caribleaper

Irritations and the Limits of Tolerance

2010-02-27T16:07:00.004Z

My present work dictates the need to travel regularly around the UK. Some of my most interesting conversations have been those with taxi drivers. They range from incisive observations on politics and politicians, strong reasonable views on religion, to anger at the downward spiralling and breakdown of a variety of aspects related to propriety and community life. Many of the taxi-drivers I have journeyed with on my short trips from train station or airport to venues for meetings have been helpful, courteous, friendly and wise people. Sometimes, I think that the views they express on religion, politics and culture would do some of us a whole heap of good to listen to!

There are, however, a number of instances with taxis and taxi-drivers that have left me with much irritation. I find it irritating when taxis do all sorts of acrobatic bobbing and weaving through the traffic, rushing through pedestrian crossings and rarely wanting to give way to other vehicles. I know they make a living from it, but that is no excuse for being discourteous. It is also irritating when a booked taxi turns up, keep their car engine running, remain seated in their vehicle and expect you to open the boot of the vehicle to place your luggage in. Then after all that effort to get into the taxi and then having to help some of them find on the map where you want to get to – even though you have never been to the place before.

One recent example where my sense of tolerance was tested to its limit, happened on the way from a meeting to a railway station in a large city in Britain. Three of us joined a taxi we pre-booked. The greeting from the driver was more like a grunt. And while trying to fix a seat belt that was not properly “releasing” to hook up at the other end, I was shouted at to pull it gently. I felt like a schoolboy! Still it did not work and the driver continued his rudeness in shouting instructions my way. I eventually gave up. Upon reaching our destination, the rudeness continued as he demanded that we must have the exact fare, claiming he was not a cash machine (you would at least expect him to have change). By then my other colleagues were also much worked up; but the more patient one among us decided she was going to pay, and then proceeded to take out all her coins and leisurely started to count them, with us chipping in. Later she explained that the driver was so rude that she deliberately wanted to find the exact amount by taking as long as she could to do so. It later transpired that he was hoping we would not have been able to muster up the exact amount and would leave him a full ten pounds (when the fare was only metered for £6.30). We agreed that this was the rudest taxi driver we have ever met – a total let down in comparison to the other wonderful ones we have met!

The incident got me thinking about the many other instances of recent when I got irritated. These seem to be increasing! For instance, it is irritating to purchase an espresso coffee at a train station and then having your drink poured in a large coffee cup, struggling to down it with your whole face in the cup and head flipped all the way back as If you are either in a pub or trying to swallow the paper cup! The other irritating thing is usually at some supermarket checkouts: being rushed through to get your purchases in your rucksack and then after paying, either having your card or change piled up together and handed back to you, with no time to sort anything out, before the purchases of others push you off the checkout point. Why can’t I be handed my card/change first and then my receipt? And why can’t some supermarkets give their cashiers basic guidelines about the importance of the customer?

The list of my irritations is quite long and may be pointing more to my impatience, shortcomings, and unrealistic expectations. Thank God, for grace! I cannot help wondering, however, why we easily accept behaviours that diminish our sense of humanness and what it means to be people in community. Or why are we so hestiant to even to name some of unhelpful behaviours and discourteous practices around us? What should I do with my commitment to respect, tolerance and values when these irritations keep piling up day after day? Should I stop buying espresso coffee from these shops? Should I stop travelling with such taxi-drivers (as noted above)? Should I find supermarkets where the customer calls the shot? Or should I just stop moaning, take all the crap and get on with life? And if I wish, how and where do I express my views in a way that will not smack of arrogance and intolerance?

Just-living, morality and the common good - are all pushing us to agree that there must be some core vision or values to help us operate with civility and in constructive ways. What I perceive from my irritations may be more than personal. There is something larger – a moral vacuum – only partially reflected in some of these small irritations. Something is wrong with us! Perhaps, there is a need to re-discover the habit of generous magnanimity that will move beyond being tolerant, that is, tolerance that is only about putting up with each other. Tolerance is not a private matter: it should part and parcel of our public lives. There is a need for us to challenge each other in an effort to live core values that put people, relationships and the common good first -over our selfish proclivities!

Dissecting Lies and Trafficking Truth

2010-02-14T21:54:00.007Z

Try doing online search related to “lies” or “world of lies” and you will be surprised by the number of hits you are directed to. We live and float in worlds of deception. “Lies” seem to become so common-place that we are not surprised when the deceptions around us are uncovered. Truth, it seems, does not make us free as we are fearful of the consequences.

Recent developments on the UK’s public square and in our political system bring to the fore – questions about truth and truth-bearers. The Iraq War Inquiry, the case of the torture of a British subject and our government’s complicity, the corrupt financial practices of some of our politicians, the case of huge kickbacks for arms contract, all highlight the web of lies and deception which we have been subjected to by public servants and corporate functionaries. Indeed, the cynics among us may wish to give up on any sense of fairness, justice, fair-play and good old propriety. Redemption, however, may be located in the fact that an inquiry is going on, some politicians are before the Courts and it is through a sense of justice that our government’s complicity in the torture of one of its own citizen has been revealed.

It seems as if we do not need a war to “make truth the first casualty”. Wanting to stay in power, greed and the art of deception are just as good enough reasons to nail truth to the stake. From current evidence one is reasonably led to deduce a pattern for most governments: when confronted with specific claims of injustice – their tendency is respond with generic denials drowning the real issue in polemics and deflections. In the case of the charge related to torture, forget the legality for a moment and concentrate on the ethical issue: how can the UK government confront the abuse of human rights around the world, if its own hands are bloody? With what integrity can we speak?

In our postmodern world, when facts and situations are manipulated by the powerful for their benefit and as means towards their own selfish ends, then it becomes challenging and difficult to rehabilitate confidence in integrity, justice and the systems we have in place to ensure law and order and the building of the common good.

As we follow parliamentary debates, watch the proceedings of the Iraq War Inquiry, and listen to bankers and “corpo-crats” defend their patches – we can sense and locate the lies. Sometimes, I try imagining what it would be like if we are all wired up to a set of traffic lights, where green will signal I am telling what I honestly believe to be the truth (though it may only be my perception of truth); where yellow will point to some truth but that which I am not wholly sincere about; and where red means that what I am saying is blatant lie and that people should read the opposite as truth. Others may suggest that a lie detector may also serve the purpose!

With the upcoming elections in the UK and the promises, arguments and counter arguments bombarding the public, this may not be a bad idea. I am already imagining how the traffic lights will be flitting back and forth from red to yellow, with few rare moments of green coming to our rescue!

Exclusion and Border Control: Rediscovering Protest

2010-02-07T19:38:00.004Z

More of us (including myself) need to urgently get involved in protest movements. I mean actively protesting, as generations in the not so distant past have done and as some dedicated groups continue to do. There are so many things to protest against that we really need joined up thinking in our protest strategies (to ward off protest fatigue) against the many manifestations of evil taking hold of institutions that ought to work for our common good.

One modern incarnation of evil that comes across as necessary for our own protection is that of the institution called the UK Border and Agency (UKBA). Now, I am of the view that every country has the right to monitor and control movements in and out of its space. Notwithstanding, I would have to be very desperate to be working for such a body whose ethics and operations rarely seem to display a sense of what is human in carrying out its task of monitoring movement to, from and within the UK. This does not mean that morally good people cannot work with such an institution. I would, however, find it difficult to rationalise any semblance of a moral reason for wanting to be part of a structure that in my view lies, dehumanises people (read their reports to see how people are represented as statistics) and displays racist tendencies, as a recent whistle-blower has revealed. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/south_east/8496759.stm]

We are informed that from January 6th skilled workers outside of fortress EU became another group to need biometric identity cards in order to extend their stay in the UK. By 2011 all foreign nationals will have to possess an identity card with digital photos and fingerprints on it – along with loads of other information about the person. All the fingerprinting and digital photos will then be stored on the National Biometric Identity Store costing taxpayers about £265 pounds. Imagine how this could have helped to alleviate poverty right here in the UK and do some good work making us a more “civil” society!

Think of the possibility of errors, the improper use of large amounts of info about an individual which will be shared across borders and groups and the likely possibility of tampering/stealing of identities. Besides, all of this will make data protection look like a joke! However, the real issue at the heart of all of this is the designed ways we are using to justify a certain logic of exclusion that will result in more racism and more non-Caucasian looking people having to prove that they are actually British – born and bred here. Going through the window would be any compassion for people who are really in need or the recognition of peoples skills and gifts. There is a theological issue here that people of faiths may wish to consider: If citizenship and immigration status are the governing principles around how we understand hospitality and what kind of hospitality we can offer, then we have degenerated into such depths that our humanness is at risk. It is certainly a reflection of how impoverished and insecure we have become – all signs of an imploding society.

And, lest we believe that this is only a matter that will be affecting “undesirables" from our shores, we would do well to remember that it is only a matter of time before the surveillance will take over the lives of all of us. Service providers are already involved in verifying who are in their employment, as imagined fears continue to drive us to believe that this will make our country and our lives safer. The irony is that we (for instance the church) will end up doing the state’s dirty business of monitoring all who are working for them and then to all those attend our churches or are using our premises. The likelihood that surveillance would take over our lives is a reasonable deduction given that most of us seem to have relapsed into a servile habit. As one writer puts it (writing in a different context): “We have become so accustomed to being administered and managed by official power that many in our society have no other principle of motion than oscillation between impulse on the one hand and external control on the other, without much of an inner core of self-direction in between. The classical Greeks called this condition “servility”.” [Kenneth Minogue in Standpoint (July-August 2009), p.69]

Are we able to counter this force and kick the habit of servility? We are in danger of losing all the “freedoms” so many others have fought dearly for! Or to paraphrase Heidegger: “Has everything been already decided for us, so that nothing is left worth discussing or more appropriately worth protesting against?”

Spirit Upsets NASA – Theology Lessons

2010-01-28T17:12:00.006Z

Last year February one of my blogs was on the Mars Rover – aptly named Spirit - and the opportunities it allowed me to play with some elusive theological ideas. You will recall that the Mars Rover was launched in 2004 and when it reached its destination the news caption was Spirit has landed! Perhaps, they should have added: Beware – life will never be the same again!

It must be co-incidence, for Spirit is again in the news (if you had time to notice among BBC’s list of numerous news items). This time the mighty and brainy experts of NASA have conceded defeat to free or release Spirit from its Martian sand-trap. As one key expert puts it: "Spirit has encountered a golfer's worst nightmare - the sand trap that no matter how many strokes you take, you can't get out of it." Well, the world’s number one golfer would be unable to help, as he is presently going through therapy for his apparent sex addiction!

Spirit is hopelessly stuck or perhaps just having its own free mind or way and not even all the efforts of the “mission team” (talk of ecclesial language!) to tilt Spirit so that it can become more energised by the sunlight, is of any avail. And guess what? The mission team wants Spirit to go into hibernation from April until sometime in August. However, all is not lost, one of the experts on Spirit contends that while being stationary (can you church people imagine a stationary Spirit?) it can still be tracked very accurately to ensure that we can measure the wobbling of Mars. Imagine the relief of churches being able to track and predict the movement of Spirit, not to mention the many who do already operate as if they have Spirit all figured out.

The experts, while having to concede that Spirit remains a mystery, do suggest that there are still a few tricks up Spirit’s sleeve which they may be able to manipulate and predict. And, we are told that while Spirit is stuck there is no need to “mourn Spirit”. It maybe that the technocrats are stuck and they need to shed tears for themselves, rather than Spirit.

The saga, however, opens up some fascinating connections from an ecclesial/theological perspective if we are daring enough to be transgressive. Here are a few for consideration: Beware when Spirit lands in our midst – it is risky and dangerous business [Come, O Holy Spirit, but quietly please may be the bottom line!]; Spirit’s ability to boost and energised, while unlimited, can take a different and unpredictable turn -full of surprises; It is fruitless trying to domesticate and figure out Spirit – let the mighty and brainy NASA concur with shouts of Amen - it is more like Spirit helping humans to figure out themselves; Spirit does not act on human instructions and not even tilting and manipulating will make Spirit acquiesce; Spirit has a mind of her own with many “mysterious and mischievous tricks” up her sleeve; Spirit may brood, but she never hibernates! So do watch wisely, act but humbly and pray fervently!

Suffering, Survival and Faith – Haiti

2010-01-17T19:20:00.008Z

I can only imagine the suffering and pain which Haitians are familiar with and are presently experiencing. The current disaster is part of an unending chain of what seems like a perpetual living nightmare. In the imagination of a people whose generosity and faith are unexplainable, that late evening when the earthquake struck and the aftermath must have conjured up images of an apocalypse. Yet, those reporting are not only struck by the pleas of “when will help arrive”: they are also baffled by the faith and resilience of the Haitians. Where is the Divine? How can such tragedies befall people already living in years of abject poverty and who have carry un-countable number of crosses? And how, in the midst of all this can Haitians still exclaim: “God is Good”? What drives Haitian faith?

Lines from Barack Obama’s observation and his nation’s pledge of support caught my attention: "With just a few hundred miles of ocean between us and a long history that binds us together, Haitians are our neighbours in the Americas and here at home." Indeed, a long history and one worth remembering to understand the anguish of Haitians and our part in it. Yes, there are thousands of Haitians living in the US and contributing to its economy and well-being and send money back home. But those with longer memories will also know how the Haitian boat people were treated. Unlike their lighter textured looking Cuban neighbours, their boats were turned back. Both nations (US & Haiti) can tell stories of birth out of the bosom of European colonialism. And while, Haiti was the first Black republic in the world, the US flexing of its muscle on the world stage has been directly played out on Haiti. Haiti became a Caribbean “playground in the backyard of the US” for military and strategic purposes.

The bottom line is that the rich need Haitians and their muscles for one main reason - cheap labour. No wonder the economic motivation to return the boatloads to service those sweat shops/fields in Haiti and nearby Santo Domingo! And lest we forget, Haiti may have been the 1st Black republic, but it had to pay a costly price to France (before time of IMF and World Bank) for her freedom – a debt which was only completed in the 1950’s. Yet, these sufferers – the “in spite of people” baffle us with their ability to survive. Matthew Price reporting for BBC on the earthquake notes this about the “in spite of people” (Haitians).

I sense that they've [Haitians] grown used to expecting nothing. I'm rather ashamed to tell you that I discovered that for myself today, first with a young man called Stanley, who's a waiter in the hotel we're in. He's been working with me from dawn to dusk, helping me do my job. Today I asked about his family. It turns out Stanley's grandmother had been crushed to death under her house on Tuesday, pulled out of the rubble on Thursday, and buried on Friday. Stanley had been with me throughout and he hadn't said a thing. Then there's Stanley's boss, the wonderful Cassandra. She runs the little hotel we're in and she's doing everything for us: given me Stanley, found us drivers, put her generator on when we need power, even as her fuel runs low. She's found rooms for everyone. And now I find out she has nowhere to live. Her home was also destroyed. There's no doubt that Haitians are a resilient people, no doubt that they will cope with this.... [http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8463180.stm]

So while we once again rush in with much need aid, quarrel over infrastructure and flash dead bodies across our media screens, we will do well to also force rich nations to tackle the root cause of abject poverty in Haiti, otherwise the poor and the offense of abject poverty will return to haunt us. Indeed, the poor are still with us - as Jesus is purported to have said. And their condition, instead of improving, is getting worse. Free Trade, the new abode of Divinity, the source of plenty and prosperity and in whom lies salvation wants to ensure that the poor stays poor – even though it is cheaper to eliminate poverty than maintain it.

Haitians know this and this is why their faith is strong and practiced with realism. In spite of extreme poverty – Haitians do not lack creativity: art and faith. Joy abounds. One Haitian artist who works with unimaginable and dead/useless pieces of scraps (from anything) puts it this way: “Death is a joyful condition for us artists. We find a shell and give it life. And while we cannot afford to travel: it travels all around the world for us. The irony for us Haitians is that we travel only when we die.” How true: our eyes are now towards Haiti as a result of disaster and death!

Haitians also take the realism and irony to their reading of the Bible. For instance, where the Bible verse from Philippians 4:13 will read: “I can do all things through Christ who will strengthen me”; Haitians will translated this text into creole to read: “In any situation that appears before me, I can ‘make do’ or manage (degaje), thanks to Christ who gives me strength.” The shift in terms of use of words here is not insignificant: to degaje something is to make it work some other way. The historical realities of Haitians mean that they cannot, with integrity, say that with God's help all things are possible or their dreams can come true. That will be a lie in terms of historical and existential realities. However, with God’s help they are able to make life work and get by in spite of the harsh realities. It is time to help Haiti to be released from impoverishment by putting into practice our declaration to “make poverty history” and this means working to undo root causes.

Image credit Celeur Jean Hérard

http://www.atis-rezistans.com/index.html

Two Pigeons and a Homeless Man Preaching

2010-01-09T13:33:00.004Z

Two incidents, unrelated perhaps, gave me much to think about! Both happened on my way to and from a Ghanaian Service of Carols and Lessons at Kensington United Reformed Church on December 20 (2009) to which I was invited to share some Advent/Christmas thoughts.

On the way to this gathering, travelling on the tube (underground) from St. Pancras, I had to change trains at Edgware. I was pleasantly surprised (as was the other person who came in just after me) to find two pigeons making their way into the carriage. For those who do not know. This part of the route is over-ground. As other people boarded, the pigeons moved to the rear of the carriage pecking away at anything that looked like food while eyeing their human neighbours. They kept to themselves and at a safe distance - while journeying with the rest of us – without any ticket! Even more amusing was the fact that they exited at the next station. I wondered whether they continued their journey and whether this was their regular route.

The other incident happened on my return journey from Edgware to St Pancras. This was a crowded tube/train and in our midst was a guy who looked like a “rough sleeper”. He was carrying a large garbage bag and a rucksack. His intense look conjured up images of John the Baptist or more correctly John the wild. And, he lived up to that name as he started his own sermon on the tube:

“Is there a kind soul onboard? See me: I am homeless, tired and hungry. Can someone help this desperate man? I do not have the luxury to shop like most of you here, but can you give this poor man something...?”

And he continued while all turned the other way. He then looked directly at me, as he was standing near to me and I could not turn anywhere else, and directed his intense gaze and words my way:

“And you sir, can you share something with me from that fancy bag you are carrying...” Impulsively and before he could continue, I handed him the bag: “You can have it all brother!”, I shocked myself into mumbling. By this time we were pulling up at our next stop and everyone was now looking at me. “The whole bag”, he asked looking shocked – and before I could answer, he took it, gave me a few “cheers” and exited the train faster than Usain Bolt.

He was certainly shocked and I cannot tell whether he had intended to exit there. I myself do not know why I responded that way. It may be that here was a person so desperate that it moved me to compassion. Probably not! It may have been that I just wanted him to stop preaching or that I was very embarrassed. But that nice looking bag was what I got as my food or refreshment package from the Ghanaian Service I was just coming from. Later, one of my sons asked me (having recounted the incident) whether I would I have handed him a bag filled with more precious things, like my Christmas shopping for instance! I am not sure that I would have.

From experience, however, I am hesitant to draw quick conclusions, but I am willing to say this much: the Divine does move us in very mischievous and surprising ways – so we better watch out when a homeless person starts preaching, what we preach, pray for and what we carry in our designer shopping bags!

2010- Year of Civility, Perhaps

2010-01-02T16:21:00.003Z

When nothing is sacred anymore the only thing we can hope for is that sometime very soon, we can re-discover our collective sense of self-control, integrity, fair-play and civic responsibility. Look around you: have you experienced a decline in behaviour, an increase in unfriendliness and rudeness, or a total lack of respect shown toward others? Or just try recalling some of those rude mobile telephone conversations you had to listen to while travelling in a train?

A colleague of mine was recently complaining about the loss of manners, courtesy and community spirit – especially among young people. She was very critical of the ways people behave at boarding any public transport and how they walk along the sidewalks. There was a general feeling from all of us in the group that the loss of basic manners and notions of civic responsibility is an alarming problem that cuts across age, gender, culture and ethnicity. The most frustrating thing is that all of us felt disempowered to be able to say anything to anyone about their behaviour, even when it is very offensive.

Has Britain become an uncivil society? A new book published recently argues that incivility has become common, whether in the behaviour of TV and radio presenters, revellers out on a Saturday night, or drunks on airplanes. This situation has reached such an extent that when we do meet people (especially young people) who are courteous, helpful and kind we are very surprised and will want to share that experience with as many people as possible. This is besides the fact that we are then cognisant of our own behaviour and what we have lost.

Civility Lost and Found (published by the Young Foundation with the support of AHRC) looks at the nature of civility in British society and what can be done to nurture such a society. The research points to a wide range of actions that could help to make Britain a more civil society, building on projects already in place: powerful institutions taking more responsibility for the impact of their actions, and those of their leaders; the internet offering civility checks for emails; firms and public services offering apologies when things go wrong, rather than oscillating between defensiveness and financial compensation; teenagers playing roles as civil guardians on the streets; schools teaching mindfulness; police force providing on the spot prizes as well as spot fines for young people etc.

Some of the thoughts from leading thinkers and politicians include the following: call for more character education in schools and volunteering to instill habits of civility; closer attention and care to families and time together; rethinking the relationship between political correctness and civility; cultivating the habit of being able to say sorry and to apologise; exploring more intentionally the role of religion and volunteering in promoting civility. [For more on the research on civility see: http://www.youngfoundation.org/files/images/Civility.pdf ]

Perhaps, in our clamouring over the notion that we are Christian nation or one founded on Christian ethos, we may do well to revisit some of the basic tenets of the faith that are related to how we practice our love of God and neighbour, so integral not only to the Christian religion, but to all religions. Perhaps, public policies may wish to take some of the leaves from the pages of sacred texts! And it may just be possible that civility - the “learned grammar of sociability” - may once again take deep roots in society for the common good of our relational lives and that of future generations.

Privilege Bashers: Beware

2009-12-19T16:47:00.003Z

A few days ago, Metro (December 18, 2009) carried a piece on the Queen travelling on Capital First Connect from London Kings Cross to Sandrigham. Her Majesty was commended for reducing her Carbon footprint by using scheduled train services over the year. This, the piece suggested, was a lot greener than that of her son Charles jetting off to Copenhagen (like the many others) to lecture the world on how to save planet earth from pollution. The piece, however, quickly went on to become more cynical by noting that perhaps the real reason Her Majesty went by train is because all the private jets have headed to Copenhagen, as did all the limousines having had to travel miles from other European countries, as Denmark could not source the necessary amount required.

What strikes me from this news item is how easy it is for one group in their egalitarian and ecological zeal to assume the high moral ground, oblivious of the inconsistencies of their own positions, what they themselves aspire for, and are actually involved in.

This attitude is there in Labour and especially middle class efforts of wanting to remove all the privileges of those born with “golden spoons” in their mouths, and those attending Independent and Grammar Schools and those whose postcode is not like theirs. Lest you read me wrongly, I am all for an egalitarian society and for equality of opportunities for all and it is a disgrace that we live in a world with so great a gap between the people who have and those who do have – both between nations and within a nation.

The reality, however, is that egalitarianism and a level playing field are wishful thinking. Just look at the way one Party pledged how it was going to reform the House of Lords. Well, some of the fiercest critics having been made life Peers, now truly enjoy the privilege to the extent that you would be excused for believing that they were ever the same people who “preached” against privilege. And where do you think those who advocate “all comprehensive schools” send their children for their education? Are the sons and daughters of privilege bashers those on the battlefronts in Afghanistan and Iraq? Who really wants to drink a cup of tea, play cards with or have a conversation with all and sundry? The reality is that privilege, like the poor, will always be with us. Animal Farm is just as applicable to us as it is to Communist regimes!

But back to the related ecological point of the article: it is certainly true about all the jetting around to get to a summit intended to make a case for saving the planet has also caused more pollution by the chosen means of travel to get there. Newspapers and journalists can gloat about this and take the high moral ground. But they need to remember that they also do the same to get there in order to get news that will make money. And to make this news readable they will have to use rolls and rolls of paper – rain forest in effect - to print not only news, but so much that should neither be read nor seen on television. This is besides the fact of the carbon footprint that all their online papers will create as a result of the energy used to drive servers and computers.

What we do with our privilege is what is important: for starters we can begin by being honest about who we are, our intentions, the jealousies that drive us and the greed(s) that has/have become our orienting framework. Let’s be honest and open in our criticality: this will carry more integrity for us together to take a moral high ground as we challenge each other for the benefit of the whole of creation.

Living Lies: Tony Blair’s Distorted faith

2009-12-13T17:31:00.004Z

Tony Blair is again in the news. He loves the spotlight, even though the public is once again presented with a politician – now a self-acclaimed man of faith – who will lie to you straight in the face. It would be an interesting exercise if someone has the time to do an in-depth scrutiny of his speeches in relation to war against Iraq to reveal the contradictions, inconsistencies in his speeches.

Here is the man who was reluctant to discuss his Christian faith while in office, but has now turned global priest to help save the world through faith and religions. Someone should examine his head. I leave his heart for the divine to plumb its depths!

One inconsistency that looks like a real joke is this: that while his faith did not affect his decision to go to war – it did help to sustain him through the conflict (as he quoted to have said). He goes on to explain that one’s faith cannot help one to make a right decision but it can sustain one after making the decision.

What utter rubbish and a disgrace to the flip side of faith – that is faithfulness. Sure, one’s faith does not provide one with a fixed blueprint to the making of right decisions. But surely, there are enough examples from the Christian faith in relation to values and morals that could have pointed to why we should not have gone to this war based only on the premise that one sophisticated liar thought there was another dangerous meglaomaniac who needed to be taken out. Over a million people in this country, including all the Christian churches, protested – yet he saw it fit not to listen to these voices. It may be that Blair is the only person in the UK with a direct line to the Divine!

But what is even more disgusting is to suggest that having gone to war it was his faith that sustained him! I wonder what the Divine will make of this inconsistency. Faith sustains but faith has no role to play in the sin of creating a “one eternal hell” for Iraqis or murdering lots of innocent people (collateral damages). How convenient it is to use faith and by implication the Divine for one’s selfish end – like some puppet always there to soothe one’s feelings - not to challenge one’s immoral acts and decisions that will have devastating consequences.

It is not only the BNP who have hijacked the Christian faith for their selfish and disgusted motives. They have an accomplice in Tony Blair, albeit from a different angle: he has hijacked the Christian faith and presents us with a face of faith and God that will justify immoral actions: not one that calls him or us to accountability. Blair should be heading for the confession box of his local Catholic congregation or whenever he stops by the earthly throne of St. Peter in Rome.

Greed Reigns: Going Alternative

2009-12-04T12:25:00.003Z

One would have expected that with the financial crisis and our present economic woes that we would learn many lessons – as the politicians and financial experts are keen to point out when interviewed and lost for words. My distaste for the phrase “lessons are to be learnt” has to do with my dismay over the number of times this has been uttered, when in reality nothing changes. Old habits die hard – they just re-invent themselves. As events over the past weeks have revealed, greed is quite difficult to control. It is hyper-active. And those (individuals, financial institutions and corporations) who have been among the main culprits in our economic demise continue to demonstrate how they do not intend to change an iota.

Money not only talks: it rules and in very strange ways it continues to dictate our lives. Banks, Bankers and financial institutions that/whom we have had to be bail out through the public purse continue to dictate policies ranging from exorbitant payments/salaries of huge sums of money to all forms of immoral defence and excuses to justify these. The figures we are talking about will not only break my calculator: it will make the budget of some majority world country look like peanuts. This is besides the fact that all our talk about ethics appear like something from the Stonehenge.

Can we wholly blame conscienceless individuals and a system for this situation? Where and how have we become accomplices in such a system built on an illusion, good enough (while it has its run) to give us handouts that make us feel worthy, rich and part of something going somewhere? Perhaps, the Dutch economist Goudzwaard is correct to note that our economic system can be compared to us being caught in a traffic jam in a tunnel with the traffic flowing only in one direction: we can neither move forward, backward or sideways. The only safe place is forward out of the tunnel even though the road leads over a precipice.

How can economics operate with a moral conscience if banking technocrats and bureaucrats see no responsibility in earning smaller salaries? Are these people of faith? If they are, how do they connect their faith/belief to responsibility for the common good? What do faith communities say to such folks who may be members and supporters?

Is it possible for ordinary people to make a difference? I certainly think that we can use the power of protest more constructively: those who are shareholders may wish to help change policies rather than only thinking profit. We may also wish to be more radical in our protest: take our monies out of banks that are unethical. And forget supermarket financing and credit cards! Don’t be duped. Perhaps we ought to contemplate alternative banks. Why not? Why do we have to stick with immoral economic nonsense? Why wait for politicians to remedy this situation. The bottom line for politics is that economic interests rule and call the shots even though these are crumbling like dominoes all around us.

Here is the seven headed dragon multiplied a hundred times that is the prevalent evil the day. There is no knight in shining armour ready to slay the beasts and its many avatars. We can, however, individually and as small communities act by going alternative: do not use unethical banks; invest ethically; do not go into debt; live within your means; why do you need more than one credit card?; pay your credit card off immediately; if you cannot, then bin it as soon as possible; why not try bartering (a faith community is a good space to start such an initiative). Faith communities can certainly take the lead on this. There are loads of other ideas online.

See for instance:

http://www.socialedge.org/discussions/responsibility/alternative-economic-structures

After all: a journey of 1000 miles begins with the 1^st step (Korean wisdom saying). Do not wait on someone else to take that step! Act now!

The Sacred is here to Stay

2009-11-27T14:31:00.001Z

Whether we articulate it or not, intuitively, we can sense that the sacred or mystical will always be with us – just like the poor (given that nothing much has changed in spite of our current economic demise). We do not need the author of a recent volume, Supersense: Why we Believe in the Believable (HarperOne, 2009) to tell us that the sacred is here to stay.

Bruce Hood (the author) reckons that all humans are equipped with a “supersense” that plumbs into a hidden world of spirits, fates and spooky connections. My deceased grandmother knew this before Hood, though she could not read nor write. Hood’s advantage is that he could locate this in the context of scientific research.

So to the question of the rationalist as to why we hold on to irrational modes of thought even when science tells us otherwise, Hood contends that we have evolved to be irrational as a by-product of various brain mechanisms. If you are constantly stressed out, research suggests adults will tend to revert to irrational thought patterns. I wonder how much of this happens in certain kind of worship! So despite all our best intentions (beware arrogant rationalists) the supersense lingers on at the back of our minds. I wonder what Richard Dawkins will make of this – not that it matters much.

The bottom line here, which may be good news for faith communities, is that religions will not disappear, and science can even make a case to show that we are a sacred species. But lest we get too excited, Christian faith communities need to manifest more trust in the Divine and less insecurity and fear in trying to protect or ring-fence grace. Then maybe we may find new rituals and rediscover liturgies apt enough to connect with the ‘supersense’ of humans?

Telling it Plainly – the Politics of Language

2009-11-16T14:54:00.004Z

This year is the 60^th anniversary of George Orwell’s 1984. Much of Orwell’s projections in 1984 are with us today: "Big Brother" surveillance, control of history, and the corruption of language. Listening to our politicians, economic pundits and some media commentators, one is aware of the Orwellian manipulation of language in a number of ways. "Peace-keeping forces", for instance, is a coded terminology used to initiate war; invasions are described as ‘landings,’ or opportunities to restore democracy; "defense strategy" actually means planning for war; unemployed people made redundant are referred to as potential “micro-entrepreneurs; prisoners become stakeholders, protestors become threats to national security and the new democracy is indebtedness with a growing economy one that encourages spending and indebtedness of its inhabitants.

Language has indeed become so corrupted, abused and misused that one commentator notes that the mantra of New Labour “to deliver on the things that people want delivered” does not necessarily mean “to deliver it”. If anything – it means the opposite – not to deliver. [Jamie Whyte, Standpoint 17 (November 2009), p.10]! What have we become? Why the world of “unreality” and denial in which most of us live in and operate by?

Some contend that there is need to kill the plethora of jargons that have taken over our lives. They point especially to documents emanating from government offices that include words that not even a dictionary will be of any help. These words include: cohort; stakeholders, synergy, transformational, faith initiatives, outcomes, level playing field, improvement levers, coterminous, stakeholder engagement, revenue streams, slippage, can do culture, potentialities, quantum, subsidiarity, value-added etc. The list is massive! The concern is that such use of words is a real stumbling block to communication and create more confusion - perhaps conveniently playing into the manipulation of language that Orwell had in mind.

Churches have also bought into this trend of language manipulation: while on the one hand its liturgical and theological language is archaic, making little or no sense to many in its own midst; churches have also borrowed many of the above words. Our documents today are loaded with most of these jargons that doubly compound our inability to communicate.

Imagine being given permission to create a list of jargons or words to ban from the current vocabulary of our ecclesial institutions, government departments and community organs? What would you come up with? Would our lives be any better and would we have a clearer and more realistic view of our task together for the common good?

The gods of our lives

2009-11-09T22:52:00.003Z

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz in delivering the annual lecture (2009) of Sir Isaiah Berlin spoke of a vacuum in western society. He observes that we are living in a world empty of Judeo-Christianity values, filled with something else – other gods. According to Steinsaltz, these are actually old gods with new names. He identifies three: power (formerly known as Baal) also known as the god of money (mammon); sex (Astarte or Ishtar); and the craving of immediate fame (Calliope). [See Standpoint 16 (October 2009), pp.68-70]

These gods are located in interesting temples: for instance, the temples of mammon or Jupiter are in London and Geneva (with other competing locations) though they are now called banks and their priests are called managers. While Mammon is often dressed in neatly designed suits, Astarte invests in loads of plastic surgery/botox (forever young and grinning), while Calliope enters homes via numerous television shows. All these gods 'tick', not because of the power of love, but the love of power. These gods compete to become ‘keepers of our souls”. At the heart of their plan is the desire to turn us into genuflecting slaves to money, wealth and fame.

Science is also interested in how these gods and their temples operate to get us hooked, hence a number of research as to the how and why of hooked humans. One recent research shows how much of our behaviour and relationships are shaped by and tied to money. Experts inform us that “just handling paper money could reduce the distress associated with social exclusion”. And, no - they are not referring to the game of Monopoly! Researchers also observed that “people who felt rejected by others were less likely to give a monetary gift”. Others have discovered that money can “act on our minds rather like an addictive drug, giving it the power to drive some of us to compulsive gambling, overworking or obsessive spending". Moreover, we are told that for many, salvation may be found in one of Mammon’s key symbol - credit cards. This symbol can also “act as a ‘decoupling device’ separating the pleasure of the purchase from the pain of payment – pain that gets pushed into the foggy future,”- somewhat too close to a certain kind of eschatology!

So wherein lies hope? It is certainly not in a Luddite approach that is anti-progress or a desire to turn back the clock to some unrealistic and nostalgic period. I suppose hope lies in our ability to believe that something different is possible to model; that in spite of all these gods we are hooked to, there are insights (not templates), values and virtues from religious traditions that can become lived habits that help us to exorcise these modern gods that compete to claim and chain our souls. This demands openness to a radical change of hearts!

TRAIN CONVERSATIONS

2009-10-30T16:59:00.004Z

On one of my very recent train trips, passengers were just boarding a train and were not too long into their seats when four passengers seated around the table started to use their mobile phone simultaneously. In this cacophony of voices and ringtones, joined by some others at the other end of the carriage, a very elderly gentleman looked on in dismay, then turned in my direction (as I was also looking on) and shaking his head uttered two words: telephone exchange.

At least the telephone exchanges I used to visit to make overseas calls were contained and sealed cubicles. In the train – even in the quiet coach – nothing is contained. It is free for all. That elderly person may have found an apt descriptor: trains are like telephone exchanges gone public!

Working in London, I often make weekly trips to and from Birmingham. On these train journeys I have heard some wacky, personal and juicy conversations in a variety of languages and accents. I have heard people do bank deals, sell shares, close a business deal, make or cancel their hospital appointments, give instructions to their PA’s and junior colleagues, have domestic quarrels, shared privileged information about the potential sacking of an employee, and do telephone purchases – just to mention a few. In effect these folks have shared very personal and confidential information in an open space over their mobile phones. However hard one tries to appear to mind one’s business, it is difficult not to overhear these conversations in such a public space.

What I find rather amusing and ironical is that this is done by people who are normally very private individuals, who upon entering the train would gravitate towards a seat where they will park all their belongings on the vacant seat next to theirs (if it is not reserved) and would hardly ever broach a conversation with a total stranger and yet they would then proceed to hang outside, like washing, their work/business/family life and personal details for a coach load of total strangers to listen into. Even more interesting is the fact that most people seem oblivious of what they are doing and that this has become commonplace that we now accept it as the norm.

In a society where “me” and “I” matters more than “us” and “ours” and where my train seat and the one next to me become my castle, immediate connectivity may have opened up a new world before us. And I am not sure whether this has improved the quality of our lives as individuals and as a community. At the same time, we have been sucked deeper into a whirlpool of crass individualism which seems to displace our sensitivity, sense of decency, common sense and an awareness of the world just around us. Freedom carries with it a moral responsibility for the common good that includes my neighbours and that includes a cultivated habit of awareness of the world around us.

Countering Far Right Politics

2009-10-13T22:13:00.003+01:00

Who are the English? In the midst of scandals, recession, political turmoil and the swelling of far right sentiments, this question is taking interesting shapes. The BNP and the English Defence League (EDL) are clear in their answer to who is authentically English. They would have little time for Jeremy Paxman’s The English: a Portrait of People or Robert Winder’s Bloody Foreigners; not to mention any of the other serious contemporary writers on this subject. While it may be unfair to lump the BNP and EDL together, there is enough evidence, through both their public and privates faces, to suggest commonalities of intent and agenda in their antics.

They both display the symptoms of fascist groups: especially that troubling kind of obsession aimed at rediscovering the pure indigene soul of England. Such a person, in their view, can only be Caucasian/white and Christian. Paxman’s argument about the English being a mongrelized nation from an interaction of a variety of historical mixings and Winder’s fascinating accounts of the contributions of foreigners to the making of England would hold no sway in the narrow minds of the BNP and EDL.

To take up their own extreme positions, the EDL for instance, behaves as if the rest of the populace are idiots; by wanting us to believe that they are only against Muslim extremism and extremists. They even would go to the extent of burning a Nazi flag to try to convince us that they are not racist or fascist. One is also taken aback by the brand of Christianity that members of both groups seem to be espousing in their crusade of England for the English!

The reality is that there is a very thin line between their brand of Islam-o-phobia, and racist/fascist tendencies. It is only people suffering from historical amnesia who are unable to see what truly lies beneath and beyond the facade of such groups, in spite of all their apologetics. A key to the rising of a far right agenda as manifested in the BNP and EDL is located in a form of deception that feeds on fear - at a time when greed has screwed our economic lives and our politics seem to be floating in a cesspool.

Where and how can one begin to have a conversation or serious debate with people that espouse ideas that are offensive, racist and repulsive to the majority of the population? Indeed, being tolerant to intolerance is one huge challenge. Would the BBC wanting to engage with the BNP – to have serious debate help to turn the tide and broaden narrow minds? I am not sure. Who actually needs a racist/fascist group to expose itself? Their policies tell the whole story and we already know that! Can/Will they change? It may be that the minds of their supporters can change.

The Far Right virus is alive and threatens to spread unless we can quickly and collectively come up with antidotes. In this regard one is thankful for the many voices that resist (and are resisting): people who and organisations that make it a point to stand up to the nonsense of the BNP and EDL. Solidarity across all walks of life and stripes of politics is needed in order to trample on the ugly heads of this Leviathan. A diverse landscape is here to stay and we need to affirm the majority of peace loving people committed to building “our home together”. Britain can be defended from narrow minded people (whoever they may be) and from far right politics.

Seeing Faith

2009-10-03T18:41:00.005+01:00

I grew up in a Guyana where there was no TV. It was the cinema for entertainment, among other things and places. I often credit this lack of television as one reason for an overdeveloped imagination. I do love films, however, and every opportunity to run off to the cinema to look at a good film is still habit. I have seen good films over and over – and every time there is something different that catches the eyes and ears. Looking is never value free. What we look at is guided by our assumptions and expectations about what we look for. What do we see when we look at a film? I love cinemas. We see what we look for. And very often anticipation shapes our perception. As in literature, there is much from films that one can locate in faith. These are films that you can see over and over.

After a visit to my Iranian barber, I decide to look again at the film The Children of Heaven which is a moving story about two Iranian children and a pair of shoes. Here is a film that gives us a cameo of Islamic culture and a peek into a Muslim school, a Muslim family’s home, a Mosque and a wealthy neighbourhood of Tehran. It is not the usual misrepresentation we have grown so accustomed of. Viewers sense a culture that stresses honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and trust in the Divine.

Here is a simple, straightforward and unassuming story laced with depth and photographed in and around the narrow streets of Tehran. It is the story of Ali and his sister Zhore and their struggle as to what to do when Zhore’s only pair of shoes is lost. They dare not mention it to their parents as there is no money for another pair. Ingenuity and the willingness to address the problem motivate the children into action. As they attended separate schools, the sister in the morning and brother in the afternoon, they decided that they will share Ali’s sneakers. So the children race fervently through the narrow streets in order to make the shoe exchange. While the plan worked, there were tensions like not getting to school late (as expulsion was real) or when one shoe falls off Zohre’s foot (as they are too big for her) almost losing it.

The Children of Heaven focuses on the relationship between the two siblings and their desire to help each other and their conviction that what is done must be honest and fair to all. The film ends with Ali participating in a cross-country race as he is only after the 3^rd price – a new pair of sneakers which he wants to give to his sister. So much for our yearning for the top prize! Running in his tired pair of sneakers, falling down and getting up to get back into 3^rd place he ends up winning the race. Disappointed, a final scene shows Ali removing his sneaker and putting his blistered feet in a pond with swimming fishes. As the fish nibble his toes (signs of hope?), viewers can see, unknown to Ali, that the father who had managed to get some garden work has just purchased two pairs for his children.

Here is a movie that focuses on the integrity of children’s emotions and in the process underscores the faith that is at work in family, school and community, on the basis of which children develop a sense of caring that even when shoes are lost and races are won, life is good because the divine is good. If you are disillusioned with the cheap politics coming out from the current Party Conferences, why not view one such film as the above?