Journalists killed in war zones

The Archbishop of Canterbury preached today at a special service for fallen journalists held at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street – the first time an Archbishop of Canterbury has preached at the annual service. Here’s an excerpt and a video

We live in a world at the moment in which in many areas it feels as though the darkness is falling ever more severely on whole swathes and regions of the world, and in which the light of news very often seems to go out. Whole areas where there is fighting that is forgotten because there is simply so much of it. Whole areas which depend only on the likes of James Foley and Steven Sotloff to show some light on what is happening.

The front-line reporter is the one who sees first-hand what is going on. They are the look-outs, who stand on the watchtower, day after day and all night long, in the watches of the night. “Watchman, how goes the night?”, as Isaiah described it from two and a half thousand years ago. They are the ones who witness the full horror of what is going on and dare to speak it. The rest of us are one step, or many steps, removed – both from the adrenalin and from the agony. We rely on the reports. And the nature of the reports has become more and more immediate, of that we can be thankful.

Last Friday I sat and listened to the chief of staff of the UN team fighting Ebola, and because of the reporting I was able to sense much more profoundly what he was saying, and to see the urgency of it.

Those reporters are as much at risk as anyone in a war zone. They were careful not to get too close, I hope. But they were run the risk of many things, not only of contracting Ebola (probably a fairly low risk), but the much higher one of the psychological trauma with which they will live for years afterwards. And that is true of those who have been in war zones.

Some years ago, about six weeks after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, I was in Baghdad to reopen the Anglican church there. It was, as they say, an interesting trip. We were there the inside of a week. But while I was there I bumped into a well-known reporter from a television company. They were there for months at a time, living hard, working incessantly – very long hours – and constantly at risk. Last January we were in the South Sudan in a town destroyed by war, surrounded by bodies, burying them in mass graves. As we left, reporters were arriving. They were going the opposite way. They are the ones who come to mind when we read of Isaiah’s watchmen: ‘What of the night?’

Such reporting now is a far remove from the bush telegraph: precisely because the people who do it are not safely removed from the agony. The reality of disaster, of war and suffering, is brought to us in a completely fresh way. It may still occasionally lack accuracy – that is an inevitable part of being human – but what it lacks in one area is more than compensated for by immediacy. And immediacy means risk.

Even where there are all sorts of personal things that one can say about those who go and report wars and conflicts, whether wars against disease or poverty, or the old-fashioned type where people kill each other deliberately and horribly; whichever it is, whatever they are like, what they do – and sometimes are hurt deeply mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually or even killed doing – what they do remains of extraordinary value, a God-given calling to inspire others to serve our common humanity.

To witness is to tell the truth. And the more horrific the circumstances, the more needful, the more precious, the more costly is the truth.

Watch 1000 Years of European Borders Change In 3 Minutes

WHO really owns what? This timelapse reveals how much borders change over time

Dancing with ‘the enemy’

Many Israelis and Palestinians would hesitate to come together and talk right now with everything going on in Gaza — let alone dance together. But that is exactly what world champion ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine is getting them to do.

His students in Jaffa are Jewish and Palestinian Israeli children who come together for a 10-week course in Latin Dance, the trials and tribulations of which are documented in a new film by Hilla Medalia, “Dancing in Jaffa.”

As hard as it might be for some of the kids to get over their religious and cultural differences, plenty of opportunities for discussion and laughter arise as well, as the above trailer depicts.

Prayer groups banned in schools

LUNCHTIME prayer and bible study groups run by teachers or volunteers have been banned at state schools in Victoria under a new education department policy.

The ban prohibits any prayer groups, bible studies, information sessions or workshops related to Christianity or any other religious practice, with an exception for students to pray individually according to their personal belief.

Under the newly signed Ministerial Direction MD141- Special Religious Instruction in Public Schools, students would also be forbidden from advertising church or religious events, or even from simply giving their friends a Christian music DVD or bible.

Furthermore, students would be unable to use a diary with a Bible verse or religious image on it.

The new policy has angered religious groups who say it could be in breach of human rights and religious freedom.

The ban, which has taken many by surprise, came into effect on July 14, as part of changes to the controversial special religious instruction requirements.

The policy says legislation requires that government schools are secular and special religious instruction is the only exception to this. The distribution of religious texts such as the Bible or Koran by any person is also prohibited.

A Victorian Education Department spokesman said students were free to bring religious materials to school.

Students could also form lunchtime religious clubs among themselves if permitted by the school but representatives from religious organisations or parents were not permitted to run them.

But the new guide says that Student Initiated Activities (SRI):

Cannot and does not take the form of prayer groups, youth groups, clubs, information sessions, or workshops. Legislation requires that Government schools are secular, and the only exception to secular education in government schools is SRI delivered in accordance with the Act, MD141 and this policy.

Any other forums or activities as noted above, would constitute promotion of specific religions in schools outside SRI, and are not permitted. For the avoidance of doubt, students engaging in prayer in observation of their religion at lunchtimes is not SRI as there is no element of ‘instruction’. Such prayer cannot be led, conducted by or at the instruction of staff or parents/visitors/volunteers. For further advice please contact the Legal Division.

Principals must ensure that no religious programs, plays, events or activities run or conducted by any external religious organisations or individuals are offered or provided in government schools during school hours.

Principals must not permit material, whether associated with SRI or not, to be distributed or displayed at a Government school if that material has the effect of promoting any particular religious practice, denomination or sect. This includes the distribution of religious texts (eg Bibles) by any person or organisation whether accredited SRI providers or not.

When advertising events or activities in school newsletters or on school premises, principals should be mindful of the requirement in the Act that government schools must not promote any particular religious practice, denomination or sect

The Make a Stand Organisation Website is quoted as observing the following (http://www.makeastand.org.au/campaign/more_information.php?campaign_id=60)

Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act & Equal Opportunity Act

This attempt to eliminate any expression of religion by students at school is contrary to the Charter which guarantees human rights including freedom of religion, freedom of association, freedom of expression and peaceful assembly to all people including school students.

15% Of The World’s nations Require Head Of State To Be From A Certain Religion

THIRTY countries, or roughly 15 percent of the world’s nations, require their heads of state to follow a particular religion, according to a new Pew Research analysis.

These include both monarchies and republics, 17 Muslim countries, two Christian, two Buddhist and one Pancasila (the political philosophy of Indonesia.) The remaining eight prohibit clergy from running for office.

Several of the countries, including Iran, Saudia Arabia, Syria and Afghanistan, also made the State Department’s 2012 report on international religious freedom as some of the worst perpetrators of religious oppression. In Saudia Arabia for instance, not only is the president’s religion restricted, but any public practice of a religion other than Islam is prohibited.

Pew also notes that 19 additional countries require a particular religious affiliation for ceremonial monarchs, including 16 countries that are part of the Commonwealth of Nations under Queen Elizabeth II — who is referred to as the Defender of the Faith and belongs to the Church of England.

A day to mourn

IT is a day to mourn. A passenger plane with 295 souls on board is shot down over the Ukraine and on the same day Israel launches a ground offensive in Gaza.
This is a world divided by conflict.
The performance of evil by ordinary people is one of the most disturbing social phenomena. It is not confined to one state or one nation.
Jesus was pretty clear on the subject of violence. Loving your neighbours – and your enemies – is the centrepiece of his gospel.
But in the end, we all make up our own minds on the validity of that. Free will allows some people to take up arms and kill others seemingly without care.
George Buttrick, in his book Christ and History, said we could not be lifted from the human dilemma without our consent, for we have a certain freedom to cross a moral border from right to wrong.
To continue to trust in grace, love, kindness and generosity is difficult in a world gone mad.
What we need is faith that we can do more than survive. Ultimately, we are citizens of heaven and this apparent global madness will probably make sense when we finally escape the shadowlands.

In 2009 Queen Rania of Jordan made an urgent plea on behalf of all the civilians living in Gaza for a “humanitarian ceasefire” and for the international community to do all it can to help alleviate the suffering. Her message is just as relevant today.

Muslims Worldwide Fear The Rise Of Islamic Extremism: Survey

MOST people living in Muslim majority countries are very concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism in their nations, a Pew survey has found.

The poll investigated specific attitudes towards groups such as al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Taliban, Hezbollah and Hamas, in fourteen countries with significant Muslim populations, and found that almost universally negative opinions were held about them.

The data for the survey was collected between April 10 to May 25, 2014, which was prior to the ISIS takeover of Mosul and other areas of Iraq and Syria. Syria, Iraq, and Iran were not polled.

In the Middle East, fears about Islamic extremism have been on the rise since 2013, with Lebanon reporting that a staggering 92 percent of the country’s residents are very or somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism in the nation. Its long border with conflict-stricken Syria is a likely factor in the high degree of concern.

The Middle East isn’t alone. The majority of the population in 11 out of the 14 countries said that they were “concerned about Islamic extremism in our country.” Only 50 percent of Turkey, 46 percent of Senegal, and 39 percent of Indonesia reported feeling concerned.

Suicide bombing has been a tactic for Islamic militants operating all over the world for years now, though support for the practice has drastically declined in the last decade. No majorities in any of the countries polled expressed the opinion that “suicide bombings can often or sometimes be justified against civilian targets in order to defend Islam from its enemies.” However, 62 percent of respondents from Palestine’s volatile Gaza Strip did say that suicide bombing could sometimes or often be justifiable.

The shrill voice of fundamentalism

IT’S not the Muslims or the Christians or the Hindus or Buddhists or the atheists that cause the most grief in this world. It is the fundamentalists.

Fundamentalism appeals to base tendencies that can justify hatred, persecution and murder. Religious fundamentalism accepts hypocrisy. It pays lip service to the ideals of true religion, all the while ignoring them in practice.

Extremists use religion as an excuse for their hateful actions. They might say they are protecting religion but that’s a lie. They are really just protecting power.

Fundamentalism is a refusal of conversation. It I a shrill, negative, fear-filled form of faith, wherever it breeds. Fundamentalism is always the same – with its followers insisting that they should not be challenged or even questioned.

Fundamentalism never understands that real faith cannot be enforced or coerced. People cannot be intimidated to believe at the point or a gun or through fears of bombs being thrown.

CIA hatched ‘devil eyes’ Bin Laden doll plot

IN the strange but true category comes this story from the Washington Post.
According to the Post, the CIA in 2005 secretly began developing a ­custom-made Osama bin Laden ­action figure. The face of the figure was painted with a heat-dissolving material, designed to peel off and reveal a red-faced bin Laden who looked like a demon, with piercing green eyes and black facial markings.

The goal of the short-lived project was simple: spook Afghan children and their parents, causing them to turn away from the actual bin Laden.

The code-name for the bin Laden figures was “Devil Eyes,” and to create them the CIA turned to one of the best minds in the toy business, said those familiar with the project, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the project publicly.

The CIA recruited the help of the former head of the Hasbro toy company, Donald Levine. Levine helped develop the G.I. Joe action figure.

A person with direct knowledge of the project in China said hundreds of the toys — one of which was seen by The Washington Post — were made as part of a preproduction run and sent on a freighter to the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2006.

But the agency aborted the plan after reviewing three prototypes of the doll, a CIA spokesman told CNN

Why this angry communist became a Christian

I WAS a communist, a draft dodging, angry socialist who marched in the streets, protested apartheid, war and poverty and got arrested because I wanted to help bring justice to the world.

I thought if enough people felt outraged at the way things were, changes could happen. But I realised that wasn’t going to happen. Too many people were operating on greed and self interest. That was human nature.

Then I became a Christian. If I thought God didn’t care about suffering in this world, I’d be p….d off as well. But I’m not.

I’ve seen lots of injustice and it still upsets me. But I believe God suffers with us because most of the suffering is the result of our free will and our silly rape of the planet.

Jesus is the prime example of God’s love for us. A weeping, bloodied Jesus suffering for us and loving us. God is not distant.

If there is any hope in this world it lies, for me, in the forgiveness and redemption of mankind by a loving God. This world can be a terrible place as well as a beautiful one.

In the end, it’s a temporary place for all of us. I’m probably more realistic about life as I get older. It’s a hard place and the innocent suffer. But the fault is not God’s . It’s ours and I think we need to face up to that reponsibility.

Taliban changing from religious group to criminal enterprise

THE Taliban’s reliance on extortion and kidnappings, along with narcotics and illegal mining operations, is transforming it from a group driven by religious ideology into a criminal enterprise hungry for profit, U.N. sanctions monitors said in a new report.

The latest annual report by the U.N. Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team on the Taliban was distributed to reporters a day before Afghans vote in a run-off presidential election.

“In addition to voluntary or forced donations from Afghan businesses outside the country as well as voluntary donations motivated by religious or ideological convictions, the Taliban have established a fairly sophisticated system to generate resources inside the country,” the report said.

“Increasingly Taliban finances also rely on abductions of wealthy businessmen for ransom.”

The report said executing civilians and aid workers helps the Taliban reassert their power, block security improvements and prevent economic development 13 years after it was ousted from power by a U.S. invasion. It also creates new funding sources for the Taliban, hardline Islamists bent on toppling the Afghan government.

“However, these activities increasingly change the character of parts of the movement from a group based on religiously couched ideology to a coalition of increasingly criminalized networks, guided by the profit motive,” the monitors said.

In Kandahar, the Taliban raise $7 million to $8 million a month from narcotics, extortion and mining, the report said.

Why non-violence works

ABRAHAM Lincoln was once talking with a woman during the American Civil War about all men being brothers.
She disagreed with him, and said that she felt that Lincoln should destroy his enemies.
Lincoln replied: “What, madam? Do I not destroy them when I make them my friends?’’
Lincoln was not just morally right. He was exhibiting good science and good sense.
He perhaps knew instinctively that non violence is more effective in bringing about lasting social change .
A study found that non-violent resistance is actually about twice as effective as violence.
Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth analyzed 323 resistance campaigns from 1900 to 2006 and found that major nonviolent campaigns had achieved success 53 percent of the time, compared with 26 percent for violent resistance campaigns.
The study sheds light on why terrorism has been largely unsuccessful.

The tipping point

WHAT we think and feel affects other people and we, in turn, are affected by others’ thoughts and actions.

Every action touches on some chord that will vibrate through eternity.

Aristotle said we always have to choose between reality and illusion. Changeless reality was always “there to be accepted’’ but could only dawn on an unclouded mind.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, investigated how an idea or behaviour moves from the edges of society to broad acceptance. Along the way, there is a tipping point that transforms a minority perception to the embrace of the majority.

Our collective sense of peace and justice for all has clearly not yet reached the tipping point. But that doesn’t mean it cannot.

The universe is still full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.

Bathtubs more dangerous than terrorists

AMERICANS are 30 times more likely to die from lightning strikes, and 25 times more likely to drown in their bathtubs, than to be killed by terrorists, according to Dr Kevin Barrett, a Ph.D. Arabist-Islamologist and one of America’s best-known critics of the War on Terror.

In his book Questioning the War on Terror he asked: “Should we declare war against lightning bolts and bathtubs? Should we install PA systems in our bathrooms reminding us that the threat level of bathtub drowning has been raised to orange? Should we create a new Department of Bathtub Security (DBS) empowered to do sneak-and-peak warrantless searches of our bathrooms to make sure that we’re using no-slip bath-mats? Should we invade and occupy countries that we falsely blame for bathtub deaths?”

Acceptance of gays varies by nation, survey says

THE world is divided over the acceptance of homosexuality, a survey finds.

There is broad acceptance of homosexuality in North America, Australia, the European Union, and much of Latin America, according to the Pew Research Center survey. The survey was conducted by telephone and face to face in 39 countries among 37,653 respondents from March 2 to May 1. The margin of error for the survey ranges from plus or minus 3.1 to plus or minus 7.7 percentage points.

Juliana Horowitz, the report’s lead author and a senior researcher at Pew, says, “I can’t think of any question we have asked where we have this sort of global polarization. In North America, Europe and several countries in Latin America, we have really high acceptance of homosexuality. In predominantly Muslim nations and in sub-Saharan Africa, we have equally widespread views on the other side.”

African nations and predominantly Muslim countries are among the least accepting of homosexuality. For example, about 98 percent of people in Nigeria say homosexuality should not be accepted. In Indonesia, a predominantly Muslim country in Southeast Asia, 93 percent say homosexuality should be rejected.

About 60 percent of Americans say society should accept homosexuality. They are more tolerant today than in 2007, when 49 percent said homosexuality should be accepted.

In several countries, younger respondents expressed more tolerant views than older people. For example, in Japan, 83 percent of those younger than 30 say homosexuality should be accepted, compared with 71 percent of those ages 30-49, and 39 percent of those 50 and older.

In the Asia/Pacific region, where views of homosexuality are mostly negative, more than seven-in-ten in Australia (79%) and the Philippines (73%) say homosexuality should be accepted by society; 54% in Japan agree.

Click to access Pew-Global-Attitudes-Homosexuality-Report-FINAL-JUNE-4-2013.pdf

History repeats itself because no one listens the first time

US PRESIDENT Franklin Roosevelt endured long receiving lines at the White House and complained that no one really paid any attention to what was said.

Once he decided to test the belief. During a reception, he said to each person who came down the line and shook his hand: “I murdered my grandmother this morning’’.
The guests responded with phrases such as “Marvelous’’ and “keep up the good work’’ and “God bless you, sir’’.
It was not until the end of the line, while greeting an ambassador that his words were actually heard. Not quite knowing what to say, the ambassador leaned over and whispered, “I’m sure she had it coming’’.

Men and women process language differently, according to some studies. Basically, men only listen with one side of the brain while women use both sides. The scientists are not too sure what that actually means.
But it seems clear that neither men nor women are making too much of an effort to hear each other. Easy listening only exists on the radio.

We spend around 45 percent of our waking time listening to others but we don’t often hear what they are really saying.
Studies have shown that most of us understand, evaluate, and retain approximately 50 percent of what is said to us. And after two days, we remember only half of that. After a week, we comprehend and retain only 25 percent of what has been said.

There’s another problem. Our capacity to listen ranges, on average, from 400 to 600 words a minute, while the average speaking rate is about 125 words per minute. So we have plenty of time to think of other things when someone else is talking.
And we are not trained to listen. And not trained to realise how important it is as a means of communication.
Psychologist Carl Jung said everyone longed to tell his or her story to someone else and have it understood. It’s a human trait.
No one is as deaf as the man who will not listen, states a Jewish proverb. The ancient Greek writer Plutarch said “know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly’’. His countryman Epictetus said we have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

You cannot truly listen to anyone and do anything else at the same time, said M. Scott Peck, author of The Road Less Travelled.
Peck said an essential part of listening was the temporary giving up or setting aside of ones own prejudices, frames of reference and desires so as to experience as far as possible the speaker’s world from the inside. Then the walls of separation would come tumbling down.
The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen.

Muslim women in Indonesian province banned from passing gas loudly?

The mayor of a city in the Indonesian province of Aceh has told reporters, “Muslim women are not allowed to fart with sound, it’s against Islamic teachings.” However, a local Muslim activist counters that “How to pass gas is not regulated in Sharia. There is no mention of it in the Koran.”

Could this really be true, or is it satire?

The crazy cult of North Korea’s Kims.

.

The tenth most widely followed religion in the world is juche, the national ideology of North Korea, according to http://www.adherents.com.

With an estimated 23 million adherents, it is a presonality cult based around the the nation’s founder Kim Il Sung, and of his son and successor Kim Jong Il, who ruled from 1994 to 2011 and now the new leader Kim Jong Un.
.
This is nation where internet is virtually banned, there’s no free press and listening to foreign radio is illegal. Kim Jong Il’s picture hangs inside every North Korean home, while propaganda posters hail the late leader and his father, founding president Kim Il-sung. From an early age, schoolchildren sing the praises of the two men.

They are taught that rainbows appeared over the sacred Mount Paekdu at the time of Kim Jong-il’s birth there, although experts believe he was born in a Russian guerrilla camp.

He was, allegedly, the world’s biggest consumer of Hennessey cognac; his birth caused winter to change to spring and saw rainbows spontaneously appear in the sky; an official biography of the state website, since taken down, even claimed that he didn’t defecate. That’s not to mention a record-breaking round of golf in 1994 which, according to every single one of his seventeen on-duty bodyguards, saw Jong-il shoot eleven hole-in-ones to card 38-under-par.

Among other glorious achievements, the man whose official titles included Dear Leader, Bright Sun of the 21st Century, Highest Incarnation of the Revolutionary Comradely Love. was said to be a a fashion trendsetter who invented the hamburger.

This cult has its sacred statues, its icons and martyrs—such as a girl who is said to have drowned while trying to save images of her leaders from a flood.

Authorities in Pyongyang reportedly spent $10 million on a 75ft statue of Kim in the capital in April, according to the South Korena newspaper Chosun Ilbo. Seven similar statues costing a total of $50 million have been built around the country since Kim died last December.

The country also spent $25 million inscribing his name on 3,200 “towers of eternal life” at crossroads around the country. Kim Jong-un, the new leader and Kim Jong-il’s son, has also reportedly ordered senior party officials to raise more funds for statues and to renovate the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, where his father’s body lies in state.

North Korea is officially an atheist state in which much of the population is nonreligious.

The newish supreme leader is developing his own cult status. The Korean Central News Agency described Kim Jong-un as “a great person born of heaven”, a propaganda term only his father and grandfather had enjoyed

Shortly after coming to power a 560 metres (1,840 ft) long propaganda sign was erected in his honor near a lake in Ryanggang Province which is, according to North Korean media, visible from space. The sign reads “Long Live General Kim Jong-un, the Shining Sun”.

It’s laughable…and disturbing.

.

Who trusts politicians?

Trust in politicians is abysmally low around the world and most citizens say their governments do not reflect the will of the people.

. it is hard to square politics with trust. Across the democratic world, governing elites are mistrusted, whatever their policies.

 Cynicism also surrounds business leaders

 Who Runs Your World? was the question put by Gallup International and the BBC World Service to more than 50,000 people in 68 countries in what was billed as one of the biggest surveys of public opinion ever conducted. Two out of three people polled around the globe felt unrepresented by their governments.  

Former Australian PM Bob Hawke once complained  that Australians had little respect for politicians and business leaders. And he was right.

. Philosopher V.S. Naipaul observed towards the end of the last century that politics, not religion, was now the opiate of the people. He said politics was built on the myth that debate was political virtue, but the reality was that politicians did not want to confront or discuss difficult ethical issues.

We want leaders who can shape a vision that is worth striving for. We want leaders who have the moral courage to take responsibility for their decisions and actions.