Reproduction of Saddam's crimes

The picture shown here somehow captures the barbarity of it all. I think what makes it memorable is that the figure in the photo is in a position much like those [usually catholic] statues of the risen Christ showing his hands and side ... I wonder if that was the unconscious resonance for the editors?

It is a shame that at least the allied invasion of Iraq cannot say things were done with humanity. Rather it seems that some have not been able to resist the urge to imitate what they have found there. We are asked not to judge the [US] army based on the actions of a few. Fair enough at one level [though ...] but most of the world will and extremists who are into terrorism will see it a a further justification for what they plan and do.

As I'm reading "The Joy of being Wrong" and this book deals with a theological anthropology which takes a big cue from Rene Girard's mimesis theory [and hoorah! the book arrived from France yesterday], it is hard not to see some confirmation of this theory in what has happened in this case. Imitative violence. It this is in some measure right, then the interesting thing is that the imitative response may well be in relation to artefacts of torture that the soldiers have found themselves working among - an artefact-triggered mimetic response; an interesting and important thing to reflect on in cultural studies contexts.

No doubt there is much more to it, but I will be watching the trials carefully for evidence of how this sin took hold and whether the mimetic explanations carry weight.

Lament in worship

Loved this image from Desertpastor's 'Paradoxology' blog site. [Where'd you get it Chris?]. Liked the article too. We've been going through a rough time lately [see some previous blogs in the last week for hints] and my wife especially has been struggling with the 'jollity' of worship at a training college when she wants to scream at God and at trite answers. I am still feeling that we don't do lament well, like Chris.

I know that we need to plan worship that can be accessible to all; but I'm not sure why that means the default position becomes jovial -except that the image that so many of us are escaping from is the kind of mind-numbing gloominess portrayed by the church on the Simpsons and we run from it by embracing up-beat-ness as sanctioned by our culture of fulfilment-through-pleasure.

Testing hydrogen as energy sotrage medium

Well it has been suggested as the way to address the problem of intermittancy with some renewables so here is a test project. Note that they are not saying anything about commercial viability yet -it's just a feasibility study -but a hopeful one.

Men gotta have sex more than twice a week

I heard this on the tele the other day; tracked the article down. Basically the research indicates that frequent ejaculation helps men to avoid prostate cnacer -which is one the the commoner male cancers. "each increase of three ejaculations per week was associated with a 15 per cent decrease in the risk of prostate cancer", says Leitzmann. "More than 12 ejaculations per month would start conferring the benefit - on average every second day or so,"

Hmmm, so what are we as Christians going to say to the unmarried men about this? Soem have been saying that no-one ever died of not having sex....
Well, Leitzmann remains cautious. "I don't believe at this point our research would warrant suggesting men should alter their sexual behaviour in order to modify their risk." ... So that's alright then [?].

Hamza Yusuf Hanson in Bradford

Islam and the west; a Journey of Discovery. "Islamic contributions to civilization." Hamza Yusuf Hansen
Alhambra Theatre, Bradford, 28/04/04. The speaker: euro-American -west coast USA, convert [in 1977] to Islam. These are the note I took of the lecture last night.

Civilization implies civil society and civility. So we are now not experiencing a clash of civilizations but of barbarities. islam has included many different civilisations and even, as a civilization other faiths.

Surah 49.13. Diversity of humanity is "so that you may come to know one another." Each civilisation in history has its time. The western sense of the chain of civilizations in the west has a gap -the dark ages. Actually the Islamic fits there, drawing on and feeding other civilisations.

Debt to Islamic civilization: mediated tea to west. Carbonated water. Coffee [coffee arabica -from Yemen. Mocha is a town in Yemen]. Turkey gave us coffee house. Spices. Sweets ['candy' is from the Arabic 'andy, sugar from sukr]. Sorbet and sherbet. Banana is an Arabic word.
Guitar derives from Moorish guitar [guitarra murisco] and musical movements from a persian musician in Cordoba.
Islamic civilization mediated many fabrics; silk, cotton. Pai jamah is a muslim garment.
Leather tanning largely from berber sources taught to Spanish and Italians.
Stained glass is from Syria. Crusaders brought glass back from mid-east.
Gardens with water ultimately from Persian idea of paradise. Windmills are a Persian invention spread by muslim civilization.
Mathematics -Al- Khawarismi- intro'd 0. Invented algebra, arabic numerals, dimensional geometry, spherical trigonometry. Robotics -8th century Iraq -using hydrolics. Clocks are Arab invention. Astronomy well developed by arabs/muslims and so also navigation and cartography.
Avicenna brought medicine and hospitals to Europe. First ever hospital in modern sense built in Iraq -open to all -free- gardless of religion. Science of medicine was well advanced.
Academic terms/trads often from muslim civilization; chair, gowns, sash in morter board, diplomas, idea of colleges. C.15% of early Muslim scholars were women [including in transmission of qur'an].
Literature. Arabian Nights influential.
Language; al-quhal is arabic.
Military band is Turkish invention -as a means of dterring combat -give opportunity for surrender.
Religious toleration was practical policy in Ottoman empire. [What of dhimmi-tude?].
He ended with an appeal to Muslims to recognize that the 'caravan of civilization' has moved on but that values of toleration etc, which are also Islamic, are part of today's civilization and can be affirmed.

My reaction? Presentation often made it seem that Muslims invented many things when in fact they preserved and developed them or transmitted tgem [eg from China to Europe or Greece and Rome to Renaissance Europe]. Also what is Arab or Turkish and what specifically Muslim? -given also Jewish and Christian dimensions in Arab society. It was good to be reminded that ther is a debt of gratitude owed to Muslim civilisation and that at its best it practiced a great deal of humanistic good [the term 'humanist' was used of Islam by the man who introduced the talk]. What I am left with is the sense of the interdependence of civilisations and the desire that the humanisitc Islam portrayed and embodied in this lecture would be more prominent. It is clearly a matter of pain to the platform party that is isn't.

Spotless minds possible?

The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind may have some basis in fact developing. IT seems that there are mechanisms by which selective memory loss could be achieved -the question is whether the toxicity of drugs could be overcome.

As always the reason for doing this would start off as therapeutic [eg helping people exposed to trauma] but then a mosre 'cosmetic' purpose is made possible. I could see some very intersting scenarios -and most of them I can think of films that have explored them. Funny how film seems to becoming our culture's medium of corporate reflection ....

Increased student numbers

As I'm still a HE chaplain and hope to remain one by getting another job in the summer, this is still of interest to me. I'm interested to note that the figures for apllications from international students are pretty much in line with expectations. Of course the implication is even greater racial and cultural diversity in British universities [though places like Durham -if I'm interpreting correctly what I have recently been told on interview- have tended to be a bit tardy in getting into the market and are now playing catch-up]. It makes the case for chaplaincy stronger; a chaplain can be a helpful and effective agent of cohesion, hospitality and mutual interpretation. There are concommitant difficulties; funding issues arising from currency fluctuations, or simply opportunitsm which may mean that people arrive without their funding arrangements as 'specified' as they should be -it's almost impossible for an international student to get an income through part-time [or nigh-on full time] of £10,000 plus whilst simultaneously struggling through language barriers and the general necessities of study -I know; I've watched well-intentioned and hardworking people try and fail: it's heartbreaking becasue you also learn what this means to them and their families and sometimes also their communities and countries.

It's worth noting the increases in applications and enrolments [?] from Americans and Nigerians; this indicates to me that the need for Christian Chaplaincy is still important in a fairly direct judging-from-the-numbers sort of way let alone the 'honest broker' in welcoming and community-building.

The Foundation degree figures are rising too and as many of those are beling delivered in FE contexts it means that we really should be looking to how our FE chaplaincy side is doing too. This is not the time for the CofE to be pulling out of HE [and FE] chaplaincy. However it is doing so: my post is gone in July [with perhaps the temporary fix of two-day a week parish priest bussed in from elsewhere], Similarly with Huddersfield Uni. I've heard a few runours elsewhere of similar ... I don't doubt that there are financial problems but I know only too well from my own parish experience that it can be very hard to increasiingly time-poor clergy [time poor because being stretched thinner in terms of responsibilites both in scope and legislation] to carve out time and good-energy to face the extra-parochial challenges liek a chaplaincy role in a large secular institution where time sepnt may not produce much by way of increased money in the plate or bums on pews who may contribute when they graduate....

Freedom of info

and perhaps a bit on copyright at the start. The thing I found most disturbing was that later in the article/inteview, the discussionof the US PAtriot act and what it could mean in practice. Then thinking that actually we probably have similar legislation in the UK but I'm not really up to speed on it. Anyone got any lnks? Thanks to Will for commenting and passing on the link.

Town planning could go greener

Though the Indy's leader is rather more skeptical about the goodness of this idea: planning suburbs to be higher density so that they are more friendly to walking and public transport and less encouraging of private cars. Sounds like a good idea and the book

'Natural Capitalism'

has some good examples of how good suburban planning has made for greener neighbourhoods in practice. Perhaps the skepticism of the Indy leader is understandable -perhaps people move to such suburbs becasue they aren't high density. On the other hand the experiences showcased in the book seem to indicate that the eco-engineered neighbourhoods are more sought after than the old-style suburban developments.

Solar power for Tibetans

Nice little story showing how the developing world could simply skip our oily and coal-fired route to pwer production ... Let's hope there'll be more.

still no job

Not going here:

Well, I was rung up about 8pm last night -the job was offered to someone else. It was a bit of a bizarre phone conversation. It began with my being told "I'm sorry ..." [which told me all I needed to know about the result in barebones terms] and went on in commiseratory tones while I was probably responding in a rather unexpected -not sounding very disappointed- way. What I felt first was relief -I recognised that I didn't really want that post and to have been offered it would have been somewhat troubling. So I was trying to convey that I welcomed the clarity and the fact that it meant that I didn't have to decide whether I should be refusing after all. To be fair I had tried to make it hard for them to appoint me, some of it subconsciously. My wife and I both had this feeling that really this wasn't the post for me but our need to provide house and home for our kids means that we don't quite trust our own feelings on this, particulary as after July 31st we don't have anything to fall back on; we're in a rather shaky position at the moment.

The interesting thing for me is learning to note that my feelings are often conveying to me important information -even if it takes time to work out what it is. It's daft really; I'm quite adept at working with people in a spiritual direction capacity or a life coaching framework and encouraging them to identify and work with their feelings in such times, when it comes to myself ... on the other hand most of my 'clients' can work things out for themselves but my role is to make it a darn sight easier and to help them to process their thoughts and feelings more quickly. It's the sharing that does it [at least for MBTI E's].

Looks like the Nigerian scam just morphed

I just got the following: various clues tell us it's not true [apart from the fact that I don't do lotteries] but I thought you might like to know what is now doing the rounds. It goes like this. It may not be the Nigerian scam people but since they are the only ones who seem to have 'found' my new email address so far ... It goes like this.
"FROM:THE DESK OF THE MANAGING DIRECTOR
INTERNATIONAL/PRIZE AWARD DEPT

REF: PL2/0948319/04
BATCH: 18/114/HME.

Dear Winner

We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International programs held on the 23/3/2004. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 653164251592-6012 with serial number 7321411,batch number 7151085146,lottery ref number 6376527700 and drew lucky numbers 3-9-17-36-44-13 which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$1.500,000.00 (One Million, Five Hundred Thousand United States dollars)

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money Remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants. All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 40,000 company and 20,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every year. This lottery was promoted and sponsored by Association of software producers. we hope with part of your winning,you will take part in our next year US$20 million international lottery. To file for your claim, please contact our account officer:

Contact Person: Mr. Michael Smith
Tel: + 31-623-535-447
EMAIL: lottery.dept@ftfslotto.com

Remember, all winning must be claimed not later than 25th of May,2004. After this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications please remember to quote your reference number and batch numbers in all correspondence.

Furthermore, should there be any change of address do inform our agent as soon as possible.

Congratulations once more from our members of staff and thank you for being part of our promotional program.

Note: Anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.

yours Sincerely,

Mrs.Shirley Van Dirk,
For Management."

Footprints

Loved this picture -always liked the patterns on the bottom of shoes -since being a kid and all the rage was clark's shoes with animal footprints embossed into the sole. I also love the way that sand takes or doesn't take the impress. This is a bit more sophisticated, of course -to see the wholer concept try the link for the blog.

Will he? Won't he?

At this precise moment I am waiting for a phone call. I've been for an interview for a post earlier today and they hoped to let us know the outcome this afternoon of tomorrow. I've laid it out before the interview panel -I'm interested but the housing component of the package will not work for our family. Probably it'll now be tomorrow before they get back in touch. Either that means that they are offering the job to someone else and will get back to the rest of us when that person has said 'yes' or 'no', or they are taking seriously my bid for something on the housing front to shift. The former is most likely the latter least and the third option is that they are having trouble getting the white smoke up the chimney. [Clue people: look to the ventilation].

It's a kind of high risk thing for us. There are a couple of other posts I'm interested in but this is the first to advertise and interview. Being so bold as to question whether the package is okay' for us is a bit hard Would these turn out to be the only folk that might have employed me and I blew it by being choosy? [-But then again you can only fit into a house of a certain size a certain number of teenagers and all the stuff we've accumulated living in vicarages ...] willl it mean we are homeless in July?

Okay it's a bit dramatic; probably we'll be able to sort something out somehow -we have the means; what we don't have is a sense of what will turn out to be right. It's a case of having to trust that guidance will come as we grind through the processes. I 'know' that's right, but it's hard being strapped in for the ride without knowing the destination except in the most vague terms of 'God'll see us right -somehow."

Gritty realism in a .gif

nuff sed? Kind of thing I'm likely to use in alt worship in an appropriate moment ...
pictures under creative commons and this link goes back to the original site. I'd be more than happy to credit the original artist if only I could work out who it was .... so the link is the best I can do.

Eyeteeth journal of incisive ideas: blog list addition?

Thorugh the Blackspot sneaker site I came across this, could be worth watching ...

it's the black spot

There's part of me that loves this and part that wonders whether it will go the way of punk -co-opted by the system ... anyway, since, as a family we've started to look into fairly traded clothes this seems like something to check out too: anti-corporate sneakers.

Further comments can be found in Sheffield, apparently. The comment that most summed up my conflictual feelings about it were "Anti-capitalist capitalism??? Whatever next? War for peace?"

Useful follow up ideas ... best seemed to me to be:
The European Clean clothes campaign has a lot of reports and stats that can be downloaded or read online
This is a link to the latest report

March 2004, Sportswear Industry Data and Company Profiles
http://www.cleanclothes.org/publications/olympic-profiles.htm

What is the price makeup of a 100 $ sportshoe
http://www.cleanclothes.org/campaign/shoe.htm

http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies.htm

This is the uk site for Clean clothes campaign but it is rarely updated
but you can go on a mailing list
http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/index.html
another uk site but not just clothing
http://www.nosweat.org.uk/

Imam education needs better standards

This is very interesting: it parallels what we have been saying in Bradford. We need Muslim Mosque leaders who can engage constructively with the wide ['host'] community. In Bradford imams have tended to be improted from rural Mirpur and not to understand English and to even be defensive about the wider culture [perhaps not entirely surprisingly] in such a way as to simply replicate patterns of faith and life that apply to rural Mirpur but not so well to urban Britain. It would appear that something similar has been happening in France.

Of course it is not always so easy and it could come over as an attempt to interfere in the affairs of another religious set-up. However, it doe seem that everyone would be well served by have a better educated and more able-to-relate leadership. It is understandable that an immigrant community would want to have leadership that helps them to stay connected with valued and security-giving roots and heritage. However, if at some point that community becomes a stakeholder in the host community rather than simply a visitor, then a more constructive engagement is needed. In Bradford the proof of that is in the allienation fo young people form the Mosque leadership in many cases; either so that they become secularised or radicalised. Without wishing to comment, at this point, on the pros and cons of such responses, it would be better for the health of society [including global society] if the young people in such communities could feel that they can take a positive stance in respect of their parents' values. A more 'in touch' leadership would help.

St George's day

Yesterday was St.George's day. The only way I would have known [yes -I'd not realised either] was the appearance of a knight and a dragon on the Google.co.uk title logo -in fact my wife didn't realise the significance, so I was able to show off the fact that I'd read the CT and knew what it was about -short-lived glory but pleasing for a minute.

Anyway the article referenced isn't the full one [the CT policy dictates that you have to wait for two weeks before they publish these kinds of articles]. Basically tells us the origins of St George and the reason he was chosen as England's patron Saint -it puts it down to post Crusade triumphalism -not what I'd heard before but ... anyway the recommendation is that it would be a good signal in an age of inter-faith good-relating if we un-chose St G. The substitute brough on in extra time is recommended as St.Alban, who is, after all, the first recorded Christian martyr on British soil, a Roman soldier who died protecting a British priest [how's that for a multi-racial motif?]. Me? -I'm for it- great idea.

Just one thing though, seeing a car this mornign with English flag waving [you know -the red cross -the cross of St.George] and thought; "Oh, change patron saint = change flag?". I'm all for that too -I've always felt [being of Welsh ancestry] that it was unfair that there was not representation of Wales/Cymru on the Union flag [down to Wales being colonised by the Anglo-Norman regime before Wales ever go to be more than a handful of squabbling 'kingdoms']. But I suspect that changing the flag would be too much at this time. But then again ...

Vanunu gives thanks for release in Cathedral

Afterwards I realised that Jonny Baker had blogged this, but at the time I read this article I remember thinkingg, "I didn't realise Vanunu was a Christian". More, in fact, his decision to blow the whistle, was apparently based on Christian principles. So I take my hat off to a fellow Anglican and pray that he will be able to reconstruct his life well. God bless you, Mordechai.

I remember seeing an interesting article in the Indy, I think it was, saying that Israel's justice system had an interesting and flawed legal precedent in the Vanunu case: it would suggest that it is illegal to inform the relevant authorities if you discover something illegal is taking place ... apply that to the West Bank ... !

Quebec -wind energy superpower?

Or so it would seem -potential to get ahead in the market very quickly. Presumably proximity to USA would help too.

More bad news for livestock

IT could be that Britain's sheep farmers have much to fear -again- another virulent disease could be on it's way. I still maintain it would help if we consumed less meat ....

Russia and Kyoto -another U-turn?

After sending signals that seemed to indicate that ratifying the Kyoto agreement wasn't in Russia's interests, it may be that they will do it after all.... read about it; it may be that all the shilly-shallying is about extracting as many concessions favourable to Russia as they can before ratifying. The effect would be to convert the protocol into an international treaty and isolate USAmerica , apparently.

Get clued in about oil reserves

This is a really helpful article with a nice little link to graphs etc about the oil exploitation prospects for the next century. WE could have oil reserves for 100years, ceratinly for 40 years but at present rate 'production' is just keeping pace with consumption -and that's before the developing world joins in appreciably [look at the map shoewing where oil is -and isn't- consumed].



And as Greenpeace say: seeing as it's so polluting, do we really want to use it all up?

Paradoxology -what a cool title for a lovely blog

While I was seraching for web-beased info for my dissertation [Life Coaching, Spiritual Direction and Culture] I came across this site [had a nice reference to life coaching in a spiritual context]. I have added it to my blog list for regular viewing. I encourage a good look round. Nice look to the site aswell.

Flooding in the UK

A further reference to my expressed concerns about the impact of global warming. It won't all be grapes in Gloucestershire: it'll also be seadefenses on the south coast and the possible extinction of places like Chichester.

I come to praise not to bury

Joyti De-Laurey is to be sentence for stealing millions from moneyed men. This article points out a few home truths that I felt were well made. One is that the men concerned didn't notice for ages -theyare so rich that, well, frankly, the odd million here and there never gets noticed, there's plenty more where that came from and it just sits there doing nothing most of the time. The article suggests this is also an argument for a %50 income tax band for the super rich: if they don't notice it missing in a case like this why are they going to miss it when the government has it to do something more productive with, like funding universities [assuming we can cure them of spending it on ill-advised sorties into middle eastern countries].

Not that I'm condoning stealing, but it makes you think ...

Reining in the corporations

A failed attempt to apply the idea of 3 strikes and you're out to corporations in USA [well California, in fact]. An interesting idea -especially given the facts mentioned in the article. The one that sticks in my mind is that corporate crimes cost far more than individual crimes, individually as as an aggregate.

Corporate personhood and its place or not in free society

We so easily forget that corporations are legal and financial inventions of humanity, too often now the tail wags the dog and they have become the oppressors of humanity in many places, many cases. Freed from national control and all but the scarcest legal accountability they can tyrannise and make life miserable for many and endanger to long-term viability of our ecosystem. That is of course the case against. The case for is that they enable big projects and harmonise human effort for the greater and common good. That's the case for. And this is one of those areas where the truth lies at both extremes.

The website in the title of this blog highlights the danger of having granted corporations legal staus as persons and seeks to revoke that status in USAmerica. Will it work? Who knows -but it should be that corporations are made more socially accountable somehow.How to represent the interests of stakeholders in a meaningful way?

Green economics

Just discovered this website for Green Party on sustainable economics. Not yet had chance to digest but it's clearly an important resource/reference point.

Bookless books

Now I like this idea; ever since I was little and I used to read in bed or other awkard places, finding that page turning was tough or holding the book open was tiring on the thumbs [that horrible pain in the palm of the hand], I have dreamed of the electronic book where you turn the pages by pushing a button or even talking to it. Well it looks like they finally came up with a design that could do it for me. 'They' being the Japanese. Admittedly it's not cheap but it sounds great and given that we have weigh [sic] too many books in the possible scenario of having to move from a vicarage into a semi [yes folks the price of losing my job and having a wife training for ordination -if I don't find a suitable replacement post] with all our books makes the possibility of having any future ones in digital form a very attractive proposition ... Now how much were they giving me for my redundancy payment .... ?

Pros and cons of nuke power

The US is looking at restarting its nukiller power programme again to cut pollution. The article gives a good bit of history to the issue.



Like the article says: “Nuclear power is not necessarily inherently unsafe,” says Stephen Smith, executive director of Southern Alliance to Clean Energy, which is against investing in nukes. “But it’s inherently unforgiving. If you make a mistake, it’s enormous.” -That's why it will never cut it as commercial -unsubsidized- power; it's simply not insurable cheaply enough -as the article notes. Notice too the things that are not factored in to the cheap quotes. The thing that gets me is at a time when terrorist threats are supposed to be top of the agenda, the US govt is thinking of investing billions in potential 'dirty bombs' many of them near population centres .... now there's got to be something wrong with that.

wooden PC's

Here's a cute idea -billed as more green though that might not be the case depending on the sourcing of the wood [sustainably manged forest?]. But I like the idea. I've always fancied wooden PC's. Don't forget though that the inside bits are still going to be metal and silicon though .... just checking!

Environment Sunday

Now I've just found out that Environment Sunday is June 6th ... aually I think I vaguely knew that but had ignored it becasue I don't like the dating -it fitted badly with the university year. Personally I would like us more genrally as churches to take a leaf out of the book of the Little Gidding community who -according to their prayer book- have a creation season before Kingdom/Advent seasons. I'd go for that. Start in September sometime, include Harvest and go on to explore themes to do with the goodness of creation, stewardship etc etc. What liturgical colours would we recommend?

Earth Day today

... and I didn't know till last night; call myself an environmentalist -pah! Anyway better luck next year. Though given I'm on sabbatical this year there wasn't much I could have organised and what is going on? I can only find stuff in London [try this link]. It's a nice-looking site. Couldn't get the Eco-footprint link to work though, so if you have the same problem try this.

I think I can feel an alternative worship event coming on...

Ordering in foreign

As part of my research on corporateness in humanity I've been following up a bit on Girard mimesis and James Alison [see books I'm reading] and ... well, this is my order with FNAC
Un Mime nommé désir -- Jean-Michel Oughourlian
Des choses cachées depuis la fondation du monde -- René Girard

I could have read them in English but I thought, 'What? I speak French and Spanish -why am I reading translations?' But finding French books on Amazon doesn't work too well. These are cheaper and more available.

I've also ordered a Spanish theology book on the basis that James Alison seemed to reference it a lot ... isn't the internet wonderful?

Slash and burn farming -mitigated

Normally I would have posted this on TheGreening, but it seemed like it was a bit more of a development story than an environmental one, in the end -although ecologically good news too. Basically a technique in agrivculture which enables rainforest based peasants to stay put rather than constantly moving on and grass and similar weeds take over where they leave off. Working with nature works ... it seems.

deinstitutionalised religion is all the rage

At one level there's nothing new in this article. On the other paw, the news that 68% of USAmericans surveyed said that they had used the internet for religious purposes, is interesting and probably revealing. It all goes along with the stuff that Pete Ward brought to our [well, mine, anyway] attention in "liquid Church" and of a piece with Paul Heelas's work on New Age Movements. In our western societies the self rather than the group/society has become the locus of values and valuing ... Still doesn't quite square with USA's way higher churchgoing rates though....

10 guidelines for forgiveness

I'm not normally one for '7 steps to ...' or similar programmatic approaches to things. However, this is not so much a programme as a set of hints and I'm pretty impressed. I like what it included in this page especially the ideas of educating yourself, spending time each day 'clearing out' your thinking and weeding out the 'shoulds'.

In particular: this set of definitions of what forgiveness is not -most of them we've already seen over the last couple of months on this blog:

"Forgetting. If the hurt wounded you enough to require forgiveness, you may always have a memory of it.
Excusing or condoning. The wrong should not be denied, minimized, or justified.
Reconciling. You can forgive the offender and still choose not to reestablish the relationship.
Weakness. You do not become a doormat or oblivious to cruelty"

The one that hasn't been picked up before, at least in this kind of way is the last of them about weakness -not becoming a doormat to cruelty. It is part of the whole issue about forgiveness needing not to condone wrongdoing and applies it to oneself. I know some people shy away from forgiveness because they -rightly- shyy away from allowing evil/wrongdoing to continue and for that continuance to be given permission by their forgiveness.

Also the idea of spending time each day identifying and releasing wrongs seems eminently sensible -it would be part of everyone's life who prayed the Lord's prayer daily and thoughtfully: "forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us".

I haven't seen anywhwere else on the subject of forgiving the idea of challenging the shoulds in our thinking. This is important as it gets to the roots of why we get cross with others and move on to resentment and/or grudge-bearing: we have views about how we and others should act/think. When others violate those unspoken standards our sense of righ/wrong is violated. SOmetimes [as we have discussed already] those standards are fair enough; sometimes, however, they are inappropriate and we need to recognise that fact and 'debug' our thinking. In that way we can remove, over time, some of the occasions that can generate lack of forgiveness in us.

Definitely a bookmarkable page.

Greener city planning -on the way?

John Prescott "proposes national college to educate planners and politicians in sustainable growth, using 'core cities' to lead the way" -says it all really and sounds like a good thing too. But there's many a slip twixt cup and lip... One of the things I'[ve been picking up as I slowly read through "Natural Capitalism" is that we have the means to plan neighbourhoods, houses etc in ways that are environmentally friendlier and also cheaper to maintain and to run [because less resource hungry]. The problem identified in the book is that often planners and architects don't know what is possible. I would hope that this proposed centre could help in this.

climate risk assesment enters into investment

This is the way that shareholder power is working; people are realising that climate issues carry financial risks of various kinds [not least in the USA of class action suits, I imagine] and are wanting to know the scale of such risks to inform their investment choices.



To quote from the article:

"Recent evidence suggests that in certain sectors the cost of climate change to shareholder value can represent as much as 15 per cent of the total market capitalisation of major companies."



The move reflects a nascent but growing emphasis on socially responsible investing, as non-governmental organisations and some institutional investors try to force companies to become more environmentally responsible.Institutional investors are increasingly filing shareholder resolutions asking companies to disclose financial risks from climate change and environmental regulations. [end quote]



Again it adds up to not only ethical concerns but a recognition that ethics will come back and bite you if ignored. It is increasingly hard to avoid the consequences of irresposible actions [not like in the good old days of industrial capitalism, eh?] and they have price tags. What goes around really does come around. Politics for a connected world is about globalised interconnection. I don't see the end of capitalism but I do see it being chastened by the the need for prices to reflect real costs.

China gets into hydrogen power

You know, I feel a lot better knowing that this is happening. "China is not burdened with a large-scale traditional car manufacturing infrastructure, so it could skip the 21st century's auto-making techniques and develop concept cars with the 21st century characteristics, said Professor Meinolf Dierkes, an expert with the German Berlin social sciences research center."



Which is what you would hope; there isn't any real need if we structure things right, for developing nations to be stuck with our development patterns. In fact, if post-war Germany and Japan are any guide, it would advantage China and any other developing nations to come in on this kind of thing with the latest and best technology and thinking.



Just note this though:" China will need 450 million tons of petroleum by 2020, of which 60 percent will be imported." this is predicated on growth of car ownership in PRC and usage. What will this mean in a world having already peaked in fossil fuel exploitation and heading for the wind-down? It should accelerate the use-up and raise the price. That would be fine from the point of view of discouraging petroleum and encouraging alternatives. However, what kind of geo-political ramifications does it have in a world where arguably the first war over depleting reserves of oil has been fought [in Iraq] and where a number of conflicts are already simmering round other resource issues [eg water in the middle east]? Not good news.

Western hypocrisy in trade exposed -cotton

Here's yet another illustration of how developed nations take a 'do as I say not as I do' approach to wrold trade. Developing nations are asked [pressured into] to dismantle tariffs and subsidies for their own [usually crop-based] industries while we subsidise and tariffise our own....

Mosque in Cathedral in Cordoba?

This'll be an interesting story to watch and see how it develops. After the Reconquista when the Reyes Catolicos ousted the moors from Spain and unified Spain under Catholic monarchy, the mosque in Cordoba was converted to Christian worship by becoming a Cathedral. With increased north African presence in southern spain the question is being posed by Muslims; "Could we use our old mosque please?". I've long wanted to visit Cordoba [and Seville and Granada and Toledo], but as I haven't I don't know how good might be the geographical solutions to share space or how it might be done -the article hints that it should be possible relatively easily. It is interesting to note the appeal to the Vatican: Catholic pronouncements on interfaith theologiy etc in recent years have been tolerant whilst retaining the centrality and uniquness of Christ for salvation, so there is room to make that appeal over the heads of what might appear from this article to be an unsympathetic hierarchy.

Of course the question of whether Christians could do the same in Muslim-majority lands is an interesting one [and put by one person in the article]. Personally I feel that any such request from Muslims if met should perhaps also include an explicit statement from the Muslim groups concerned recogniseing that it would be fair to allow Christians [and others] similar rights/priviledges in more Islamic states ...

Water mills -the English idyll returns?

Okay so the amount of power produced is small by wind turbine standards -but a water mill could supply a hamlet or a small village with electricity and that's worth going for particularly given that it is fairly constant, aesthetically pleasing with hints of loads of history .... bit of a feelgood story this.

GM soya shows it colours

In Argentina GM soya has been grown for something like seven years now. It's interesting then to look at their experience: there are some worrying developments to do with the amount of herbicides used and the effects on weeds and surrounding areas and the knock-on effects of these things. Sobering reading I think.

Jeffrey John at St Albans?

I find myself thinking that this seems a good thing: I couldn't really understand the response of conservative evangelicals over the Bishop of Reading proposed-appointment: the guy is celibate so what's the problem? If it's to do with the fact that he proposes gay unions should be allowable I can't see why the fuss there -lot's of bishops think that [the current bishop of Manchester for example] and no-one seems to bat an eyelid... Unless the difficulty is that they do not really believe he is celibate. It may be that he hasn't publically repented of the previous relationship -but since the point at issue is whether the church's teaching and understanding in such matters should change then I feel it is a bit mouch to expect. Basically he is being asked to deny the possibility of making a case; to shut up. I can't see that is fair given that he is willing, pro tem, to adhere to the church's current teaching in practice.

Will it catch on?

I can't tell you whether it will or not but it's certainly an interesting idea: online church using avatars -perhaps they should invite the Oxford diocese's Cyber Pastor to lead it. The question is, if the leader chose a different avatar -or even several per service- they could give the impression of there being a leadership team. Whayhey!

Fact conveyed through fiction -or not

After posting yesterday about the Da Vinci Code I came across this article which develops some of my concerns quite well. The article says: "Among inaccuracies they list: The characters' claims that belief in Jesus' divinity appeared in the fourth century rather than the first century; that the four New Testament Gospels became authoritative in the fourth century rather than the second century; and that the Dead Sea Scrolls and Gnostic writings (deemed heretical by the church) contain the earliest Christian records -- though one Gnostic text does have some scholarly promoters.

"Da Vinci" also supposes that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and sired a royal Judeo-French bloodline that still exists -- and that sinister Christians suppressed information about this. The scenario comes from a 1982 book titled "Holy Blood, Holy Grail," which a New York Times reviewer called "rank nonsense." "
Just so.

Then to make things worse the author claims that these details are, in fact true; "At first, "Da Vinci" drew little religious opposition because people "didn't subject it to the same kind of scrutiny they would a nonfiction book," Garrett says. But when Brown told NBC that "absolutely all of it" is true, the Rev. Darrell Bock of Dallas Theological Seminary decided the novelist wasn't just having fun but was undermining Christianity. "

Bock has written a book refuting the 'factional' implied claims; it is called "Breaking the Da VInci Code". And apparently the RC's are publishing a book shortly called "The Da Vinci Hoax."

A lot of the article is about the Left Behind series -somehow I can't get as worked up about it; yes it is a publishing phenomenon -but is that so in the UK? -I think not. I suspect that the Da VInci Code is outselling the LaHaye series by quite a bit in Britain because we over here don't really by that premillenial stuff and the churchgoing rates are so much smaller that the cookiness of premillenialism doesn't really fascinate, intrigue or even interest over here.

I wonder whether premillenialism is to contemporary USA what postmillenialism was to the British of Empire days? -A religious underpinning to ideology? In the case of the ritish empire it underpinned the ideas of progress and empire as the agent of progress. In the case of the USA, it allows for a sense of goodies and baddies in the world [yeah and we know who is who] and also to disregard the long-term consequences of policies [eg environmental] because things won't last that long and someone else will bail us out. There must be a fuller analysis out there somewhere -if you know where let me know.

Just read the Da Vinci Code

I read it because it's selling well internationally and it contains, as part of the plot, a number of ideas about the church and Chrsitian origins that are ill-founded in fact. THose who have seen stigmata will know the kind of thing. If you have read that book about the bloodline of Christ through Mary Magdalene then you will recognise that this novel does a "what if this was true and there were some political figures in the RC Church and the Priory of Sion who wanted to sort things out ...."

Positively I must say that it is a fun read and quite entertaining and even gripping. On the other hand, it is obviously written by a USAmerican and the little explanations that go with that get a little wearing at times as well as little missed details. The fact that it was written in English but purports to report French conversations at times wears thin [as in -how would that be said in French and why would that etymology or pun work in French?].

More majorly, of course, we see the repitition of the allegations that major points of Christian doctrine [incarnation and atonement] were inventions of Constantine's era and without foundation in the church's history thitherto. It is repeated that gnostic and similar gospels are as historically 'viable' as the ones on the canon and that the canon was invented de novo in Constantinian times. These ideas are well known and the truth is actually pretty different [check out this site designed to deal with the same kind of issues from Muslim challengers].

Yes: it is a work of fiction and so we shouldn't take these things too seriously; on the other hand a lot of people don't know any better and given the climate of hostility to orthodox Christian claims [in favour of the allegedly powerless victims of past orthodoxy] of and the urge for novelty and for newAgery it is not hard to see how these allegations will uncritically be taken to be gospel truth [or at least mostly true] by many and be reeled out in conversations and spiritual debate all over the place. This would be reinforced by the way the book keeps stressing how this is all well accepted by scholars and indeed by most 'sensible' [not the books phrase] Christians. Sheesh.

The real apologetics of today are being carried out in 'fiction' and 'we' are losing the struggle for hearts and minds. Perhaps we need to a savvy rapid rebuttal team who can do the rebuttals in a way that is engaging and winsome?

This'll get you going

Russian Presidential economic adviser Andrei Illarionov has really let rip; this is a good article to cut your teeth on: spot the wrongnesses of the metaphor of the Kyoto protocol as a gulag.... it relies on the idea that emitting fossil carbon is like eating. You wonder whether this guy has really understood the bigger picture. How do people like this get these jobs? It would be laughable if the implications for the rest of us and our children weren't so serious.

Too much meat

Having recently blogged about this, on The Greening, I discover yet another article [originally from the New Scientist] which opines that we are eating tto much meat. The NS is a subscriber service so the link goes to a copy article so you don't have to sign up or anything.

Anyway the point is that for all sorts of reasons -health and environmental are the main ones [I'm not a vegetarian becasue I think that eating animals is wrong per se] we ought to cut our meat consumption.

Soul Surviver goes to USA

Usually we end up with stuff that started in USA but here's one exam[ple of it going the other way. Yay! As charismatic stuff goes I'm okay with Soul Surviver as it tends to foster a good wholistic approach to spirituality [social justice for example is a good part of the agenda] -at least as far as I've seen it in the CU's I've been involved with... Just one query though; the site talks about emerging worshippers ... what does that mean? I was just getting the idea that 'emerging' might be an up-and-coming synomym for 'alternative' ... but now I'm not so sure.

New Consumer

Found a new [to me] mag yesterday in Borders, leeds: "New Consumer" -it's only £2 an issue or £10 pa and got lots of interesting articles on fair trade realted issues and some nice advertising links.

Cow farts are a threat to the climate

Sounds too strange to be true but ... actually methane is a major greenhouse gas [more potent than carbon dioxide] and lots of cattle soon add up. This is yet another argument for those who are concerned about climate change to consider either being vegetarian or cutting down on meat consumption....

Blair and co too optimistic?

Jonathan Porrit reckons that the government of the UK are too optimistic and/or complacent about progress on the environmental front: and with some cause. Basically this is a critique which reckons that the present government is not taking the depth of the problems facing us seriously enough and that the gradualist approach is too gradual. What do you think? Full report here.

Forgiveness as openness to relating

I warmed to this page because it pretty much gives a definition of forgiveness that I had come to a few years back when wrestling with the issues raised by what forgiveness would be in relation to situations faced by parishioners: "It means being willing to take the initiative in dealing with any barriers that I may be raising towards a restored relationship. It means that I am willing to have a relationship with the other party that is based on Christian love and not on what has happened in the past, if the response of the other person makes that possible."

I felt [and feel] that forgiveness is a point in a journey to reconciliation -but since reconciliation is two-way, then forgiveness may be as far as we can get. I seem to recall some fo the issue for me was reflecting on God's forgiveness of us human beings: it's not the whole story; we need to be prepared to be reconciled by, firstly, accepting that forgiveness. However, for us as opposed to God, it is important to be able to lay aside the un-wholeness that lack of forgiveness brings into our lives. I'm not sure how far that could apply to God, if at all. Though it may be interesting to linger with that isssue a while longer.

Of course even desiring to make a relationship possible may be hard to face, and that seems to me to be the value in those things that have been mentioned in some of the previous blogs in this series: finding a common humanity, empathy, excusing and so on. They all make it easier to make the possibilty of reconciliation [of some kind] envisionable and even desirable.

But of course -it takes two and we are not the only ones in the equation. We may have to live with the impossibility of relating positively because of death or other incapacity on the part of our 'enemy'.

Petrol pricing in the US

This is a great exercise in how others see us. I remember a couple of summers ago in the USA we got to talking about petrol ['gas'] prices and the USA-ers were shocked by our prices to which I said acidly "At least some countries are trying to keep to climate control protocols, unlike some I could name...". Well, perhaps something of an overstatement especially in the light of recent news on climate control from Europe including the UK's suddenly worsening record on carbon emissions but it's interesting to see how it looks from the/a USA perspective.



As one person says in the article: "It's all very well for Americans that they have this standard of living and can drive around in big, empty cars, but don't they realize that at some point they're going to have to pay for it?" [asked Nigel James]. Quite so -might be better to try to manage it rather than going big bang?

Turkey and wind power

It looks like Turkey could be powering into wind generation -makes sense when you think about the amount of coastline and the general geography.

What forgiveness is not

This a brief but helpful guide to some distinctions that seem to be important in forgiving. The differentiation from excusing is one that I have already touched on in my own comments and I think does come from CS Lewis, for me. I think that distinguishing it from forgetting is important too; for some people I have dealt with, the idea that forgiving means that we forget has been a big barrier to progress. I think that "avoidnace" is perhaps misleading -it certainly was to me but I agree with the content of that section -minimising or making out that something is not important is not forgiving. And again, in pastoral ministy, I have had to disabuse people of the notion that somehow forgiving means to think that the hurt is not important.

To me the point of forgiving is precisely that there has been a hurt caused -if it's not important then there's nothing [or little] to forgive. It relates to the important consideration that forgiveness is about forgiving wrongs done. Minimising seeks to avoid the whole idea of forgiving by turning the wrong into something less wrong or even heading towards excusing. That's not to say that we shouldn't make appropriate allowances for circumstances and accidents etc. It is often important for people to recognise that a wrong has been done in order to retain a sense of their own integrity and to maintain right beliefs about right and wrong. Minimising the wrongs can be failing to recognise the wrongs and undercut justice and love. Properly to forgive means to look the real wrong in the face, square on, acknowledge its wrongness and to move on. In that way we continue to affirm the truth and the good and don't write them off as somehow irrelevant or not quite right, somehow.

Wahhabism outlawed in Russia?

In previous blogs I have mentioned Wahhabi Islam as being a particularly austere [and suspect within the Islamic community round Bradford -in general]form of Islam which seems most conducive to Islamism, well here are some interesting comments from a Russian judge. It may be worth seeing what, if anything, becomes of it. I suspect that it won't go any further but it is interesting that someone has spolen about it in this way.

May have to read ...

...the Da Vinci Code. Looks like it's so popular and contains so many fictions about Christian faith etc that it may be necessary to know what they are before they start being accepted as fact and cropping up in conversations about spirituality, faith etc. Unfortunate fact is that people seem ready to believe all sorts of stuff about the Christian faith "True origins" which are harder to square with the evidence than the actual claims. We are really swimming against the tide in terms of popular perceptions when people find fictions more believeable than the realities. It isn't that people are more skeptical in general, no [as GK Chesterton pointed out so many years ago]: it's that having abandoned the Christian faith they [in general] are ready to believe anything but.

Our most urgent missionary task in this culture is to recover plausibility and that will mean paying attention to what gains respect and a sense of plausibility in popular culture with regard to the spirtual dimensions of life. The New Age movements are perhaps a helpful indicator of which way the wind [or Wind?] is blowing.

Cholesterol skepticism

Originally I found this in the guardian but followed the link they gave. The interest is to people like me who have a family history of people having heart attacks and in my case also a raised level of cholesterol. The medical advice seems to be conflictual but I must admit that the evidence coming in from people doing the Atkins diet seems to be intriguing -their higher fat in the diet [and satuarated at that] does not raise levels of serum cholesterol. What seems to do so is carbohydrate. This would explain why, despite lowering the amount of fat in my diet my serum chlesterol has never realy varied greatly. I have long suspected that the liver produces the stuff itself from non-fatty sources and the article on the Atkins diet explains the biocemistry as to why that should be so. So I'm rethinkng my diet approach and wondering whether a more Atkins-like diet might be a good idea: don't worry so much about the fats: worry about the carbs. Now the question is about whether I can tweak a vegetarian diet in that direction easily enough...

Forgiveness for a part in genocide

"when he wrote up the story 20 years later, he [Simon Wiesenthal] sent it to the brightest ethical minds he knew - Jew, Gentile, Catholic, Protestant, and irreligious. "What would you have done in my place?" he asked. "Did I do right?"

Of the 32 men and women who responded, only 6 said he had done wrong in not forgiving the German. Most thought he had done right. "What moral or legal authority did he have to forgive injuries done to someone else?" they asked. Some questioned the whole concept of forgiveness."

The incident that caused this questioning was being asked by a German soldier for forgiveness for the part he had played in killing Jews in Russia. There is a theological aspect to this also: how can God forgive wrongs done to others? -I don't fully know how to answer that one but I think it is important to pose it. I suspect that part of the response to it is to note that God is close to and values each human [well each part of creation in fact] and takes a personal interest in each and every. Like when we love someone who is hurt -it hurts us too. Though that doesn't tie it all up it does lay the basis for establishing a link between wronging other people and that being a sin in relation to God which needs God's forgiveness...

As I've only managed to get about half way through the various things I wanted to do on forgiveness during Lent I hope to continue through Eastertide.

Rowan at Easter

I think I could get to be a Rowan Williams fan: this sermon is good stuff. Well worth the short time it'll take to read; pleanty to think on about.

Burying your carbon in the sand

It's an idea that just won't go away. Make up your own mind about whether you think it could work and do so on a long-term basis. But it looks like burying CO2 is on the serious consideration agenda at least in Australia. I have to confess that while I ffeel cynical about it, it might have th epotential to help -as long as we didn't see it as THE solution and fail to do the other things that we know are good ideas.

Christians in the Holy Land

I can't decide whether I support this organisation or not [is their methodology the best way of achieving their aims?]. However, I do share their concern; the emigration rates of 'native' Christians from middle eastern countries is alarming, particularly recently. And yet there's another part of me saying -so what? But the part that says it is a shame that the way things are is making Christians feel so uncomfortable [to say the least] that they would rather emigrate than stay and it is a loss to the potential mission of Christ in those lands .... Interesting what this says about Muslim majority countries at the moment, in the light of George Carey's much criticised comments [blogged earlier].

Geopolitical implications of global warming

a Canadian perspective on the effect of polar ice cap melt and the prospect that the northwest passage becomes a straight navigable all year round ....

Hydrogen?

Her's a report of a report that seems to indicate that it may be more energy expensive to produce hydrogen as a fuel than we'd get from it at the point of use. Not sure how to assess this article. There are a lot of questions raised which the article doesn't address but may be in the report. Like is this at current rates? What dofference does it make once the infrastructure is in place? Does it factor in the potential offered by 'on the spot' production through catalysis or similar? What about the fact that hydrogen could store other wose surplus and thus 'lost' energy from renewables such as tidal and wind and solar? I'm no expert, I'm waiting for the riposte before I write it off. Though you've got to take this seriously as a major report.

global warming denials from the Republicans

It starts to feel almost ridiculous were it not that these people could end up running the world's most powerful nation again. Despite the acceptance of the reality of global warming by even the Pentagon, Bush's lot are trying to give false hope and reasurance where they have no right to. Read this article and weep.

World Health Day

It turns out that RTA's a very major cause of death. In the UK they are the third biggest killer after heart disease and depression [and that latter is sobering enough -most likely to affect young men, too]. It's an interesting indictment of our way of running the world. I wonder what motoring costs would look like if we externalised the costs from the NHS to the motorists? If there is an RTA should the NHS bill the DTI for the repair jobs? [Minus their own road use? -but they have paid for that through the license fee on the ambulances already]. Anyway, the point I'm making is that the road user should be paying for the environmental cost and also the health costs of road use, that way the price of motoring would help to inform decisions more accurately by including an element related to the risks and non-financial costs of the activity.

That's not forgetting the perspective that these deaths are of people precious to God and to families and friends. I'm thinking that there is more room here for building some worship and reflection around this theme. Shame I'm not in a position to do that at the moment. I think I would want to start with a reflection on the preciousness of human life, include the way that the patterns of deaths vary between developed and developing world and the projections of future patterns, I suspect there is a place for penitence for our own misuse of the priviledge of road usage. I rather like the idea of using toy cars for intercessions ... can we work that in? And/or using road signs in some way perhaps to mark out stations? Iyt seems to me that there would be some value in considering the use of testimony or even [in some circumstances and I think that in Sanctuary it would have worked] a time for sharing of experiences of RTA's particularly recognising the feelings around them. -Of course this latter could be linked with the roadsigns idea or even the toy car idea, perhaps.

If I was part of a planning group I think that I would suggest that we started with a splurge-sharing of our own feelings and perspectives on RTA's and see what emerged in terms of having heard it all asking which stories, perspectives etc stood out as potential raw material for common worship ...

Into that mix we need to add the recognition that we may have people present who have been in RTA's either as someone who has caused injury or even death or as someone who has been injured or bereaved. It's easy to understand why the services I have seen advertised in the past that deal with this issue are memorial services for those killed or maimed in RTA's -it's easier to keep that focus clear.

Fair trade palm branches, anyone?

It had crossed my mind, idly and at one of those times when you can't really do anything with it and then forgotten as a result, that we should ask a few questions about sourcing of palm branches. Well here's an article that tells us what we probably didn't want to know -there is an ethical problem with the sourcing of at least some palm branches used on palm Sunday in many churches. I must admit I will find it hard to ask God's blessing on the use of branches/leaves whose labour-history may be dodgy to say the least. I'm now trying to work out if there are ways to find fairly traded [either officially or unofficially] palm branches. Of course there is always the solution adopted and shared reccentlyl by a colleague working in Bradford [salute to John Hartley]: buy potted palms and grow your own. Of course you may need to check where they originally came from etc but as an ongoing solution it has some merit -you could even recycle your [fairly traded, of course] tea leaves to add to the vitatlity and growth of the palms. John [who also suggested the link] bought "Cordeline Australis (Torbay Palm) plants " ... just so you know.

CLimate change more threatening than terrorism

I'm sure he's right -the powers that be, focussed [justifiably, and David King aknowledges, rightly] on the threat of terrorism but they should not take their eyes off the climate ball [should that be globe?] -the potential consequences will mean greater misery for many more in future [and not so far away as all that since we are beginning to feel the effects already]. A purely utilitarina analysis would suggest that a very practive response is required. The last budget [as blogged a couple of weeks ago] suggests we aren't do that. And the recent fossil carbon figures for the UK give no cause for complacency at all.

fair trade in UK?

Been meaning to blog this for about three days .... I was tending to buy British goods if there were no fair trade ones available on the basis that with our employment legislation, it should be reasonably fair. This article [well, leader, actually] from the Guardian has made me think again. It may be time to search out the farmers markets. I wonder if there's a fair trade campaign for British goods? The issues seesm to be to put pressure on the major food retailers -but I'm wondering how we can best go about that ... answers on a postcard ...

More on Carey and Islam

Two very different takes on this and both worth pondering. My view, having read the speech and thought about the ripostes [including Andrew Brown's negative one in the Church Times -but then he is well known for not being a fan of Carey] I still think that there are a couple of well made made points in what Carey said that deserve more investigation/fuller response. Most of the reported reactions have been picking up out of context soundbites and eliding the careful modifiers in what Carey says. It is understandable that Mulsims in the West should be twitchy about people saying things about their faith -as a Christian in an apathetic and sometimes hostile-to-my-faith society, I find a lot that smacks of the same kind of defensiveness that I sometimes feel. But for all of us there are unpalatable facts and allowing Muslims to get away from their share isn't doing any of us any good. now or in th elonger term. There is a time for truth telling. The encouraging thing is that the recent Muslim Council of Britain missive to British ulema etc seems to be a sign that some of these things are, in fact, being taken seriously. It isn't always islamophobia -least of all from George Carey who is not some hardline bigot [despite some of what people like Andrew Brown seem to imply].