Sources

Source of great wonderment---that two teaspoons of rain can start the front lawn sprouting again (not the real image...unfortunately)
Source of great confusion---Two in three South Australians don't realise that daylight saving does not end this weekend...I was one of them. As we get up in the dark..dawn at 7.28 a.m....there is little doubt we are being weaned to a point where we will permanently adjust our clock to align with the east. It's awful
Source of great bemusement---a former female partner with Price Waterhouse Cooper gets and alleged 11million dollars for sexual harassment. While she talks and others do about a not-surprising culture of "boys'club", I wonder how many secretaries got their share or anything like 11 million dollar for sexual exploitation.

And why wouldn't you?

There is a certain sense of irony about politicans sitting down trying to solve the propblems caused by lack of water flowing down a river. It has a certain sense of the arrogance of King Canute about it and more than one commentator, and many an angry letter-writer, has noted that it is only more rain and melting snow that will actually solve the problem!
Not quite true!
Although we might like to believe that we are all on the same side, those who, like us, are at end of the puddle are only too well aware that our sisters and brothers upstream are quitre happy to put their interests ahead of ours.
The same Premier, Brumby, who only weeks ago was decrying Adelaide as a backwater, has reputedly held out for more funding for Victoria before signing up to any promise to not urinate in our water supply. And we all thought we were on the same side. And why wouldn't you?
What rather terrifies me about all this is the fact that it all seems terribly short sighted.
Surely maximum co-operation not blatant self-interest is the way to deal with ecological issues. We have, I think, still a long way to go before we get this.

Uniting the disaffected

What ever else people say about Gene Robinson, the Bishop of New Hampshire, in the USA he always impresses me as the person who has the character of a Bishop.

Now, he may just have a good publicity machine (something most episcopods seem to lust after) but virtually all the articles I have read about him show a man with a deep pastoral heart. Not one interested in chasing the limelight, but one rather happy to nurture  small communities of faith in difficult places. Which is what his diocese is like. (see for example this recent article from the Guardian newspaper in the UK here or here)

The fact that he is no doubt one of the most hated Anglican Bishops of all time should not go unnoticed. His deep hurt expressed in the above article goes largely unremarked, instead he is caricatured as a monster intent on destroying the Anglican Communion.

Bishop Robinson is of course gay!!

There are bishops left, right and centre all urging us to be quiet and 'moderated' about the issue of homosexual bishops. 

There are too few bishops urging us to stand fast against the prejudice and indeed hatred of homosexual people that exists in society and in the church.

The pragmatic political types invariably defeat the pastors.

While we still live in a world where it is dangerous for a person to openly declare that their sexual orientation is homosexual...and we do... then Christians, in my opinion, should be standing against that prejudice rather than adding to it.

It doesn't seem to me, for all the blustering, that the hyperbole and comment from most bishops is actually clarifying this issue. 

Their second guessing  "love the sinner but hate the sin" as if homosexuality was (in their opinion) equivalent to murder, is so often thinly veiled prejudice that someone needs to challenge it. If it goes unchallenged too many people will believe that that sort of equivalence is true.

I do not accept the case that homosexuality is sinful. (What sort of God afflicts 10 per cent of humanity with a tendency to sin which the others don't have?). 

Nor do I believe that homosexuals have any more license to be sexually immoral than anyone else. None of us has that right.

The Gene Robinsons of this world help us see, at least, that God's love transcends our own smallness of vision

This is a bit of a ramble...expressing I think something of the anger I feel about this.,

Anger that the Church which should be the champion of the downtrodden is so often (not heeding the Saviour's words) the very first to cast not onbe but many stones.

God bless Gene Robinson, I am thankful that at least one bishop has a pastor's heart.

Perspective

I watched 3 minutes of the awful Mel Gibson Passion yesterday.

I don't dispute that there is a point to be made about the violence, but there is somethingbizarre about watching the Lord having his skin ripped off with a cat of nine tails.

Though in the last few months I came across the Coptic (Egyptian) Christian forms of Daily prayers the Agpeya (here)One of the things that each hour contains is the repetition of the Kyria 41 times (Kyrie eleison=Lord have mercy). This is to remind us that Jesus (and many others) was whipped this 39 times...it was the limit that could be undertaken without having to get a judicial order.

So why 41 times....After he is whipped within an inch of his life he is then crowned with the thorns, and then speared in the side. Punishment on punishment.

As I practised this seemingly innocuous prayer trying to pray for victims of violence. I became aware over a number of weeks of how awful it is to just try and imagine the terrific violence of 39 skin ripping whips. And then the two final acts.....40 a head pierced with thorns....41 a side speared.

God what a world we live in still

It's only fair to admit

It's only fair to admit that the the whinge about the bank post (here) turned out with them refunding the exorbitant charges. Admittedly their email admitted no liability (my complaint being that they conveniently omitted all sorts of details that were relevant to how the wretched thing operates)

Any way we will see what happens when next we get a statement.

Fish on Friday

You can't live with 'em

Yesterday I foolishly rang the bank to question the item "finance charges" (over $50) that had suddenly appeared on the statement. The first (general) number that I rang offered a whole range of options but blowed if I could work out how to get someone or something, other than a machine, to talk to me. 20 mins wasted.
I finally rang another number, which I was sure was not the enquiry number I needed but which at least would have to have a person on the other end. Sure enough I did get a person, and after explaining my issue she said....well you have come through to the wrong section I'll have to queue you for the right one....(another 10 mins).
The next person assured me that the charges were correct and offered (what I guess to be) an explanation which was idiotic which they more or less made up to fob me off, when I challenged the arithmetic they then suggested something else.
Finally another suggestion was offered which was that I was on the wrong type of card. Again I questioned this (as I had specifically remembered the decision that had been made when the card was opened a couple of months ago)
This chap then changed my type of card, and when I asked what would now happen about the 'charges' he said he couldn't do anything about it and I would have to go into the branch where I opened the card! (another 30 mins)
I duly psyched myself for a trip to the bank on a hot day...I hate it at the best of times...and arrived and explained to the "Customer Service Specialist" why I was there.
She looked horrified and aggressively said "Ooh he shouldn't have told you that. I can't reduce the fee!" I assured her that he had said the exact same thing.
Finally she went and got the original application forms after having successfully made me feel as though I was an idiot and treated me as though I was trying to rob the bank.
We spent the best part of an hour (!) batting this to and fro. At one stage she visited the manager in his office to find our what to do. I waited 15 mins while he finished a phone call.
During that time I read the blurb promoting their various kinds of cards, none of the promotional material mentioned anything about the sort of condition or issues that we were talking about.
Finally, she came out and decided to file a resolution e-form.
She kept asking me what type of account I wanted, I said to her at least twice that if this matter was not resolved I did not want any type of accound.."Yes but..".she said.
To give the consultant her due she kept on with the process as I got more and more annoyed.
At one stage the manager left his office, walked right passed us and certainly was avoiding looking me in the eye. Customer service....don't make me laugh!
She finally said, so you will be satisfied if they refund the difference. I wanted to say (but didn't) and yes I also need to be refunded the two hours that I have spent trying to sort this out.
I mean what an excuse for 'service'.
Which bank? Well you know by the logo and by the asking of the question.
Overnight I have decided to remove my custom.
The trouble is that none of them is any better than the others.

Pretty and dangerous too!

One blogger I sometimes reads writes: (here)
"Oklahoma Rep Sally Kern, a Grand Old Party basher straight out of the fire 'n' brimstone cauldron... was caught out delivering a speech on the evils of homosexuality to what she assumed was a small, captive audience, but which instead got picked up and earned a star in the YouTube universe. ... choice cuts include:

The homosexual agenda is destroying this nation..(the US of course).

Studies show, that no society that has totally embraced homosexuality has lasted more than, you know, a few decades. So it's the death knell of this country.

They're going after our young children, as young as two years of age, to try to teach them that the homosexual lifestyle is the acceptable lifestyle.

I honestly think it's the biggest threat even, that our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam, which I think is a big threat.

Pretty charming stuff, to be sure. The reason I've highlighted the last quote is because it is this particularly deranged raving which has inspired this remarkable rebuttal from an 18yo - straight - Oklahoman man whose mother died in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. ....

Tucker's letter demands a reading in its entirety, but here are some of the more powerful, gut-wrenching insights from this young man:

On April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City, a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. Nineteen children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would've likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.

That terrorist was neither a homosexual nor was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn't live up to them pay with their lives.

As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worse than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you'll find one of them that will agree with you...

As someone left motherless and victimized by terrorists, I say to you very clearly you are absolutely wrong. You represent a district in Oklahoma City and you very coldly express a lack of love, sympathy or understanding for what they've been through. Can I ask if you might have chosen wiser words were you a real Oklahoman that was here to share the suffering with Oklahoma City? Might your heart be a bit less cold had you been around to see the small bodies of children being pulled out of rubble and carried away by weeping firemen?...

The old saying is sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, your words hurt me. Your words disrespected the memory of my mom. Your words can cause others to pick up sticks and stones and hurt others.

I thought this is worthy of a few neurons worth of effort for us all

It's a bit like this

Many of us are feeling like this. Roll on 30 degrees

Baking a cake

There is something good about baking a cake. Anyone wityh children knows what a bonding experience it is.
So it is good to see the penultimate S experimenting with a German Shepherd Cake for D's birthday (it still remains to be seen whether she will clean up to my satisfaction)
To make such a cake from scratch shows a great devotion. D will be delighted (he is easy to delight)...but it sort of shows you the magic of cake. It is a gift to another for their enjoyment, there should eb more of it.
PS No German Shepherds were injured in the actual making of the cake

SA Great

ABC News reported on the death of Clyde Cameron, no doubt one of SA's great politicians.
Though variously described as one of the "great haters" he was also one of the great wits of the Parliament no doubt stories will be told in the next few days.
This "great hate" stemmed from the harsh background of the pre and post war periods which exposed whole areas of Australian life where the lowly poor were simple never going to get on. Cameron saw himself as their champion.
The ABC eulogy went as follows

"From the shearing shed, to the union office, to Gough Whitlam's front bench, Clyde Cameron's career as an ALP hard man was cemented early on.

Born in Murray Bridge, South Australia, in 1913, the one-time shearer ascended through the ranks of the Australian Workers' Union before being elected to the federal seat of Hindmarsh in 1949.

He sat on the opposition benches from 1953 to 1972, before becoming the minister for labour, immigration and consumer affairs in the Whitlam government.

Former prime minister Bob Hawke once described Clyde Cameron as a "great hater".

But it was his passionate views that put some offside, and in 1975 Gough Whitlam sacked him from the frontbench.

Clyde Cameron stayed on as Science Minister before retiring in 1980.

He spent his remaining years as an author and political historian.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has paid tribute to Mr Cameron.

"It was with sadness this morning that I learned of the passing of former federal member for Hindmarsh, Whitlam government minister and leading light of the Australian labour movement, Clyde Cameron," he said.

"From his early days in South Australia as a shearer, union organiser and industrial advocate, and throughout his parliamentary career, Clyde Cameron was dedicated to defending the interests of working people.

"As a cabinet minister in the Whitlam government, Clyde's appointment of now High Court Justice, Mary Gaudron, to prosecute the case for equal pay for female workers in the Arbitration Commission made history.

"Clyde was a leading advocate for pension increases, the provision of child care to support working women, and greatly improved the pay and conditions of public sector workers during his term as minister for labour and immigration.

"Although his career was not without controversy, Clyde Cameron's passion and commitment for working men and women remained paramount.

"This was illustrated by his 31 years loyal service to the families of Hindmarsh.

"Clyde Cameron retained throughout his life a great sense of pride and history.

"He will be sorely missed, particularly by those for whom he always stood so strongly."

Skip the light fandango

News that various celebrities are once again kicking up a fuss about kangaroo culling will come as no surprise (here).
I think this is a battle that can never be rational. Most of us are unaware for example that there are more kangaroos in this fair continent than there are people. In fact figures going back as far as 1998 show that then there were probably about 30 million.
Most of us don't begin to appreciate that if they were intelligent, they would be running the country and we would be bouncing around in the bush.
Very few of us city dwellers can begin to imagine the hordes of our national symbol, or the damage that they can do.
In reality the opposition of celebrities would seem to be mainly based on warm fuzzies rather than realities. Why should the culling of kangaroos be viewed any differently from the slaughter of cows or sheep?
I guess the vegetarians of this world oppose that too. The real question is (as was being raised on ABC TV in the last week) why are we not taking seriously the need to farm kangaroos for their very fine, tender, low fat meat (here)

At the circus

A correspondent asks about yesterday's post regarding appalling TV

Didn't PP ask "And what is truth?" and isn't the ? meant to be there?
Why waste time looking at rubbish?

and I replied

I agree about wasting time looking at rubbish...but you see such things because the TV is on.
BUT I also have a bigger question about whether just ignoring this stuff is actually responsible...it is not only garbage it is demoralising and socially destructive. We shouldn't just ignore that should we?

I think this is a fairly important point. We get the TV we deserve, so we need to do something about what we don't like

The worst yet

When you ponder eternal questions like

     Does God exist?

     Who created the universe?

     What is the meaning of life?

and so on, I bet no one ever thought there was a 21st century addition to the corpus. And it is, I suggest, Will 'reality' television never end in its grossness?

In what I thought was the most predictable and excruciating quiz show yet..a handsome young 'jock' (as the Americans call sporting types) sat in a chair and was asked a range of questions, each one totting up the dollars. Of course the questions got worse and worse...including "did you look at another man's private parts in the shower after the game?"

An even worse episode (one among many) is on YouTube below...but it is sickening.

The 'hook' of the series is, of course, how much humiliation will people subject themselves to for money?

There are other questions like: why is this stuff rating? why don't people get that there is a reason why we keep some stuff private? what responsibility do networks have for ruining people's lives, marriages and if people end up chronically depressed, or if they suicide (as is reported to have happened as a result of the  Jerry Springer show)?

While this show is called The Moment of Truth. It is anything but truthful and begs all osrts of questions about the sort of world we live in.

Waving not drowning

The current heat wave (see here)has everyone here in SA gathered around the TV weather every evening, only to feel a wave of deflation pass over them when the week long forecast is shown and gives a range of temperatures from 37-40.

This has now gone on for 8 days and we have a full week (at least) ahead of us. While I have blogged before about how this is not something out of the blue, but at least within the range of our South Australian experience (remember those long February-March school days back in the 60s, those hot old Uni orientation weeks in the un-airconditioned St Mark's College, and at least one very hot week at Goolwa when we used to go down to the beach at the dead of night because it was the only cool place) nevertheless it is a bit of a worry.

I feel as though the  struggle with the garden at Port Elliot is at least as significant as the advance of the Kalahari...will we simply have desert there in 5 years. I don't think so, maybe there was always going to be a stuggle to creat garden on a sand dune! I have realised in the last few weeks that the native bushland parts of that garden are actually looking quite good. And, oh, the smell of eucalyptus and native bushland when the temperature soars! What else might we expect?

It would be nice for this to end soon, we took a quarter off the front lawn by covering it with gravel on Saturday....should have done it a long time ago, Tilly takes it in her stride but it wears her down. And each day you meet at least two people who have not slept well.

It is a heat wave. But weare waving not drowning.

Surprise! Surprise!

So John Howard thinks the Australian public made a mistake electing a government to undo reforms that he had no mandate to implement.(here)
He still doesn't get it does he?

Thought in the middle of the day

When I think I have lost my foothold
your mercy, Lord, hold me up.
When cares increase in my heart
your consolation calms my soul

Psalm 93

A tale of two bishops

A meeting yesterday of local clergy with our bishop had the usual ho-hummity about it. And certain matters that were frustrating, but so what. It was ever so.

I struggle, as I listen, to identify with the church-world that is being described. 

Our own bishop, Jeffery, agonises with us about how he needs to stop being an administrator and start (after nearly 3 years) being a bishop...and it is is a real tension for him.

He muses longingly about a conversation he has with his Victorian counterpart about how he causes his office to run....Oh (says +Melbourne)  I have an Executive Assistant paid 100K+, and a PA paid 70K+... +Jeff laughed, knowing full well that was never going to happen here. We did hear of all sorts of other changes that seem to have been made or about to be made without much open discussion...at least none  I have been involved in......most of it would seem to have implications both financial and philosophical for the way we operate. I would have imagined that much discussion would have been helpful to get people on board.

When the floor was opened there was deathly silence. I wondered what would happen if I got up and said "The trouble with all this is that I feel absolutely no ownership or commitment to anything you have just told us." But I decided not to and no one else did, instead we commented on minor irrelevancies

We were also treated to Bishop Ezekiel from Bor in southern Sudan. African Bishops are an interesting lot, deeply spiritual and faithful they have a Christianity which is often disarmingly frank!

Amidst all this we were told...Sudanese clergy are paid nothing, but their  bishops receive a stipend of $3K. 

So +Melbourne could have 33 Sudanese Assistant Bishops or an EA.

I am sure I am not the only one who sees a sad irony in all this.

We live in a number of very different worlds!