Some ten Chinese asylum seekers have arrived in Darwin, hoping to sail onward across the Tasman to New Zealand. They are members of the Falun Gong cult and would certainly meet persecution if they returned to China. Their boat seems to be a reasonably seaworthy Malaysian fishing vessel, but it is unsuitable for crossing the Tasman in safety.
Alarm bells sound everywhere. We don’t want them to risk the Tasman passage in that boat. We don’t want them here. Australia, realising that they don’t wish to stay there, seem to have come over all helpful, and have given them temporary visas until they can be on their way. It’s all righteousness in Darwin.
John Banks, our Act Party resident bigot, simply wants to tell these people, “Don’t bother”. He omits to say what he thinks they should do. Simply disappear, presumably.
There are 10 of them, for heaven’s sake. My guess is that they would be good immigrants, certainly not lazy or unproductive.
What is happening to us? At various times we have had policies, official or not, to keep out Jews, to keep out Chinese... But now we know that both communities in New Zealand have been very much to NZ's benefit. The UK may be said to have a real immigration problem -- we do not.
NZ’s land area is about 268,021 sq km, population about 4.5 million, about 16.5 persons per square km. In the UK the land area is less, 243,610 sq km, and the population is about 62,262,000 -- some 255.6 per sq km. How does that seem to someone from China?
When do we learn to be generous and outgoing? I do not want to live in Fortress John Banks...! It is not beyond our wit to form laws and regulations to cover the possible consequences we are afraid of.
Teach English properly. Teach Asian languages in our schools. Get realistic about the way the world is becoming. Discourage knee-jerk suspicions and encourage people to embrace difference. After all, the death-knell of British and western primacy is sounding in the hills...
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Friday, April 06, 2012
Win a vasectomy
That sign was outside a veterinarian’s premises. Clearly a one stop shop. Someone expressed the hope that they clean the knife between species. But would the blokes around here be prepared to admit, I had mine done at the vet’s…?
Mine was done long ago in Fiji. That was fun. Fijian and Indian men on the whole would never dream of sterilization. They would also forbid their women from using contraceptives, or from tubal ligation, unless perhaps they were better informed than usual, and life could be in danger.
The Indian surgeon at CWM (the Suva public) Hospital routinely asked each patient who came in, without looking up, “What are you complaining of?” I replied “Fertility” -- so he looked up at me. I imagine at that point he dimly tried to remember his textbook procedures for vasectomy.
A reasonably prominent parish minister in Suva, I would have appreciated a fair degree of anonymity in this. But that was beyond the large and ebullient Fijian theatre and ward nurses. “Ah, Reverend, you will won’t have much fun now…!”
Among the basic realities of life is the experience of being trundled to theatre, slightly sedated and silly and knowing there is nothing more you can do -- you can have a similar experience taking off on an international flight.
But that’s enough about all that.
Hang the blighters
Directors of Bridgecorp were yesterday convicted on multiple charges brought under the Securities Act, the Crimes Act and the Companies Act. They have been remanded in custody and the judge has signalled that they will go to prison. Granny Herald reports:
One investor, Rex Warren invested $1 million in the company and today said it was the right outcome but it brought little closure. “Of course they're guilty, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime. I would be willing to pull the lever or pull the trigger if they were hung,'' said the Katikati man. Warren believed his loss could have been avoided. "I can say we made mistakes, but in my case most of the (Bridgecorp) staff knew what was happening when we invested our money but they didn't say anything.''
Well it’s hanged, not hung -- but I guess this is not a good moment for quibbling. Is there anyone else who wonders why the Herald bothers printing such offensive ignorance? So Rex Warren of Katikati is angry. But do he and other investors accept no responsibility whatever for their choice to invest in Bridgecorp? Is it always someone else’s fault?
No doubt there is ample reason for anger with the Bridgecorp directors, but precisely what is achieved by putting these men in prison? Yes, yes, it’s to send a signal…etc, to make an example, to satisfy our somewhat barbaric need to see people punished and suffer pain. I know all that, but it does not answer the question. I would have thought that the public humiliation of months of trial and then conviction would have been enough. These men with whatever skills they have could be sent to work to earn whatever they can for reparation. They won’t achieve anything much in prison.
We are a punitive, retributive culture, despite centuries of Christianity. Christians have been among the cruelest at times. I realise now I do not wish to be part of that culture. Perhaps I started exempting myself from it in about 1941 when I watched Mrs Copsey strapping kids because they had, often unintentionally displeased her. Auckland Grammar in my time was a violent and blind culture of incompetent teachers who thought whacking boys achieved something. It literally disgusted me. The violence moved seamlessly to the rugby field and general attitudes. We feel better to see people hurt, punished.
It is Good Friday as I write this. 2012. This is what I said in our little meditation group this morning:
Numbered with the transgressors - 6 April 2012
...the old King James Version words of Isaiah 53:
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...
It is very ancient and very beautiful and very moving poetry. It comes from centuries before the time of Jesus. It starkly depicts what happens to people. Never mind whether they are good people or bad. The fact is, as the poet realised, it is a cruel and unjust world.
We go on and on these days about deserving. Deserving has nothing to do with it. Good people suffer. In the towns of Syria... Nature takes over and devastates our lives. We get leukaemia, or alzheimers. Babies are born with some lethal disorder. In another way, after a lifetime of devoted public service you may stand in the dock accused of some neglect as a company director, and suffer utter and prolonged humiliation. People are accused unjustly, or justly. What is the difference...? as Robert Burns said,
Who made the heart, ‘tis he alone decidedly can try us...
Then at the balance let’s be mute, we never can adjust it.
What’s done, we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.
The Jews under Jewish law were in no doubt that Jesus was guilty as charged -- guilty they thought of blasphemy. The Romans under their law were not so sure -- he may have been guilty of sedition -- but Roman rule was in any case corrupt, and they needed peace in Palestine.
And so, in a morass of conflicting motives and ideals, of corrupt people, frightened people, ignorant people, Jesus chooses to stand there silent. Where would you start, anyway? His contemplative love of the Father, his complete confidence of the Father’s love for him, at this moment is the sustenance he needs. He is content to be numbered with the transgressors. Beaten, tortured, humiliated, condemned. We too have to fall into silence, if even for just this short time...
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...
One investor, Rex Warren invested $1 million in the company and today said it was the right outcome but it brought little closure. “Of course they're guilty, but the punishment doesn't fit the crime. I would be willing to pull the lever or pull the trigger if they were hung,'' said the Katikati man. Warren believed his loss could have been avoided. "I can say we made mistakes, but in my case most of the (Bridgecorp) staff knew what was happening when we invested our money but they didn't say anything.''
Well it’s hanged, not hung -- but I guess this is not a good moment for quibbling. Is there anyone else who wonders why the Herald bothers printing such offensive ignorance? So Rex Warren of Katikati is angry. But do he and other investors accept no responsibility whatever for their choice to invest in Bridgecorp? Is it always someone else’s fault?
No doubt there is ample reason for anger with the Bridgecorp directors, but precisely what is achieved by putting these men in prison? Yes, yes, it’s to send a signal…etc, to make an example, to satisfy our somewhat barbaric need to see people punished and suffer pain. I know all that, but it does not answer the question. I would have thought that the public humiliation of months of trial and then conviction would have been enough. These men with whatever skills they have could be sent to work to earn whatever they can for reparation. They won’t achieve anything much in prison.
We are a punitive, retributive culture, despite centuries of Christianity. Christians have been among the cruelest at times. I realise now I do not wish to be part of that culture. Perhaps I started exempting myself from it in about 1941 when I watched Mrs Copsey strapping kids because they had, often unintentionally displeased her. Auckland Grammar in my time was a violent and blind culture of incompetent teachers who thought whacking boys achieved something. It literally disgusted me. The violence moved seamlessly to the rugby field and general attitudes. We feel better to see people hurt, punished.
It is Good Friday as I write this. 2012. This is what I said in our little meditation group this morning:
Numbered with the transgressors - 6 April 2012
...the old King James Version words of Isaiah 53:
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...
It is very ancient and very beautiful and very moving poetry. It comes from centuries before the time of Jesus. It starkly depicts what happens to people. Never mind whether they are good people or bad. The fact is, as the poet realised, it is a cruel and unjust world.
We go on and on these days about deserving. Deserving has nothing to do with it. Good people suffer. In the towns of Syria... Nature takes over and devastates our lives. We get leukaemia, or alzheimers. Babies are born with some lethal disorder. In another way, after a lifetime of devoted public service you may stand in the dock accused of some neglect as a company director, and suffer utter and prolonged humiliation. People are accused unjustly, or justly. What is the difference...? as Robert Burns said,
Who made the heart, ‘tis he alone decidedly can try us...
Then at the balance let’s be mute, we never can adjust it.
What’s done, we partly may compute,
But know not what’s resisted.
The Jews under Jewish law were in no doubt that Jesus was guilty as charged -- guilty they thought of blasphemy. The Romans under their law were not so sure -- he may have been guilty of sedition -- but Roman rule was in any case corrupt, and they needed peace in Palestine.
And so, in a morass of conflicting motives and ideals, of corrupt people, frightened people, ignorant people, Jesus chooses to stand there silent. Where would you start, anyway? His contemplative love of the Father, his complete confidence of the Father’s love for him, at this moment is the sustenance he needs. He is content to be numbered with the transgressors. Beaten, tortured, humiliated, condemned. We too have to fall into silence, if even for just this short time...
He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows...
He poured out his soul unto death;
and he was numbered with the transgressors;
and he bore the sin of many...
Monday, April 02, 2012
Saving the cathedral
This is the most sensible thing I have read lately about the Christchurch Anglican Cathedral. (I'm afraid it is a bit long...)
As a former Anglican pastor in Christchurch, I - like almost everyone else - deeply mourn the passing of the architectural heart of our city, the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral.
A few blocks away the Catholic basilica also lies in ruins. Around these two iconic buildings, places of worship for more than 150 years, perhaps 50 other Canterbury churches are demolished, ruined or excluded from use after 10,000 earthquakes.
Oxford Terrace Baptist; Hororata Anglican; All Saints Sumner; the Methodist churches at Rugby St and Durham St; Knox Presbyterian, Bealey Ave - the list goes on and on.
The two cathedrals may have been iconic bricks and mortar in our city, but they were hardly the spiritual heart of Christchurch.
Increasingly, they had morphed into tourist temples, complete with a cafe selling trinkets and a photographic booth outside, or a venue for concert music, with a bit of worship going on, on the side (usually in a side chapel).
They were increasingly irrelevant to ordinary Cantabrians as vital centres of worship. Rugby pitches were more familiar and more exciting.
As representatives of 21st century Christianity in all its colour and vibrancy, they were rather pallid and jaded examples. Larger and much more dynamic churches were flourishing elsewhere: Spreydon Baptist, Grace Vineyard (at Woolston and New Brighton), Majestic (city), Bexley Samoan church, to name just five.
Christchurch began, and has continued, as a city of vibrant Christian communities housed at more than 200 locations (including "Church in the Park").
Christian communities in Christchurch have been scattered and dislocated by the earthquakes; and Bishop Victoria Mathews mentors what true spirituality is all about (character, prayer, a broader perspective, and responding to detractors and critics with grace and humility); and dozens of congregations dovetail in shared facilities (four congregations meet at Middleton Grange School).
Meanwhile, churches in other nations are being toppled, not just by nature, but by human and political forces.
In Orissa, India, for example, a Christchurch group has launched a project to rebuild at least the roofs of 14 churches attacked and ruined by Islamic extremists so Christians can again gather in their communities to worship.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, churches have been bulldozed and dismantled during years of systematic persecution, and one congregation has had its buildings destroyed three times.
In Anhui, China, in February a legally registered quarter-century-old church was demolished by the Government in the dead of night, to the shock of its members next morning.
In Kazakhstan in October, new laws resulted in the banning of all small churches or Christian groups in that nation. Five hundred and seventy-nine religious groups were forced to forfeit their registration certificates and cease all religious activity.
In Aswan, Egypt, in September a 3000-strong mob of Muslim villagers inflamed by fiery sermons from imams in 20 mosques, demolished the Mar Gerges church, burned down the businesses and looted the homes of local Coptic Christians, who have worshipped there for nearly two millennia.
During Christmas and New Year 2011-12 the Islamic terror group Boko Haram ("western education is evil") launched a horror campaign against Nigerian Christians resulting in the suicide bombings of: in January, the Evangelical Winning All Church II in Tafawa Balewa; in February the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Jos; and in March, St Finbar's Catholic Church, also in Jos. Most of these attacks took place during worship services when the buildings were packed with men, women and children.
In Myanmar, currently being visited by New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, the Burmese military demolished a church in Tha Dah Der village, and crosses were systematically torn down or demolished in Mindate, Chin state, a no-go area for Westerners, by the military state.
As we mourn the demolition of Christ Church Cathedral in our affluent, prosperous Garden City, the wise are mindful of widespread anti-church, anti- Jewish and anti-Christian attacks across the world, bordering on genocide in nations such as Sudan and Nigeria.
Our theology reminds us, that God is no respecter of buildings. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed several times as an expression of divine judgment, and St Patrick notoriously hacked down a sacred oak tree of the Celts.
Christians believe God has chosen to build his "Holy Temple" within all people, expressed by the Apostle Peter as "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house" and by the Apostle Paul as, "you are the temple".
The death of three Christchurch men dismantling an organ in the damaged Durham St Methodist church during the February 22 quake, reminds us buildings are just stones; but that the Christian Church and the true religion of Christchurch is its people, wherever they are housed, be it soaring cathedral or smelly Bethlehem stable.
* John Stringer was an Anglican pastor in the Christchurch diocese from 2005 to 2009. He lost his house, car and business in the February 22, 2010, earthquake and now teaches at Middleton Grange School.
As a former Anglican pastor in Christchurch, I - like almost everyone else - deeply mourn the passing of the architectural heart of our city, the Anglican Christ Church Cathedral.
A few blocks away the Catholic basilica also lies in ruins. Around these two iconic buildings, places of worship for more than 150 years, perhaps 50 other Canterbury churches are demolished, ruined or excluded from use after 10,000 earthquakes.
Oxford Terrace Baptist; Hororata Anglican; All Saints Sumner; the Methodist churches at Rugby St and Durham St; Knox Presbyterian, Bealey Ave - the list goes on and on.
The two cathedrals may have been iconic bricks and mortar in our city, but they were hardly the spiritual heart of Christchurch.
Increasingly, they had morphed into tourist temples, complete with a cafe selling trinkets and a photographic booth outside, or a venue for concert music, with a bit of worship going on, on the side (usually in a side chapel).
They were increasingly irrelevant to ordinary Cantabrians as vital centres of worship. Rugby pitches were more familiar and more exciting.
As representatives of 21st century Christianity in all its colour and vibrancy, they were rather pallid and jaded examples. Larger and much more dynamic churches were flourishing elsewhere: Spreydon Baptist, Grace Vineyard (at Woolston and New Brighton), Majestic (city), Bexley Samoan church, to name just five.
Christchurch began, and has continued, as a city of vibrant Christian communities housed at more than 200 locations (including "Church in the Park").
Christian communities in Christchurch have been scattered and dislocated by the earthquakes; and Bishop Victoria Mathews mentors what true spirituality is all about (character, prayer, a broader perspective, and responding to detractors and critics with grace and humility); and dozens of congregations dovetail in shared facilities (four congregations meet at Middleton Grange School).
Meanwhile, churches in other nations are being toppled, not just by nature, but by human and political forces.
In Orissa, India, for example, a Christchurch group has launched a project to rebuild at least the roofs of 14 churches attacked and ruined by Islamic extremists so Christians can again gather in their communities to worship.
In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, churches have been bulldozed and dismantled during years of systematic persecution, and one congregation has had its buildings destroyed three times.
In Anhui, China, in February a legally registered quarter-century-old church was demolished by the Government in the dead of night, to the shock of its members next morning.
In Kazakhstan in October, new laws resulted in the banning of all small churches or Christian groups in that nation. Five hundred and seventy-nine religious groups were forced to forfeit their registration certificates and cease all religious activity.
In Aswan, Egypt, in September a 3000-strong mob of Muslim villagers inflamed by fiery sermons from imams in 20 mosques, demolished the Mar Gerges church, burned down the businesses and looted the homes of local Coptic Christians, who have worshipped there for nearly two millennia.
During Christmas and New Year 2011-12 the Islamic terror group Boko Haram ("western education is evil") launched a horror campaign against Nigerian Christians resulting in the suicide bombings of: in January, the Evangelical Winning All Church II in Tafawa Balewa; in February the Church of Christ in Nigeria in Jos; and in March, St Finbar's Catholic Church, also in Jos. Most of these attacks took place during worship services when the buildings were packed with men, women and children.
In Myanmar, currently being visited by New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, the Burmese military demolished a church in Tha Dah Der village, and crosses were systematically torn down or demolished in Mindate, Chin state, a no-go area for Westerners, by the military state.
As we mourn the demolition of Christ Church Cathedral in our affluent, prosperous Garden City, the wise are mindful of widespread anti-church, anti- Jewish and anti-Christian attacks across the world, bordering on genocide in nations such as Sudan and Nigeria.
Our theology reminds us, that God is no respecter of buildings. The Jerusalem Temple was destroyed several times as an expression of divine judgment, and St Patrick notoriously hacked down a sacred oak tree of the Celts.
Christians believe God has chosen to build his "Holy Temple" within all people, expressed by the Apostle Peter as "you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house" and by the Apostle Paul as, "you are the temple".
The death of three Christchurch men dismantling an organ in the damaged Durham St Methodist church during the February 22 quake, reminds us buildings are just stones; but that the Christian Church and the true religion of Christchurch is its people, wherever they are housed, be it soaring cathedral or smelly Bethlehem stable.
* John Stringer was an Anglican pastor in the Christchurch diocese from 2005 to 2009. He lost his house, car and business in the February 22, 2010, earthquake and now teaches at Middleton Grange School.
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