Talking of Christmas spending and giving- my eyebrows rather shot skyward when I saw this advertisement on the TV yesterday.
Does anyone else find the combination rather bizarre- not to say a little obscene?
Or perhaps I am being unfair- it is a clever bit of marketing, and certainly the warfare the game is modelled on has left too many children in need of the support of War Child.
The news is full of the news about scientists supposedly manipulating statistics in relation to global warming.
In case you missed it, the University of East Anglia has a Climate Research Unit, and some kind soul got hold of hundreds of e-mails that staff had been sending to each other over the last few years, and made them available on t’internet.
Should you be interested enough in to take a journey into banal academia- they are all here.
The timing of this release of information, immediately prior to the Copenhagen conference on climate change which begins next week. I am sure that the intention of whoever leaked the information was to undermine the scientific case for climate change. Most people believe that this is possibly one of the most important conferences in modern history- there is simply so much at stake.
Most of us are simply not that informed. We hear competing scientific voices, and note that a political consensus is gathering speed, and feel periodically concerned for the future. We in the west are guilty about our car use, our power hungry lifestyles and our central heating, but this does not really result in many real changes to our way of life- beyond the odd energy saving bulb.
Then there are the conspiracy theorists- t’internet is full of them. Of how ‘climate change’ is really a tool to spread fear and alarm amongst the populace, and so divert attention from the evil plans of the Cabal that are really running the world according to their own self interests.
We need the scientists. And we need them to be clear, and give clear summaries in words that we can understand. Most scientists are simply not that good at doing this. There is, however, a good summary of the arguments, and the most recent science via the good old BBC- here.
Science is never fully neutral of course. It always has a line of enquiry, influenced by all sorts of things, and all sorts of value based issues. The myth of ‘pure science’ has been killed for most of we post-moderns. It really should be no surprise that the people at East Anglia University were trying to make sure that we saw things from their point of view.
There is also the questions of what motivates those people who lobby on behalf of a skeptical stance on climate change? Whose interests are being served by this lobby? Oil companies? Industries who are reliant on production systems that will no longer be profitable if forced to examine green house gas emissions in detail?
Like many of us, I think that the way of living that we are caught up in is not sustainable. Not just because of its cost to our planet, but also because of its socio-political impact, and the consequences for the worlds poorest people, in the worlds poorest countries- who tend to be the most vulnerable to climate change. We need our leaders to LEAD, and we need to hold them accountable.
These debates have found their way into faith groups.
It is great to see groups like Tear fund and Christian Aid making it clear that they see it part of the life of Christians to look after all of creation.
However, there is another side to Christian’s engagement with this issue. Evangelicals in the USA will tend to be skeptical (unlike Evangelicals in the UK for example.) Check out the ‘We get it’ campaign– which appears to suggest that the policies to reduce global warming will result in more deaths for the worlds poor, in terms of food price rises and energy shortages. Hmmm some interesting twists of logic going on in that one!
The motivation for these fixed positions, which are labelled ‘Biblical’ of course, puzzles me. Is it just that if you call yourself a ‘Conservative Evangelical’ you just naturally do not want anything to change? Is is about self interest- the American way of life? Or is it the association with big business? Or is it a reluctance to trust science- through which all sorts of evils like evolutionary theory and abortion have entered the world?
Perhaps things are starting to change however-
So friends- for the sake of future generations, lets watch and pray about the Copenhagen conference. We have much to gain, but also much to lose…
Here they are- in the middle of the day, in no hurry!
Eating the kale.
Fortunately, none of us like kale…
(Photo’s taken from our Kitchen window.)
My lovely daughter is 14.
14!
We had a lovely day- a lazy breakfast, followed by present opening and telephone thanking. Then lunch out, followed by an afternoon of friends and a house full of teenage girls for the evening party.
Emily had a ‘masquerade’ party- everyone wore masks, and played a version of charades called ‘masquerade’. Then they watched a film on the big screen, and shouted and giggled a lot.
Bless them all.
And this prayer becomes ever more urgent, as our kids grow away from us, and into their own future…
Happy birthday Emily. You are special.
It has been so wet and wild here all week. Storms and very heavy rain.
I had a wild drive to Lochgilphead today- roads awash, wipers on high speed. The Royal Navy sheltering in Loch Fyne- grey on grey.
In these dark days and long nights, we tend to close down and retire to the fireside with our thoughts. It can be so oppressive.
What we need is something beautiful to light up the soul. So here is a bit more of my favourite musician/poet, singing of a longing for something beyond…
Vodpod videos no longer available.
Not sure why you would want to- but you can now subscribe to this blog- which means you will get e-mail updates on posts.
Just click on the relevant bit to the right…
We have a new driveway!
For those who have tried to drive up the hill to our house, you will remember the white knuckle ride it was- complete with spinning wheels and the smell of burning clutch plate. Well all is transformed!
It was an expensive task, which we have been worrying about for a while, but in the end we found a local builder (Euan Oxland- highly recommended if you need someone locally!) who came, did a good job, and cleared up before he left.
Friends of ours who struggle with health can now get right to the front door…
Yes- that is a deer. On our lower driveway, quite at home, in no hurry.
Friend of all small boys who hate to eat anything green- because they get there first.
I really must get round to putting up the gates…
I am now old enough for a trip down memory lane.
Twenty years ago my friend Mark and I spent some time in West Berlin as part of a student exchange programme. We had no clue that we were present at a point when history pivoted.
It was 1989, and we were young, impossibly naive and the world seemed easily divided into what was politically acceptable/good, and what was evil/wrong. Ideology gave shape to life, to politics, to faith, to shopping- ideas mattered. Even if the ideas were borrowed and poorly understood.
Germany was an adventure. We were dragged to receptions with the Mayor, toured the Seimens factory, checked out hospitals and social work schemes, and visited the Reichstag when it was still an empty shell.
We also walked and walked and walked the streets of the city- which seemed impossibly trendy and not a little scary- the Ku’Damm at night with it’s nightclubs and prostitutes. The preserved bomb-scarred buildings all lit up alongside the sparkling glass and concrete office blocks. The bars and the continental heat that allowed us to spill out into the street. The bus queues that became a free-for-all scramble, contrasting with the orderliness of the underground.
Of course, the reality of any visit to West Berlin at that time was that the city was a capitalist ‘free’ island surrounded by communist East Germany. The magic of the place was made at least in part by the mad cold war politics that led to its division and isolation. It was a city formed under the ever present shadow of implacable enmity, and an irrational compromise that pleased nobody- apart from tourists like us I suppose.
The visible manifestation of this was the wall.
Mark in front of the wall- you can see where the old tram lines where cut in half
On one side was neon, affluence and Mercedes. On the other was bad food, pompous architecture, envious aspiration and the smoky noisy Trabant. Over the last twenty years, the stories of the East German political oppression have abounded, and the power of a set of distorted ideological lens over a whole nation. This brilliant film tells some of this story as well as anything-
We spent some time touring the East. If anything, this seemed far more exciting than the west. There was a sense of comic brutality about the place- and the overwhelming feeling of bureaucracy gone stark staring mad. But the beer was dirt cheap, and beyond the centre of the city (which looked like a dated film set from the 1960’s) the streets had largely unchanged since the war.
The division of Germany was a ludicrous political anachronism- but no one could have predicted the change that happened in November 1989- a few months after our last visit.
Rumours started to spread that the borders were going to open-
And once this began, there was no going back.
Reagan and Thatcher claimed this as their victory- which seems to me as ridiculous as me claiming it as mine. For some, democratic capitalism had triumphed- the ideological debate was over. We were all capitalists now.
Or at least we were until the current economic crisis.
20 years later, Germany has all but overcome the pain of reunification. The surviving bits of the wall are tourist attractions. I have some bits of it somewhere- now the dust of history. Perhaps one of those pivotal points on which human history turns…
The last 20 years have seen such change- the internet, mobile phones, a shift in world power towards the far East. The world is a very different place.
I look at photographs of me then, and wonder what the next 20 years will bring?
Each autumn, we have visitors in our old house.
The mice look for somewhere dry and warm, and find their way into the cavities of our walls, and we hear them scratching and nibbling in the night.
We have a mixed relationship with them. I set humane traps for a while, and take them off into the forest. They are such lovely little things.
But they can just make themselves too at home, and eventually, we have had to deal with them in more radical ways.
Recently they found their way into a window seat in our bedroom, and chewed the plastic cover of… the bottle of mouse poison!
Ah the irony.
Sorry guys, it is time to release the stuff within.
this fragile tent 