Electricity

The cleanest (and cheapest) energy is the energy that you don't use!
Reading energymatters.com.au Fred found that the average consumption of electricity by households in Australia is 8MegaWatts!
Our consumption here adds up to 1.46MegaWatts (precisely!) Apart from a deep freeze, and air conditioner, (both missing in this house) I don't know what people use the stuff for...


In the meantime, (while waiting for our generating capacity to be nearly doubled), we are trying to understand how the feed in tariff that is being introduced in NSW will work. Seems we will have to change our meter. (even though Fred reads the inputs and outputs from the new one that went in after the first panels.)


We don't hold out much hope of actually being paid money for the electricity we will put into the grid. (to run our neighbours' air conditioners.)

It would have been nice, but then again we didn't put in the system to make money. Just to make a point. (very expensively)

The musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of immeasurable value,

"...the musical tradition of the universal Church is a treasure of immeasurable value, greater even than that of any other art...The treasure of sacred music is to be preserved and fostered with very great care.” This is a quote from the second Vatican Council. Found in the Irish Times for yesterday.

Arminta Wallace writes of the burgeoning of choral works over the (pre) christmas season and the crowds that go to concerts and lessons and carols (and other) services. She is focussing on Milltown Parish church in Dublin which boasts a professional choir. I am thinking that St Philips is fortunate to attract almost professional singers and musicians to its many choral events and times, as well as our two actual professional musicians.

"Meanwhile, for choir and congregation alike, the Christmas Eve Mass is an annual musical and spiritual high point. “There’s always a beautiful atmosphere at that Mass,” she says. “It’s magical. I always feel there’s a sense of expectancy – but also a quiet, almost contemplative feeling as well as the joy at the coming of Jesus. That’s my personal feeling about Christmas Eve, anyway, and I suppose I would try and capture that in the music for the service.” .....

But sacred choral music is also part of the tradition. As we tune in to Christmas music this year, in whatever form and at whatever level we can, maybe – if we listen carefully – its other-worldly beauty might give us some clues as to how the human species can face, with dignity and compassion, a future which seems at best uncertain. It will undoubtedly – if we listen carefully – give us plenty of food for spiritual thought.

it's an article worth the reading...
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2009/1224/1224261230623.html

Christmas greetings

A Christmas letter to download. (180 and 140KBs)
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/AnchellChristmas2009a.pdf
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/AnchellChristmas2009b.pdf

I greet you this day. If you are celebrating this christmastide, I would be glad of a greeting at lindafrd_AT_pcug.org.au (replace the _AT_ with the usual.

Christmas starts today, and we celebrate until 6th January (epiphany) with the arrival of the kings at Bethlehem. Perhaps this year I should be making the French gateau de rois with the little crowns on top and the treasure (trinket) within!

The cost of Copenhagen

George Monbiot might be one of the "new believers", but I listen to him.
see his Guardian column this week after Copenhagen. (it is at http://tinyurl.com/yep8gdt}

He concludes by saying:

   "So what happens now? That depends on the other non-player at Copenhagen: you. For the past few years good people have shaken their heads and tutted and wondered why someone doesn't do something. Yet the number taking action has been pathetic. Demonstrations that should have brought millions on to the streets have struggled to mobilise a few thousand. As a result, the political cost of the failure at Copenhagen is zero."

I have always felt that on this issue I can take my own direct action. "The cleanest energy is the bit you don't use." (as well as the solar generation we put into the grid. But I don't go to the demonstrations. <sigh> There is more I should be doing. (when it gets cooler?)

When the song of the angels is stilled

Goshen College Advent Calendar (http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions) has this poem quoted by Odelet Nance.

This poem by theologian and civil rights leader Howard Thurman reminds us to share the music in the heart and our blessings.

“When the song of the angels is stilled,
when the star in the sky is gone,
when the kings and princes are home,
when the shepherds are back with their flock,

The work of Christmas begins:
to find the lost, to heal the broken,
to feed the hungry,
to release the prisoner,
to rebuild the nations,
to bring peace among brothers,
to make music in the heart.”

[http://blog.goshen.edu/devotions/2009/dec-18-music-in-the-heart/]

Hark da Herald Kittehs Sing

can't resist this one! A special for christmas.


see more Lolcats and funny pictures

and the Michelago fire (mentioned in yesterday's blog) is now being "mopped up" having gone further east and being for Burra a wakeup call. Everyone that I talked to has tested their pumps and fire procedures. It was a high cost for Tinderry people.

Michelago fire

Just a personal note. There is a fire going east of Michelago that we saw as smoke to the south of us early this afternoon. It is now in the Tinderry Nature Reserve and in the bushland. One house has been lost. We are very aware of the community down there but also heard (just on the ABC TV 7pm news) that a wind change might come through the night that might threaten Burra Valley. Not nice to hear of your very own community in those bulletins! Friends a little further to the south are in more danger. But to put minds at rest; our new fire pump is attached to the tank which has quite a lot of water in it and the pump does  work! My own little bag is packed; Fred's isn't.... the southern side of the house is probably the safest and although it might be the change of weather that might bring the fire (embers might well be a problem) at least the weather is forecast to change! We hope for a down pour tonight; especially on the fire as it is now. (Fred had pumped up water this afternoon to have a bit more room in the lower tanks for rainfall.... now we might need those tanks full for fire fighting!  :-)  I don't think you can win either way!  

A history lesson

from Uri Avnery

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1260658441

photos of Middle East trip

Christine and Geoff's photos of the (dis)organised trip I was on in
September, are on line at:
http://www.geoffandchris.com./Us/Middle_East_Photos.html.

a few picks:
me on camel:
http://www.geoffandchris.com./Us/Middle_East_Photos.html#11
Bethlehem, Aida Refugee camp. (mural http://www.geoffandchris.com./Us/Middle_East_Photos.html#84) There is also a huge key on the gate. It is a reminder of the key that so many carried away as they fled their homes. Will they ever return? (The young children can; They have a book of photos taken by grandchildren after hearing their grandparents' stories of home. ("Dreams of Home", created by the children of the Lajee Center with Rich Wiles.) see also:http://www.lajee.org/english/main.cfm their web site.

my photos are at:
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Tourist.html
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Political.html
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Pilgrim.html
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Pilgrim2.html

love and marriage (Indian)

Brian's blog at http://www.nottoomuch.com/ alerted me to the Nationa Council of Churches in India Roundtable discussion on sexuality. I had heard about it but not seen the text. http://www.nccindia.in/news/pressrelease/n_144.htm Two paragraphs stand out for me.

After those two, the third paragraph recognises that our sexualities can be very different. It is good to see both ideas in almost the same breath. To my mind, this Delhi message gives the best "argument" for allowing marriage to apply to same sex couples. Why some christian lobbyists disagree is beyond me.

"We affirm that sexuality is a divine gift, and hence God intends us to celebrate this divine gift in committed, consensual, and monogamous relationships. It is in such celebrations of our sexuality that we grow into the fullness of our humanity, and experience God in a special way.

We believe that our negative attitudes towards sexuality and our body-denying spirituality stem from our distorted understanding of God’s purpose for us. The embodied God who embraced flesh in Jesus Christ is the ground for us to love our bodies and to celebrate life and sexuality without abuse and misuse.  So God invites us to experience sexual fulfillment in our committed relationships of justice-love with the commitment to be vulnerable, compassionate, and responsible.

We recognize that there are people with different sexual orientations. The very faith affirmation that the whole human community is created in the image of God irrespective of our sexual orientations makes it imperative on us to reject systemic and personal attitudes of homophobia and discrimination against sexual minorities. We consider the Delhi High Court verdict to "decriminalize consensual sexual acts of adults in private" upholding the fundamental constitutional and human rights to privacy and the life of dignity and non-discrimination of all citizens as a positive step."

Israel annexing East Jerusalem

A European Union report on East Jerusalem is at:

http://australiansforpalestine.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/EU-Report-Nov2009-1.pdf

it concludes after discussing the effects on Christians in Old Jerusalem with this phrase:

about Jerusalem's "iconic significance as a place where civilizations meet rather than clash."


The meeting of civilizations (well, the three faiths of the book) was what I experienced in my meanderings around the old city.

I found this report very disturbing, but really saying everything that we had been told and that was "under the surface" in Jerusalem.

http://australiansforpalestine.com/breaking-news-israel-annexing-east-jerusalem-says-eu

The only strange comment I saw was about Israel letting in an influx of tourists onto the Dome of the Rock (Haram al-Sharif); without any control by Islamic authorities. That was not the experience that Fred and I had 12 years ago, being unable to get in then. This year the various holidays confused things and meant that no one from our group was able to enter. My suspicion of the tramway is still there.

The Guardian also has a report at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/07/israel-palestine-eu-report-jerusalem

James Hansen on Copenhagen

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2009/12/outspoken-us-climate-scientist.html

"This is analogous to the issue of slavery faced by Abraham Lincoln or the issue of Nazism faced by Winston Churchill. On those kind of issues you cannot compromise. You can't say let's reduce slavery, let's find a compromise and reduce it 50% or reduce it 40%."

Swiss referendum

A Comment on this web site about the Swiss referendum has this quote from Goebbels. I have often railed against "democracy" since it sometimes seems to pander to our worst side. (campaigns that seek to minimise hits to the hip pocket nerve as well as campaigning to keep our borders secure against the hordes.)

While I am fiercely protective of our system of democracy, I accept that it is not a perfect system at all.

http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1260035333

By the way, the Swiss referendum should give pause to those who have been tempted to think that the system of referendums is preferable to the Parliamentary system. A referendum opens the gates to the vilest demagogues, the pupils of Joseph Goebbels, who once wrote: "We must appeal again to the most primitive instincts of the masses."

A Greens senator speaks

I have just read Senator Scott Ludlum's speech on the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill (that's the ETS Bill that is tearing the liberals apart)... and I am impressed with this paragraph:

Senators here would have heard me speak before about narrow military notions of military security and the extraordinary theft of resources from
genuine tools of security. Military security can do nothing to alleviate the greatest security challenge of our age, which is climate change.
Traditional tools of warfare are of absolutely no help at all when confronted by a tsunami, a hurricane, a flood, a virus or a water shortage.
The acquisition of arms and the current global military expenditure of $1.2 trillion a year still diverts enormous financial, technical and human
resources from where they are really needed.

Yes, I am a Green and a member of the party, but I am usually a bit "ho hum" on the way we argue "the case". But Scott is saying things here which need to be said. In a world that seems to have no limit on what we spend on toys for boys (we saw them gathered around a helicopter at Russell last week); and no limit on what we might dish out to keep the world financial system melting down...

in such a world, what is there to be done?

An artist's view of Copenhagen

What an article!

Michelangelo and my kids will haunt me
Bronwyn Lay November 23, 2009

In Eureka Street.
(http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=17720 or http://tinyurl.com/yjbfho5)

I have never had children, but Bronwyn's comments about motherhood and where it leads her take my breath away. It is really worth reading the whole article, but here is a small taster of what she says:

"If everyone at the Bella Center in Copenhagen in December was overwhelmed by the sorrow of ‘The Pieta’, the sorrow of the powerless, then the outcome would be brutal. Emissions would be cut by 100% the next day. We would be thrown into war-time mobilisation because everything we thought we had created would seem irrelevant compared to the pain millions of ‘The Pieta’s’ were facing. Economies would go into transitional panic. Monies would be diverted to the developing nations at the coalface. Whole industries would collapse and geopolitics would be thrown into a spin. This will not happen because ‘The Pieta’ being inscribed in every mind at that table is too revolutionary a thought, too irrational, and too sentimental."

It appeals to my "political side". More of her writing is artistic.

Fragmentation of Palestine

A video to watch:
http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/ht/display/ContentDetails/i/76850

Graphically shows how the West Bank is being fragmented. I have the
postcards, but seeing it on a video is very strong!

Echidna visitor

Much excitement on Friday when an echidna came around the corner. (I was hanging out the washing and watching a skink sunning itself, of trying to survive a very hot day.)   Skink, took off, fast. It went past me and echidna came on right by the back door. She got stopped under a copper pipe which is an inch off the ground; went back and under a heavy bag of recycling. I lifted that up and it turned around and went back onto the western verandah and under some old solar hot water panels that lean against that wall. There it stayed and proceeded to burrow down. A few hours later it had shoveled dirt over itself, eventually disappearing with dirt right over it! Stayed all day Saturday while we were at the fair and it was still there Sunday morning. But the dirt was off it then.

The echidna has left us. It was not here when we returned on Sunday night. I just checked it again, and it might have made a tunnel!

I have been looking on the web for information and I suspect that the main reason for being visited was that it was such a hot day (Thursday). They do not like the heat and will burrow or find caves etc to escape it.

They mate in winter, lay an egg about 22 days later, incubate for 10 days. When about 7 weeks old they start to grow spines. Then they are put in a nursery burrow. Mother returns every 5-10 days to feed it. At 7 months they are weaned and left on their own.

So if it is a nursery burrow, she should come back every few days.
They have a huge range as well. Goannas and cats and dogs are the main puggle enemies. 

So we might be in for a very interesting few months, or maybe it was just a one off!


http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/June2000/default.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/schoolstv/animals/ECHIDNAS.htm
http://www.fourthcrossingwildlife.com/echidna_puggle.htm

Did Charles Darwin free christianity to be true to itself?

Today was the feast of Christ the King. But as Ray pointed out, the message is: "My kingdom is not of this world."

Tonight I watched (cursorily) a program on Charles Darwin and the controversy  that he stirred up with the publication of "The Origin of the Species" (150 years ago?) 24th Nov 1859?)

We take it so much for granted these days. I am so aware of the personalities of the non humans around me here in Burra that I forget that sense that homo sapiens is something else, not quite "natural"; certainly not descended from apes!

Did that christian sense that our species is so special stop us from recognising god's love for the whole creation? Did demolishing that allow us to read the scriptures with new eyes and see a much larger "god"? A much larger saviour....

This evening, I was thinking it was a liberation of the church from the Constantinian capture of church into state power.

Demoting "man" from his pedestal (gender specific language is deliberate) allows us to see the Son of Man as enosh; the weak one who saves through the cross, not through state power; not through soldiers fighting for him.

Photos

Photos and comments from the Middle East trip in September 2009 are now on line.

http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Tourist.html
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Political.html

http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Pilgrim.html
http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Pilgrim2.html

We don't need more fundamentalism

Colin Coward posted a new blog at Changing Attitude. http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2009/11/hope-in-god-despair-at-conservative.html

He finishes off by saying:

Conservatives think they are defending God and protecting Christianity whereas in reality they are doing exactly the opposite, in the UK and North America as well, ultimately, in Africa, Asia and South America. The world does not need more biblical fundamentalism, back to basics or ‘the clear Word of God’ which will transform society overnight. It needs people with prophetic vision and a passion for truth and love, people whose lives are rooted in prayerful awareness of the revelation of God in Scripture, through Jesus Christ, and in myriad, mystical, tender ways in creation and the practice of the presence of God in daily life.

I comment on my time in Jerusalem that you can see visions of heaven as so many of the world's people gather there in pilgrimage of various kinds. But when one group says "this is fundamentally mine"; we make of that place a hell. (Remember that the Crusaders said that for christians once.)
An answer to fundamentalism might be the way for peace. 
I guess that wars are fought when one group says "I am right; you are wrong".
An openness to ambiguity and paradox is needed to avoid that.

some new photos on line now.

http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Political.html

Political with some commentary. yes, one is also on the touristy site. Just shows you that classification is an inexact science. (Yes, that was what I studied in University many, many years ago!)

I said I would post the Armenian Genocide Poster text:

see also:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armenian_Genocide

RECOGNITION, CONDEMNATION, PREVENTION

The Armenian Genocide is a term used to designate a series of crimes and atrocities committed against the Armenian people during WW1. The events were centrally planned and administered by the Turkish government against the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire.

Between the years 1915 and 1923 the Armenian people were subjected to mass deportation from their ancestral homeland of Armenia and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkish authorities also carried out deliberate starvation of the deportees, systematic massacres along the deportation routes, and the government sanctioned rape of men, women and children as well as the forced Islamization of orphaned children.

In addition to efforts to annihilate the Armenians, the entire national wealth of the Armenian population was looted by the Turks or confiscated by Ottoman authorities through the enactment of "abandoned properties" laws applicable specifically to Armenians.

The decision to implement the crime of genocide against the Armenian people was made by the Committee of Union and Progress, also known as the Young Turks, the political party that ruled the Ottoman Empire from 1908 to 1918. In addition to avert actions of Young Turk officials with armed elements of the Ministry of War and the Ministry of the Interior, Turkish authorities created a secret outfit called the Special Organization (Teshkilati Mahsusa) whose primary functions were to carry out the deportation and mass slaughter of the Armenians.

The Turkish Nationalists between 1920 and 1923 perpetrated further massacres, expulsions, and depredations of the surviving Armenians. The Kemalist government who toppled the Young Turks and represented a new political movement, shared the common ideology of the Ottoman Empire and the Young Turks to create a new Turkey built on the ashes of over 1.5 million Armenians and their homeland that had been Armenian for the previous 3000 years.

To this day, the Turkish government has denied the genocide, and the crime remains unpunished.

APRIL 24 - THE MEMORIAL DAY OF THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE



LEGEND OF THE MAP

Red coloured circles: Relative number of Armenians massacred (exact figures are not known)

small red circle: Deportation control center

circle: Deportation concentration and annihilation centers

tiny circle: Deportation stations

Areas of greater or lesser Armenian resistance

red arrows: Major and minor deportation route

dotted arrows: Armenian and Assyrian escape routes

Blue crosses: Localities where the Constantinople Armenian intellectuals were murdered.

The Goldstone report on Gaza

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10232009/transcript3.html
An interview with Judge Richard Goldstone by Bill Moyers of pbs (Public Broadcasting Service).

He says:

Well, certainly. You know, one thing one can't say about the Israel Defense Forces is that they make too many mistakes. They're very, a sophisticated army. And if they attack a mosque or attack a factory, and over 200 factories were bombed, there's just no basis to ascribe that to error. That must be intentional.

and later:

I think it's difficult to deal equally with a state party, with a sophisticated army, with the sort of army Israel has, with an air force and a navy, and the most sophisticated weapons that are not only in the arsenal of Israel, but manufactured and exported by Israel, on the one hand, with Hamas using really improvised, imprecise armaments. So it's difficult to equate their power. But that having been said, one has to look at the actions of each. And one has to judge the criminality, or the alleged criminality, of each.

They chose 36 incidents to investigate. Israel did not cooperate at all. This interview explains some of the objections to his report.
Read it for yourself (575 pages!) from http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/specialsession/9/docs/UNFFMGC_Report.pdf
Yes, the Human Rights Council show bias. But Goldstone in his interview with Bill Moyers discusses that. He is not the kind of man to operate in a biased environment.

Hospitality and All Souls

For All Saint's All Soul's Day(s) I highly recommend Michael's blog:
http://michaelcardensjottings.blogspot.com/2009/11/all-saints-day-reflections-hospitality.html where he talks about hospitality and the queer community. I wanted to quote some but he really should be read in full. But as a taste he has in his conclusion:

"Hospitality is what makes God divine."

On All Souls day I was in Sydney celebrating Bonnie's life. She was a great friend from many years ago who was just so good at hospitality. It was a very real privilege to be at her memorial service and also to have been asked to sing. It was a song she heard me singing and she had told me last year that I was to sing it! "A new commandment I give unto you". I felt that in many ways there was a message from Bonnie herself in it that we could all hear. (I hope).

Thank you Bon, for giving me that job to do and for the great memories we have of your eight years (really only eight?) in Burra as such a wonderful neighbour.

photos

http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/Tourist.html

Some touristy photos from the trip. Larger versions are available if you email me!

I will put comments up. I found out on Thursday night as I talked after the presentation about the middle east trip, that I was thinking and reflecting even more as I told my story. It is a counselling technique to retell story and "make it thicker"; to make the rope stronger. Thank you to those who listen.

Water and Heaven and Hell

Amnesty's report on the situation of Palestinian and Israeli water resources has been summarised in Ekklesia.  Thank you to Brian for a link to this.  Last night I heard some of the statistics from Patricia. I was at the reporting back night of the tour group that went to Israel and Palestine in September. There we had heard from Rich in the Bethlehem refugee camp we went to about Israel "turning on the tap" for a few hours every week or so (or every month or so). Now Amnesty has it documented. The report is to be found at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/027/2009/en/e9892ce4-7fba-469b-96b9-c1e1084c620c/mde150272009en.pdf

The evening of reporting was wonderful with 63 people attending. Thank you to everyone! It was a good time to be telling stories and those stories need to be told. As they are told they gain strength. I told a couple of people of my wonderful time in the crowds at the Damascus Gate. I realised that I needed to go out again (this was just before Eid; a very busy time!) I could not have easily walked through the old city to the hotel. It was much quieter outside the wall. But the crowd! I saw a very large young man, an orthodox jew, going out and I walked behind him. But he could not get through. Some Palestinian workers saw him struggling and they were taking pallets out on their shoulders... they beckoned him to follow. We got through.  :-)

It seems to me that the crowds and pilgrims of three faiths are a vision of heaven. When we acknowledge one another, when we help each other, when we mill around and enjoy festivals from all over... in Jerusalem people from Indonesia, New Zealand, China, India; we all meet... it is heaven.

and we make of it a hell....

Bob Ellis on ABC "Unleashed"

wow! A Bob Ellis tirade against Confidently Asserted Untruth.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2725644.htm

a taste:

"More and more as the boat people come we see how wrong our judgments are. People who keep their children in the camps, we are told, are good people. People who try to give their children a better life in Australia are bad people. It's right for them to wait until their children are criminalised or dead in the filthy, hopeless conditions of the camps. It's wrong for them to get them to a good high school in Australia, because they have 'jumped a queue'. It's better for them to stay in Sri Lanka till their enemies kill them. That's the right thing to do.

...

We believe any family whose house burns down should get the insurance money for it, but not if the Israeli Defence Force burns it down. We believe the three hundred children killed by hostile fire in Gaza were justly killed because bad men were near them. We believe Israelis can kill bad people without bringing them to trial, though Israel is a 'democracy'. We believe Israel has a license to kill, but Arabs who try to kill Israelis are 'terrorists'. We believe Hamas should 'renounce violence' but not Israel. We believe Israel can have secret atomic bombs but not Iran."

and then of course there is the opportunity to join Bob in a rant as the comments show.. But it is good to see this being said!

gender roles and angry conservatism....

Brian's blog http://www.nottoomuch.com/pivot/entry.php?id=1843 has a comment on the Vatican's overtures to disaffected Anglican clergymen. (deliberately gender specific.) He quotes the Church Times' Editorial of 23 October 2009. One paragraph in particular caught my attention:

This much broader struggle within Christianity at first sight appears to be about sex. Throughout the world, the most easily heard tone in religion (not just Christianity) is of a generally angry conservatism. Why? I hazard that the anger centres on a profound shift in gender roles traditionally given a religious significance and validated by religious traditions. . . .

I don't think that I had actually noticed how the shift in gender roles has stirred up angry conservatism. I guess it is obvious, or at least understandable, but do we "blame" feminism for the increasing fundamentalism in so many religions? I never did take feminism seriously enough! I think that maybe it is time that I did!  :-) Thanks Brian!

Asylum seekers and A Just Australia

A Just Australia's newsletter is on line at:

http://content.enewslettersonline.com/14352/29876.html

They talk about the "déjà vu" that many of us are having in these last few weeks as the nation agonises yet again about asylum seekers coming by boat.
There is much more in the newsletter but AJA comment:

"AJA and other refugee groups have been working hard to counter the myths that are currently rife in the public arena. See AJA’s updated Myths and Facts sheet for indisputable information, facts and evidence about asylum seekers and refugees in Australia. Or read AJA’s latest media article. Although we want you to read our Myths and Facts sheet for yourself, here’s a brief summary of major points in the asylum seeker debate:

Australia’s increase in asylum seekers is a close reflection of the global increase in asylum seekers which has resulted from ongoing/increased violence and conflict in countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Australia’s recent reforms to asylum policy were desperately needed in order to respect our international human rights obligations and to return us to a situation where our values of decency and integrity were evident in our policies. A return to policies like Temporary Protection Visas and detention debts could be disastrous for the Australian psyche, let alone the wellbeing of vulnerable refugees.

The lack of protection for refugees available in most other countries in our region means that refugees from Afghanistan and Sri Lanka must travel long distances – all the way to Australia, in fact - before they have reached a country that can offer real and effective protection. In contrast, even UNHCR-registered refugees can be jailed for years in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.

Australia takes a very small number of asylum seekers, on a per-capita basis, on a GDP-average basis, or in absolute numbers, compared to most other countries.

The myth of ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ refugees is just that – a myth. By definition, a refugee is escaping a situation of real danger, even death. In such a situation, any one of us would take whatever action necessary to seek safety and to protect the lives of loved ones.

Every human has the right to seek asylum in another country. An asylum seeker has legal status under Australian and international law."

Shministim

http://www.shministim.com/ This year's graduating class in Israeli schools are now Shministim. They know what the occupation of Palestine is doing to their own country. They face ostracism and prison.

They write:

Out of sense of responsibility and concern for the two nations that live in this country, we cannot stand idle. We were born into a reality of occupation, and many of our generation see this as a “natural” state. In Israeli society it is a matter of fact that at 18, every young man and woman partakes in military service. However, we cannot ignore the truth – the occupation is an extreme situation, violent, racist, inhuman, illegal, non democratic, and immoral, that is life threatening for both nations. We that have been brought up on values of liberty, justice, righteousness and peace cannot accept it.

The Shministim Letter 2009-2010
Is inspired by generations of conscientious objectors in Israel and around the world,
who opposed their governments by saying: "We will not fight your wars! We object to being enemies!"

Just how big is Australia???

A bit scary. Check out the map at http://www.rsf.org/en-ennemi33177-Australia.html When the whole continent is greyed out, Australia really does make its mark on the world map. This is not a map of which we want to be a part though!

It comes from Reporters without borders. I was interested to check our rating. It is good and has improved a lot over the last five years. But we are being watched along with Malaysia, Belarus... as potential "enemies of the internet". Those ranks already include Iran and China. I haven't participated in any of the internet actions against the "net nanny" push. But seeing that big grey spot on the globe makes me gulp!


For action about this use GetUp!

Issues

And now for something entirely different. (although sorting of photos is continuing here.)

Issues are crowding in upon me.

Palestine and reflecting on the journey... Women in Black are having trouble getting vigils on Friday and I have not gone in since returning. I think that the Jerusalem women need to be supported with our vigils and the solidarity that offers.
I did not write a letter to the editor responding to people who were responding to Avigail. I did not want to be drawn into their agendas, or answer the questions that their attitudes raise. I need to write my own story; tell the stories that I saw and heard in Palestine (West Bank and East Jerusalem).

Issues about environment and global warming loom large and Fred went to a session on bulk buying of solar panels with local faith communities this week. I need to let Solartec know that we are home so that our ordered extra panels can be installed! :) The welcome rain that is still falling means that more fuel will grow before a potentially disasterous fire season starts.

My church is an inclusive, accepting church; my god especially so. A god who "consorts with sinners and taxpayers." John Bell has a lovely story about the prostitutes and tarts in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus. Much of the October Changing Attitude blog has comment about two important statements this week from bishops. Peter Selby and Jack Spong both speak.write about the process of the debate. It is time to say that it is over. (For Bp Spong at least!) There is a lot in those October comments by Colin. Anglicans need to read especially about the covenant and perhaps also comments about the Archbishop of Canterbury. It's not easy, but some things need to be said.

Australian politics has been enlivened this week by the sad story of Sri Lankan asylum seekers caught now in Indonesia. Malcolm Fraser has chided the coalition for "scratching the redneck nerve". It has certainly been scratched. Senator Hanson Young has visited Christmas Island detention centre and returned with scathing criticism. I have work to do here too.

But today was a joy and a wonder. I spent the day at the Wesley Centre's Third National Seminar on Word and Music in Worship. A breath of fresh air for me (and my lungs) but still echoes of the "bawling" that came when I was listening to the South African anthemn in the aeroplane a little over a week ago. "I will sing the Lord's song until justice comes into this land" was the motto of the Imologue Kantu choir of South Africa. I daresay they still need to be singing that song. Today we heard of the importance of singing justice; saying justice. It then becomes possible; imperative; to think and do justice. Amen.

Home

Home, and, it would seem, to work! I am intending to have a period to reflect, but then diaconal work impinges. Avigail wrote a letter to the editor about Israel which was responded to yesterday (11th October). People seem to think that everything is fine and dandy in Palestine. I don't think that 12 days in occupied territory (and Nazareth, an Arab Israeli city) gives me much knowledge, but we were privileged in the people whom we met as a group, as well as the contacts made individually. It was a huge experience. (and I have looked up "kabod"; often translated as "glorious" when applied to god. Sometimes just heavy or strong, but, as I said, often with the weightiness of authority and position.)

But there is other work too. The RAC web site needed to have a response to tonight's news bulletin and the Prime Minister sounding harsh. http://www.refugeeaction.org/index.html  At least looking for Avigail's letter (not found) a letter from Pamela Curr came up about the Siev 36; the boat that exploded on Ashmore Reef. That is worth reading. http://tinyurl.com/ylp4vac

And the photos. Always the photos. They are gradually being sorted. Some might soon come here as soon as I can get them onto the web somewhere.

In the meantime pilgrimages change you; I don't want to return to life as it was. There are other tasks beckoning. But the experience of an Old City being squashed by a burgeoning modern one, which includes squashing the people who live and work there, is hard to ignore. That most Palestinians do not have problems with check points is only because most of them (95%) cannot use them. What would life be like for me if I couldn't just pop over the boundary into the ACT? No coffee at Tilley's, no contact with friends... life would be so strange and different.

We heard stories of the intimidation and humiliation of going through Israeli border controls. I kept too quiet and compliant when challenged myself. But I wanted, needed to hang on to my camera (literally); and the paranoid soldier who thought I was taking photos of her couldn't, wouldn't understand that the images I saw as we went through the previous check point really were strange. There is no other reality for so many young Israelis. But the UK in the seventies was not this paranoid. IRA bombs were going off in London, street corners were barricaded off, I waited a few hours before the train could get into Inverness because of a bomb threat; I travelled through Afghanistan, then Pakistan and India just after their war; and on the 29th September 2009 I saw a check point where vehicles were stopped in long queues, rudely told when and where to go, and checked for bombs; soldiers walking around with guns (not so unusual in Israel); somehow it seemed surreal and strange. And cried out to be photographed.

Sorry, but in Pakistan in 1971 when I saw a Post Office with sand bags around it I wondered when the floods had been through. I was young and innocent. I am now 60 years old, still a stupid Australian; but not without a knowledge of the world.
Israel is paranoid. I agree with my friend Avigail.

If you want to live near Shechem, go and get Palestinian citizenship! Daniel Barenboim has it!

There, I have sort of told that story. I wasn't arrested; the rest of the group weren't questioned; being taken outside and questioned while I was busy deleting offending photos didn't hold up the group; (immigration still takes time!) Fortunately there was an older man who had a clearer head. And I still have the camera, just minus some good photos and a record of a boring border crossing. (unlike the one coming into Israel which was so chaotic that taking photos was the last thing on my mind!)

Homeward Bound

Now at Heathrow and heading home. Strange tonight getting a wheelchair to this lounge I am in at the moment. Yes I can walk, yes, I can use the stairs, but yes, I need a wheel chair... in which case, I can't travel in the bubble upstairs in the plane, because I need a wheel chair! <sigh>

If you are disabled, then you are disabled... totally. There isn't room for thin myelin sheaths that stop axons working once they get hot!

But it has been a good trip.

Canterbury today was the last pilgrimage. But it is a place of tourists. Difficult to find a chapel for quiet prayer. Loudly interrupted at 1pm to be reminded to pray! Most people did stop and they were quiet. Many altars without crosses. And the windows are not Chartres. (But the new windows were better than the new twentieth century ones in Chartres.)

Time to be at home and tie up the ragged edges that have been exposed by this travel.

England!

made it (just) to the UK! very hairy scary crossing of the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge.

Fascinating plane trip from Amman. will tell all later

Pilgrimages change you. tis true. I felt the weight of all the pilgrims before me. It is heavy, but also like "kabod". weighty, with gravitas; it is an attribute of god.

more later

in Palestine (2nd try)

What do I say? Where do I start?
This really is a trip into Palestine. Jericho and the Mountain of Temptation on Tuesday; I was sensible and stayed in the car park drinking ornge juice freshly squeezed and eating ice cream. The view of the monastery was good from there anyway! It was just like Rocamadour; a monastery just perched on a cliff... but no touristy pilgrim things to play with. The climb up for the others was not rewarded either. The gates were locked.

So I guess I felt a little smug even if I was feeling a bit hot.

I later learned the temperature was forty two! As bad as it had been in the Kimberley four years ago.

We returned to Jericho and there it was: The tell, the walls, the trenches. I had to see this archaeology! I went up onto Kathleen Kenyon's trench. but it was getting hot; legs were starting to go. I moved over to an explanatory board; the others were leaning over, looking at Kathleen's excavation. I could not go over... I started the return journey. The group overtook me. Doug's shoulder came to my aid; then Chris'; John took the double walking stick; Erica already had my bag. I was fortunate, my friends somehow got me down. At the end I bumped down the steps on my bum and was wheeled across the car park on an office chair!

so I stayed in the airconditioned mini bus at the Dead Sea resort and also at Qumran...
I should have written about brokenness in a retreat; about The Wall and Bethlehem; about Ramallah, today; and Sabeel... but my mind is confused, exhilarated and in turmoil. The best blog will probably be written at home.

later: Saturday night... it really was the heat; things are going a lot smoother now. it is getting close to the end and we are all tired. We were in Galilee today and returning to Jerusalem for Yom Kippur.

Jerusalem

well, let's just try before, before we go to Jerusalem!

 

Petra was quite an experience.

 

Realising that going down the Siq was impossible I took the horse drawn cart option.  Chris Ledger and I bumped our way down and the poor horse did an amazing job! so then we gazed upon the Treasury building and I took a camel to see a little bit further! yes, there is an animal welfare organisation ensuring the animals welfare. Reading the paper though, no one ensures that the boys who have to work with the animals can get to school and learn to read.

 

 

then on Friday 18th September. taxis to the Allenby Bridge. It is a very steep drop down into the Jordan Valley. eventually we got through to sitting on the bus to go over the bridge. The man who had difficulty walking turned out to have MS. The Indonesian family might have been coming back from Mecca; my tiny bit of Indonesian was useful. The woman beside me was returning to Nablus for the first time in 15 years. She can do that now because she now has a USA passport....

 

and there we all were crammed into a totally disorganised and chaotic situation on the Israeli side... suitcases over here; with assports on top! Passports disappear; wait; will we ever see them again?

 

 

yes we did, to go to another area, another queue.... "fearless leader" was quizzed: are you going to the West Bank? ... yes, he says; Jerusalem! ummm, not quite the right answer; but eventually we are through and a mini bus taxi brings us here.

 

Our first experience of what it is like to get through check points...

 

Then we re in the old city, in Knights Palace Hotel and recovered enough to explore! the crowded alleys and amazing things... It takes the breath away. Unfortunately it also took my legs away, so Chris and  I peeled off and returned up the Via Dolorosa. slowly. very slowly.

 

today was another MSsey day. I stayed behid and walked down the outside of the wall to the Damascus Gate. What an amazing crowd and celebration! fInal preparation for Eid... more later

 

 

 

Apostrophes and keyboards

and let me comment too on the french keyboard I am using. M is in a different spot, so is A... I noticed one error there. As for apostrophes, I cant find one unless it is uner 4' yep.... under the 4. so now you can criticize my grammar. What will an Arabic keyboard have???? (Linda)

 

I woiuld send this to Brian if I could. I couldn't make a comment on his blog tonight about apostrophes!

 

The Cantal, a pilgrimage

Today I said farewell to St Bonnet de Salers and went through much of the countryside on the train up to Cler,ont Ferrand and thence over much flat land to Paris. The flatter and drier the country becomes the more Australians crop up!

 

But this country around Salers and Mauriac have shown Fred and me much more than bricollage and Brico Marché shops. (do it yourself plumbing à là Fyshwick!)

 

It has been sad to farewell Anthony and Dany and all of Greg and Wendys friends. Here is a land and the people of the land... they are not all locals. Some come from the Dordogne; some greet with four, not three kisses; but it is a land and its people that we have been amongst for two weeks. Fred returns later in the week to do more work. 

 

On Friday we joined with the tourists in the Dordogne; at the huge chasm of Grouffre Padiraic and in Rocamadour. Rocamadour was a pilgrimage centre and it is now continuing much of that tradition as a tourism centre; selling fine arts and crafts and hospitality. Its just the spiritual feeding which is perhaps missing! or something... perhaps the missing bit is why we all gather at these places; like flocks of hungry birds....

 

now I need to find out where Women in Black meet in Jerusalem! I did not write it down... (sigh)

quickly from the Auvergne

Just checking that this still is working!

sorry not to have been in much contact but I think that all amail has now been checked out and perhaps replied to!

I am surrounded by green! still huge blue skies with wonderful sunsets! and ancient towns and modern people. Enjoying meeting many of G & Ws friends and listening in to French conversations (with a bit of franglais thrown in)

Fred is working hard on the barn. We have had our travellers illness, hope that is all there is!

Been out of contact with news for most of the time! a real change from a previous life!

au 'voir!

Arrived in Stoke Newington in London! I am reading both Harry Potter and Terry Pratchett... it is an interesting mixture. ...we are with Melissa in London in a flat above the pub that feels like we are in a house boat! It is floating on the brew downstairs or the London mud, or is it just Pratchett imaginings going wild? Wizards toppling walls and floors... it is a lathe and plaster construction with wild, and awake, floorboards!

So tomorrow The Eurostar, and Paris awaits.

musings before we leave

The excitement and the work are crowding in. No French done tonight. But Women in Black still, tomorrow. Last Sunday I had to get my pen out while Ray was preaching.

He was doing the last of three sermons on the liturgy, the communion service. They are available now from http://www.stphilipsoconnor.org.au/sermons_index.html (Download Word doc from that page.)

But communion; it makes us family; we eat together... now the "Anglican communion" needs a covenant to make us family. do we? Do we need anything else other than that statement that we will take communion together? What does it mean that we do not? Such is the scandal of the broken communion between various christian groups. Always there are those who will judge, there are those who are not welcome.

And this week too, looking at the various groups that are increasingly out of communion in the Anglican church I heard another familiar theme. "We are the victims"... to me it comes from people whom I perceive as having the power and using it unwisely. But perhaps there is something more here. Are we all victims in a war, in an argument? It is only after one side has won that they can say they were the victims and responding to aggressive action on the part of the other. There is probably a whole academic field on this. The science of mediation and conflict resolution.

But last week Australian ABC TV audiences saw news from Sderot; there are still rockets being fired from Gaza and we had a long essay in the effect that they have on the people of this area. Yes, victims, but...

ABC did not show Gaza. (a later story was about vacation summer schools teaching young boys to be terrorists though.)

We are all victims, but that means we do not, cannot act.

Anglicans need to talk to one another. Break bread with one another. Take communion together.

If there is an impassable gulf between people, then it needs to be bridged. not easy; not comfortable. (Taiwan's suffering in last week's cyclone shows us that.)

and to be a bridge means to be walked over and stretched. pulled every which way.

that is something to which we could all aspire perhaps.

may you be pulled and stretched and walked over!

Stuff ups

A post on Michael's blog perhaps cuts through some of the issues that have been troubling me. One state or two state solution in Israel and Palestine; and the Anglican church division.
He has some thoughts on human brokenness at:
http://michaelcardensjottings.blogspot.com/2009/08/some-thoughts-on-human-brokenness.html
and concludes:

Perhaps then a key way of reading the biblical texts for the purposes of liberation is to explore the way they reveal us, reflect us in our frailties, our vulnerabilities, our brokenness. And not to condemn either but to understand, to empathise, yes, to love.

Mary told me of this interview on Palestine "one state solution" at http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5723 I can see problems and realities here.

And an address by Bishop Lawrence at http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/24779/ confused me. (I admit my brain and my body is (yes it is a singular)  not working well at the moment.) I count myself as an angry anglican when the covenant is discussed but there is something missing in this defence of the anglican way that would still exclude me, my parish and my friends. Somehow Michael's post on brokenness says it. There is a human brokenness that needs to be acknowledged.

We have stuffed up, all of us, from Sharon to Arafat, from Akinola to Schori, we have a broken world to live in.

together.

thank god.

Angry Anglicans

http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2009/08/angry-anglicans.html

Anglicans and a covenant

I don't take a lot of notice of how the church organises itself these days. I am not on Synod, or even Parish Council. It is like the freedom of being sixty. I don't need to know. It is a freedom I relish.
Except that other people make the decisions!

I remember fondly that Canon Laurie Murchison (may his name be forever remembered), told us at All Saint's and St Mark's that the fundamental unit of governing the church was the diocese. (governance was not a word in use then,) The diocese (and its Synod) was where the decisions were made. Later on in my life I discovered Provincial Synods and Primates.

But a covenant to keep "the communion" together; this comment worth reading is from Pluralist:
http://pluralistspeaks.blogspot.com/2009/08/thirteen-unsure.html He stirs my unease. We are in communion, because we take communion at each other's tables. We break bread together.

As Pluralist says:

Here is my 'but', and it is as if these organisations do not yet get it. It is this:

We will work to ensure that if the Church of England is to sign up to the Covenant, it has potential for rapid progress on this and other issues.

No! Work to ensure the Church of England does not sign up to the Covenant. The Covenant is no good for anyone interested in Anglican flexibility and the inclusion of all its people liturgically and in ministry. If you sign the Covenant, you get the two track approach at the very least, which this joint statement rightly rejects. It would mean having to defy the Covenant and linking up with those Churches that are more flexible, which would not be possible structurally in the Church of England. Also if the Covenant fails in the Church of England, it means it won't constrain other parts of Anglicanism either, except those Churches that want to draw up agreements with others (and nothing surely wrong with that - part of the decentralised or confederal way of doing things).

as I say, he is worth reading.

Mystery

Colin Coward has this quote in the Changing Attitude blog.
http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2009/08/cloud-of-unknowing-living-with-mystery.html

The way Henry Morgan speaks reminds me of a favourite quote of my fathers from HG Wells which was something about the larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder... This paragraph seems to say much the same, but adds that touch of change and shift. As the trip approaches, it seems to me that I need to ponder this mystery some more!

The Revd Henry Morgan writes that:

“... what humankind will ever know is but a small island among a vast sea of unknowing and mystery, The edges of the island will shift as new things are learnt and old things are forgotten, but mystery remains huge and overwhelming and touches us everywhere, wherever we look.”

"I don’t even know very much about God. God by definition is beyond our knowing: a vast, silent emptiness. We may sense God’s presence from time to time. We may believe that Jesus has shown us something of his nature, sufficient of God’s nature, even. But, in another sense, however true that may be, God will always remain beyond our knowing.”

“So, maybe we could usefully learn to approach all of life with a sense of mystery, wonder and reverence. It might usefully teach us a little humility.”

[The God You Already Know, pp95-96]

The Pentatonic Scale (some links)

http://gimundo.com/videos/view/a-singing-science-experiment/

A video that music teachers should see. (hence the email to radford not home!)

something for a student concert perhaps? But who can jump around like this man?

This is another site for the exercise freaks amongst us:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9ccp8_bachduo_music

then there is the Sound of Music in Antwerp (ideas for larger groups)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

Posting photos on blog

Patricia wants photos in the blog. And there is a new camera in the house, a dinky little one that isn't too small for my clumsy fingers.
A Lumix Panasonic. So I have been taking photos of flowers and birds.

the Daphne at St Philips is blooming and wondrous to smell!
('O taste and see' was in the psalm on Sunday.)

Caruso (I think this is her) waiting for some muesli.

This is a bit difficult. I will only be able to do it when at home. Obviously I am missing something! (Probably a Picasa account!)

Antony Loewenstein's blog

http://antonyloewenstein.com

unlike this blog, Antony's is very focussed on Palestine and Israel. An Australian Jewish contribution to the debate. You can also hear Antony discussing these issues on Late Night Live on Thursday 6th August 2009. Hear or download the segment from http://www.abc.net.au/rn/latenightlive/stories/2009/2648169.htm

For the sixtyfourth time....

Reflections on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Our World

by Frida Berrigan

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/04

The Death Count

In Hiroshima, Little Boy's huge fireball and explosion killed 70,000 to 80,000 people instantly. Another 70,000 were seriously injured. As Joseph Siracusa, author of Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction, writes: "In one terrible moment, 60% of Hiroshima... was destroyed. The blast temperature was estimated to reach over a million degrees Celsius, which ignited the surrounding air, forming a fireball some 840 feet in diameter."

Three days later, Fat Man exploded 1,840 feet above Nagasaki, with the force of 22,000 tons of TNT. According to "Hiroshima and Nagasaki Remembered," a web resource on the bombings developed for young people and educators, 286,000 people lived in Nagasaki before the bomb was dropped; 74,000 of them were killed instantly and another 75,000 were seriously injured.

Electricity

We produce electricity and supply it to the grid. (and at the times we don't produce from our photovoltaic cells, the grid supplies to us.)

Some of the details are on my web site at http://members.pcug.org.au/~lindafrd/

The company (Country Energy) charges a service availability charge which means that we need to produce nearly 4 Kilowatts every day to pay that cost. Then of course we need to produce enough to pay for the appliances that we use. Since our usage is close to 4 KWs, an average production of 8 KWs will be our break even point. (which means "free electricity"). More than that and we become producers and actually get paid! :-)

so, yes, we are producers; but it is a fine line. (average production is 8.37KW over the year says Fred.)

Speaking differently into this world:

A sermon from Jeremy Pemberton ...about the Archbishop of Canterbury's Reflection on General Convention. Preached in Southwell Minster on Sunday 2nd August 2009. The full sermon is found on the Changing Attitude blog at http://changingattitude-england.blogspot.com/2009/08/sermon-preached-last-sunday-in.html
Will it ever be "possible for the church to find a way to speak differently into this world"? The sermon concludes:

"Paul wanted an extraordinary quality of relationship – a unity that transcended their differences – to characterise the way the Christians of Ephesus grew together. No one is imagining, certainly not him, that this was easy. Forbearance is one of the qualities he singles out to achieve this, and humility and gentleness. We face a world of sexual living that is very very different to the world of fifty years ago. I wonder if it would be possible for the church to find a way to speak differently into this world and encourage the qualities of living that will lead people, heterosexual and homosexual alike, towards the fullness of life that God wants for them. But that is, perhaps, only possible if we exercise a forbearance, a gentleness and a humility that so far the official pronouncements of our church have been unable to get anywhere near.

Jesus said, in everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets. Matt 7:12

May God give us grace to exercise gentleness and forbearance, and to welcome one another as Christ has welcomed us. Amen."

another gay hate crime?

The Independent reports on the Tel Aviv shootings
http://trc1.emv2.com/HS?a=A9X7CqnkUzEk8Xnaxq18U_7iaA

Nir Katz remembered as a caring volunteer.
The 26yr old killed in the Tel Aviv shooting on the weekend was volunteering at the youth club which had been targeted by the gunman.
I post these links because the news here in Australia didn't even identify the club as a youth club. The other victim (Liz Tarabushi) was sixteen.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1104771.html

Ha'aretz has a lot of comment on this incident.
Police are following leads, and can't call it a hate crime. (The law can't do that. They have their job to do.)

Ian Thorpe beyond sport

A Eureka Street article:
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=15360

Ian spoke at in the UK  at the Beyond Sport Summit in early July.

His speech (well worth a read) is on crikey.com
http://www.crikey.com.au/2009/07/23/ian-thorpe-australias-dirty-little-secret/

(Ian's foundation is
http://www.ianthorpesfountainforyouth.com.au/)

and a quick response to what he is saying might be to sign an open letter to visiting United Nations Human Rights Rapporteur, Professor James Anaya.
After his visit, he will be providing the UN Human Rights Council with a report on his assessment of human rights in Australia.
The Australian government will be expected to respond.
http://antar.cmail3.com/t/y/l/kjjla/hykujultd/j

The grace of salvation

The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Katherine Jefferts Schori on grace and salvation.
(With thanks to Brian at http://www.nottoomuch.com/)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IxG96wpx60&feature=player_embedded

It would seem that Bishop Katherine is avoiding the cobwebs and dust in the corridors of power!

Climate Action (sign the Climate petition)

This petition is to be submitted to Ban Ki Moon at the Copenhagen Summit in December 2009.

At
http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/

http://www.sealthedeal2009.org/petition/
The Climate Petition
"We the Peoples of the World Urge Political Leaders to:

Seal the Deal at COP 15 on a climate agreement that is definitive, equitable and effective.
Set binding targets to cut greenhouses gases by 2020.
Establish a framework that will bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable countries and protect lives and livelihoods
Support developing countries' adaptation efforts and secure climate justice for all."

(7,206 signatures so far)

A prayer for inclusive worship

from Derick:
All-loving God, we thank you for the Good News of your love for us.
Help us to resist building walls around the Gospel -
walls to make us safe, walls to exclude others.
Give us the vision to break down every barrier that divides us
from one another and from you.

ACT Carbon Emissions

On radio (666) talkback this morning a caller asked why the focus on households, rather than asking governments and business to reduce their emissions?

Yes, but this is where we can reduce. We are in control of our own consumption. Take the power! Yes we Can!

(and the best way to save emissions is not to use what emits it.)

in The Canberra Times today:

"The ACT Greenhouse Inventory, compiled by environmental consultants Pitt & Sherry, found Canberra's greenhouse emissions have increased at an average annual rate of 1.7 per cent since 2000. The national average increase during the same period was 0.7 per cent." http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/local/news/general/canberra-doubles-carbon-use/1575732.aspx?src=enews

Is it Israel or Palestine?

checking email I find this link and essay: http://mondoweiss.net/2009/07/tema-okun.html

Tema Okun writes:
I am a Jew. I am a religious Jew. I am an anti-Zionist Jew. I realize that to make this last claim is to risk that you will stop reading, as often any claim of anti-Zionism brings with it a label of traitor, anti-Semite, self-hating Jew. I hope, however, that you will give me the benefit of the doubt, at least for the few minutes that it will take you to read what I have to say."

July 20, 2009

This is well worth reading. It is a small essay and easy to read compared with Yakov Rabkin's book "Jewish Opposition to Zionism". (yes, I am hoping to have finished this before the trip to Palestine/Israel in September) There are also many comments which are useful to read.

Other links I chased up tonight include a very solid review of Prof Rabkin's book at http://www.counterpunch.org/neumann06052006.html by Michael Neumann. in which he writes:

"Professor Yakov Rabkin offers us an unusual book. It is not history, because it does not present a narrative of Jewish opposition to Zionism, nor a systematic analysis of its causes and development. It is not polemic--though Rabkin's sympathies are clear, he presents the arguments of others far more than his own. It has too much anecdote and too many vignettes to count as philosophy; it is too philosophical to count as politics or sociology."

And there is more on the Ha'aretz site at: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerGuest.jhtml?itemNo=796902 It is interesting to see a how the internet can foster discussion and exchange of ideas (not just the "comments", this is discussion.)

Canberra's Carbon Footprint

Canberra's carbon footprint:

We all knew it was bad, but...
Will the new consumer push to buy fabulous things like photovoltaics change this?
Somehow I think there is a need for a whole new way of thinking. I'm not sure that I am there yet at all!

in today's Canberra Times:

ACT's housing density falling

BY JOHN THISTLETON BUSINESS EDITOR

21/07/2009 7:02:00 AM

Housing densities in Canberra are falling, not rising, according to urban management expert Brian Roberts.

An emeritus professor at the University of Canberra,"

...

"His research found Canberra was one of Australia's most expensive cities to run in terms of electricity, kilometres travelled by car and the cost of doing business.

Professor Roberts has found the urban envelope of Australian cities is expanding at 3.3 per cent per annum, well ahead of population growth, which is running at 1.6 per cent per annum.

He said that annual vehicle kilometres per person had totalled 2850 in Canberra in 2002. By 2020 vehicle person kilometres would increase 25 per cent to 3550..."

testing address and web sites links

needing to test address so fiddling again; this is from my gmail email linda.anchell AT gmail.com

and the three main web sites I maintain (sometimes) are  these three

http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/ [my home page; I am slow to update these days]
http://www.refugeeaction.org/index.html Refugee Action Committee Canberra, also slow recently (mid 2009)
http://www.stphilipsoconnor.org.au/ usually updated every week when I am taking my pills! slowly coming along.

My apologies to later comers; I would normally delete this post but will keep it in while travelling.

a quick test

testing the mailing facility. This could lead to too much garrulousness though! beware!

This is the beginning; the start; first words; forewords...

This is the start, the beginning... Confusion reigns; ..

But why blog? I already have a home page. (http://members.tip.net.au/~lindafrd/) But it is languishing. Not that it is difficult to load, but I hand code the html and methinks I am getting older!

But the first reason for this blog is the imminent trip to France and Israel and Palestine. (and Jordan and UK) (September 2009)

I might at least post some comments during that endeavour. I hope my brain will be refreshed and will see the world with new eyes during that time!