality is being exposed? Or shallowly unaware that there are any questions to be asked about anything.
All a little bit scary I think!

Tremendous mystery

We should not be surprised by the apparent contradiction that more people believe Costello's version of events concerning leadership promises rather than Howard's, and yet the country still firmly wants Howard to be PM more than Costello.
Truth-telling, it would seem, is not a characteristic that we need in our leaders. The "children-overboard" fiasco before the last election should tell us that!
Pragmatism, cynicism...perhaps....certainly we want runs on the board; in fact it is a most unfortunate aspect of our national character that we are prepared to excuse almost anything as long as we get runs on the board!!

Out of proportion

The world is clearly outraged by the disproportionate use of force that the state of Israel in its current round of retaliation both in Palestine and in Lebanon.
Not wishing to underestimate the provocation from Hamas and Hezbollah, it seems nevertheless like retaliation a hundredfold against anyone who stands in their way. I do not in any way subscribe to the Lex Talionis (here), but I do not believe that Holy Writ in any way condones for those who do promote it ....a hundred eyes for an eye, a thousand teeth for a tooth....
That responmse must be named for what it is and that is not retribution but rather bullying and injustice.
The much vaunted concept of "hubris"---does anyone know what it means anymore would seem to be what is the besetting sin of the state of Israel

Aristotle defined hubris as follows:

Hubris consists in doing or saying things that cause shame to the victim,

not in order that anything may happen to you, nor because anything has

happened to you, but merely for your own gratification. Hubris is not the

requital of past injuries; this is revenge. As for the pleasure in hubris, its

cause is this: men think that by ill-treating others they make their own

superiority the greater.

This does not seem to me to be what Adonai Elohenu calls us to be and do.

Wish you were here

Now this is definitely more obvious. Not, unfortunately, taken by me but by Sue.
Ahhh tis ever so.
The other one's whale is always bigger, blacker, and nearer the shore.
So close (I am told by the baby Clark) that you could have swum out and touched them.

In Memoriam ELR

Tomorrow is the funeral of Edmund Randall who is a not very well-known person these days, but quite influential in my life and that of the Anglican Church in South Australia. Selected by Bishop Thomas Reed to be the first Warden of the new St Barnabas College at Belair he was, in that small institution, responsible for forming many of this State's Anglican clergy and you can find that story elsewhere.
Yet, he dies relatively unknown outside the small work in which he engaged.
I spent my three years under his tutelage, in particular learning Hebrew and studying Old Testament which was his area of expertise, and am grateful for the quiet patience he exercised. The conservative worship which chacterised his style of institution may leave much to be desired these days, but he was not easily seduced away from the notion that essentially what you had to do was say your prayers day by day. He did not believe that you had to make worship as high as possible, or to have as much novelty as you could in order to stop people from being bored. In this he was both right and wrong. But his stamp on the quality of the worship of this province is undeniable.
Now he is dead. Quite a great age. Losing weight in his early 60s at least meant he didn't die prematurely.
I am thankful for his life, and that mine intersected with his.

For those who are interested

For those who are interested this is a graph of my 2 year weight loss.
In another 4 kgms I will be approximately half my starting weight!!!
The red line represents my target weight which (amazingly) is still 15 kgms below where I am now. Roll on October when hopefully I will have arrived.

It has been my pleasure in the last two decades to serve on a couple of serious Ethics Committees.
My last job had a prime focus in this area and I have always been interested in the delicate tightrope that this discipline requires. One of the Committees was a teaching hospital research committee and the other was the CSIRO department in Adelaide. This latter being largely responsible in latter days for significant research in human dietary issues and the development of the now wildly popular CSIRO diet. This project only being in embryonic stage when I was an active member of the Committee.
So I was interested to ehar the enormously talented Norman Swan discuss the whole question of Ethics Committees on the current Health report (here) (and sound here). Well worth the 30 mins reading or listening time.
Swan raised what must ever be the pirennial issues for Ethics Committees, what are they supposed to do, to whom are they accounatble and do they work. The particular example he cites is horrendous. My experience is pale by comparison though a number of things resonate with me.
Some questions I wonder about:

1. Who comprises such committees?. Traditionally clergy have sat on such but I only ever regarded myself as marginally qualified with generalist education in ethics.
2. What force do they have when things go wrong? This is the substance of Swan's excellent report. It would appear very little
3. Are there common national standards, and can they be uniformly enforced? Swan's reports would seem to suggest a double negative. There is a great deal of trust placed in the integritry of the institutions but this may be misplaced!!

It is an area of fascinating discussion. There are a lot of ethical issues around us at the moment. (it was ever so) I suggest the way for it to be advanced is for it to be vigorously and critically discussed. But it requires subtlety and nuance which is often rather taxing. We need to try a little harder I suspect

The right rite

Is it "rite of succession" or is it "right of succession"? I don't know how you settle that one.
Either way do I really care whether Costello and Howard had an agreement that Howard apparently broke.
One would have to question Costello's acuity and suitability to be PM if he actually imagined that Cassius Howard would feel bound to keep such an agreement.
What I find strange is the belief that the other young princes blithely accept that for a decade the next King had already been predecided. Although they have all paid lip service to the notion that Costello would succeed...surely Abbott, Pyne, Nelson and who ever else would not knock back the job if the party room decided that Costello was more of a liability with the electorate than an asset {not that those gentlemen are not liabilities}.
I don't believe Costello has an automatic "right of succession", and I am getting bored with the Interim Rite (Anglican joke) of every few weeks the media whipping up a ridiculous frenzy about nothing!!
Stop it!!

Goliath pummels David

It is not hard to misunderstand what on earth is happening between Israel and Palestine at this time.(see here for example).
To the very distant outsider it seems like the militarily strong Israel is pummeling the neophyte nation who have few real resources and who are extraordinarily disgruntled about almost everything. Their tactics (the Palestinians) are often reprehensible and it would be a mistake to paint them as "more sinned against than sinning".
But this does not alter the fact that the Israelis chief paranoia at being surrounded by people who hate them too often manifests itself in what looks like bully boy tactics. Blowiong the crap out of eveything that moves.
Its big brother Sam (your and my uncle) stands by and makes sure that no one criticises them too much....what was the catchcry of the moratoriums of the 70s...silence is consent.
I have left more than one group because too often Jewish members self-righteously lecture people about how hard done by they are. In the face of the suffering they inflict and the tactics they employ this is hard to take.
God when will this all end? (a genuine prayer)

A whale of a time

I know it's difficult to believe; but there is a whale in this photo.
This glorious day (Friday last) what looked liked a young male whale was sporting off Basham's Beach at Middleton (see the amazing bikeway here)
Those of you who know how to spot whales will see it immediately. Others will have to accept it in faith, I was there I know. (John 20:24-29); but some will doubt.
For Christians whales are a sign of resurrection. I think this is witnessed each whale season in SA (which is now).
Apart from the proliferation of whales at the ehad of the Bight, which by all accounts are abundant this year (see various current references here).
Forgive me my annual indulgence, because each year you meet people as you gaze intentionally out to sea....longing to catch a glimpse, dying to see the fliup of the tail. Evereyone is filled with a profound sense of expectation. And there is such a goodwill that it is palpable.
No one wants to turkey slap another! Everyone is eager that their neighbour should share the experience. And there is a developing patience and quietness which runs so contrary to our culture that it must be a good thing.
Take the opportunity, and slip to Port Elliot, or Victor and see what you can see. If you can get to the head of the Bight then terrif!!
But remember: Christos Anesti! Aleithos Anesti! [Χριστός ανασταίνεται. Αληθινά ανασταίνεται]

Naming rights

Someone will be able to have a good go at a thesis based on Blog Names. 
Our host (blogger.com) spontaneously points people to  random sites when you pull up the index page. This morning it was "La mancha es amarilla", which as far as I can work out means " The spot is yellow".
An Anglican blog circle I belong to puts up this random selection today "Costly Grace" which is perhaps a little more self-explanatory. Another from that same source is "Life of a Baby Priest" which is also worth taking a look at. There are many more.
Our local "Adelaide Index" indicates that creative naming is alive and well in SA. As I look at it now (8.30 a.m.) we see that Max Harris's legacy in the Ern Malley affair is creatively being continued by his daughter on the site Angry Penguin I don't agree with a lot of what she writes but it is interesting reading. And she can certainly get angry.
All this puts my fairly pedestrian "stephenclarks" and "coromandel preachings"  to shame. Though at least they are self-explanatory.
There are thousands more, andthey do provoke a wry smile, a puzzled look or a quizzical grin. Indeed that little list is no doubt fertile ground for new blog names!

Lifting the roof

This substantial part of the main roof appears to have been done in only one day.
We live in hope that this project will be completed in time!

Death of the circus-the end of Big Brother

Well it had to happen eventually, Big Brother has ended in tragedy.
At least it looks like tragedy if the rumours surrounding the forced eviction of housemates John and Ashley are anything to go by. The rumours suggest that they may have acted inappropriately towards another female housemate. I have no way of knowing whether or not this was true as Channel 10 have shut down every possible news source. This so-called social experiment is exposed for what it is (once again) amost cynical attempt to grab ratings with absolute low-cost garbage. One blogger comments:

What "Social experiment" Big Brother feeds them alcohol and forces sleep degredation (sic) upon them. Well WHAT a surprise that it has gone too far! The BB producers are the real culprits and need to be forced to walk the plank. see here

I would concur. The ever cynical Ms Killeen who treads the moral high ground is a passenger on this fiasco. She sneers away through the criticism of others. When evicted housemate called BB manipulative for the way they chose to show edited highlights out of context she almost sneered him to death.
To anyone the truth of his accusations was obvious. What Killeen appeared to have difficulty dealing with was her dislike of said housemate. Will she have anything intelligent or genuinely sensitive to say about the latest turn of events?
Now the inevitable has happened.
Some of the questions that are crossing my mind:

• Will BB be sued for failure to exercise duty of care by deliberately putting people in dangerously threatening environments?
• Will people be prosecuted?
• Will we stop this glut of "reality" TV and go back to Dixon of Dock Green (shows my age)

Can always hope!!!