Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | 'My mother always wants to save money - I want to spend it': "Feng was 26 when she married (her husband, Lilian's dad, is an engineer and away working) and they had two children. Lilian was 29 when she married Richard and her parents are prepared for the possibility that she will have no children. In the future, says Lilian, every Chinese young person will be expected to support four to six oldies; she figures that they will have enough on their plates without children, too."
Hmmmm! Gives substance to the UN report predicting an aging global population.
12 November 2004
Older fathers
Guardian Unlimited Money | News_ | Money worries delay fatherhood, says survey:
This is an important thing to note in terms of the big impact it could have on church life. Let's just tease out some possibilities on that. There's issues in the CofE related to Christening enquiries. My research shows that men are least likely to think that Christening in whatever form is something that they are wiling to publicly identify with and as their confidence grows with age I suspect that this could feed even more into the diminishing figures recently published. On the other hand, it is likely that they are going to be having children when mid-life is making them ask questions of meaning of life and which having children is likely to exacerbate. There may be opportunities though I think that pitching our response in terms of what kind of world we create for our children may be the most fruitful rather than an Alpha approach.
Also given new interest and entitlements to involvement in parenting it could be that the whole mother and toddler thing will look increasingly different.
Articulate, reasonably financially secure, wanting more involvement in their children's upbringing and perhaps less willing to let the mother's interest in spiritual things be the default position on matters pertaining to spirituality: that's the likely kind of way it looks. MAybe these guys are into midlife issues but do they really see anything in the churches or the lives of Christians around them that make them think that Christ has something helpful to speak into their lives? Remember these are people who may well also be used to various kinds of training stuff that has a vaguely spiritual link [usually new agey].
I may be running way ahead of the facts here, but I would be surprised if some of it didn't check out.
One thing though:
"'The concept of children knowing their grandparents could disappear within a couple of generations if those trends continue,' said Jason Wyer-Smith, of Virgin Money Life Insurance."
Seems to be an issue of not taking into account the bigger picture: when I do funerals for people who've died in old age they have often died in their late 70's or in their 80's or older. Their children are in their 50's and 60's; their grandchildren are teens or twenties or thirties, they often have great grandchildren. Life insurance people haven't been linking up their actuarials with this factoid!
This is an important thing to note in terms of the big impact it could have on church life. Let's just tease out some possibilities on that. There's issues in the CofE related to Christening enquiries. My research shows that men are least likely to think that Christening in whatever form is something that they are wiling to publicly identify with and as their confidence grows with age I suspect that this could feed even more into the diminishing figures recently published. On the other hand, it is likely that they are going to be having children when mid-life is making them ask questions of meaning of life and which having children is likely to exacerbate. There may be opportunities though I think that pitching our response in terms of what kind of world we create for our children may be the most fruitful rather than an Alpha approach.
Also given new interest and entitlements to involvement in parenting it could be that the whole mother and toddler thing will look increasingly different.
Articulate, reasonably financially secure, wanting more involvement in their children's upbringing and perhaps less willing to let the mother's interest in spiritual things be the default position on matters pertaining to spirituality: that's the likely kind of way it looks. MAybe these guys are into midlife issues but do they really see anything in the churches or the lives of Christians around them that make them think that Christ has something helpful to speak into their lives? Remember these are people who may well also be used to various kinds of training stuff that has a vaguely spiritual link [usually new agey].
I may be running way ahead of the facts here, but I would be surprised if some of it didn't check out.
One thing though:
"'The concept of children knowing their grandparents could disappear within a couple of generations if those trends continue,' said Jason Wyer-Smith, of Virgin Money Life Insurance."
Seems to be an issue of not taking into account the bigger picture: when I do funerals for people who've died in old age they have often died in their late 70's or in their 80's or older. Their children are in their 50's and 60's; their grandchildren are teens or twenties or thirties, they often have great grandchildren. Life insurance people haven't been linking up their actuarials with this factoid!
Australian water crisis: preview for the west
BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Australia in grip of water crisis:
It looks to me as if Australia is having to endure a foretaste of things to come for the developed world in thinking about water as a result of recent drought. For example in Sydney
"each resident was allowed to use up 150 litres per day, the equivalent of three 5-minute showers. He has warned that without significant rainfall Goulburn's supplies will reach a 'critical level' by July 2005. 'The goal would be for the community to fundamentally change the way it uses water,' Mr O'Rourke said."
So it could be too that Australis pioneers a differnet way with water and we can learn from it. Watch that space.
It looks to me as if Australia is having to endure a foretaste of things to come for the developed world in thinking about water as a result of recent drought. For example in Sydney
"each resident was allowed to use up 150 litres per day, the equivalent of three 5-minute showers. He has warned that without significant rainfall Goulburn's supplies will reach a 'critical level' by July 2005. 'The goal would be for the community to fundamentally change the way it uses water,' Mr O'Rourke said."
So it could be too that Australis pioneers a differnet way with water and we can learn from it. Watch that space.
soya -from saviour to villain?.
The Observer | Food monthly | Originally hailed as wonderful, soya can be bad for your health. It looks like soya has a bigger downside than first thought. the most worrying thing is that is is a vitim of its own success and that success is making it a part of the global problem rather than the solution. It needn't be so but the way business works globally ....
Energy and the global future
A good if short article on where we're are globally up to in terms of energy. Sobering reading and without fuller discussion of things like whether hydrogen really is the answer.
"Practically, the energy crisis is soluble. But reaching the broad sunlit uplands will mean a drastic mental gear change for policy-makers and consumers alike."
"Practically, the energy crisis is soluble. But reaching the broad sunlit uplands will mean a drastic mental gear change for policy-makers and consumers alike."
11 November 2004
Don't panic!
Dylan's lectionary blog:
In the light of what I blogged a few short hours ago about the end of the world as we know it, it was a word in season to read Dylan write: "
... in the face of human destruction. Don't panic about wars and rumors of wars. Don't panic when the sky itself shows troublesome portents."
It doesn't, of course, take away the need to think about such things and to try to take responsible action [for God will surely ask of us what we did knwing that things were as they were] but it does helpfully relativise it. The lamb wins by redemptive sovereignty not by might or naked power; at least that is the message of Revelation as I see it.
My post-apocalyptic picture includes taking a leaf out of the book of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches in Britian; establishing colonies of justice and compassion and learning amidst the wars rumours of wars, grred and naked ambition around them ... My next issue is how do I prepare my children to prepare their children?
In the light of what I blogged a few short hours ago about the end of the world as we know it, it was a word in season to read Dylan write: "
... in the face of human destruction. Don't panic about wars and rumors of wars. Don't panic when the sky itself shows troublesome portents."
It doesn't, of course, take away the need to think about such things and to try to take responsible action [for God will surely ask of us what we did knwing that things were as they were] but it does helpfully relativise it. The lamb wins by redemptive sovereignty not by might or naked power; at least that is the message of Revelation as I see it.
My post-apocalyptic picture includes taking a leaf out of the book of the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon churches in Britian; establishing colonies of justice and compassion and learning amidst the wars rumours of wars, grred and naked ambition around them ... My next issue is how do I prepare my children to prepare their children?
Gap and labour standards
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Gap pledges not to 'cut and run': For me the interesting thing here is that clearly promoting good labour practices as opposed to promoting cheap labour has clearly started to come of age:
"Gap had noticed some nations beginning to use higher labour standards as a way of selling themselves to companies for investment in factories located in export zones. He pointed to the example of Cambodia, which has an ILO (International Labour Office) monitoring system in place to try and guarantee higher working standards."
Which looks like good news to me. Read the article and see what you think.
"Gap had noticed some nations beginning to use higher labour standards as a way of selling themselves to companies for investment in factories located in export zones. He pointed to the example of Cambodia, which has an ILO (International Labour Office) monitoring system in place to try and guarantee higher working standards."
Which looks like good news to me. Read the article and see what you think.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)