Posts Tagged ‘Poverty’
Posted on April 7, 2009 - by Frank
Quote from Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin is a man most known for giving us the theory of evolution by natural selection. He was a highly moral man with his eyes open to the world around him. I was struck by this quote from him:
If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin. ~Charles Darwin
There’s a challenge in that. What think ye?
Posted on April 1, 2009 - by Frank
Disconnection is Mates with Poverty
The following was written by Carl Worthington, the guy behind Trade Your iPod for Life.
Before I start, this is a question that challenges me constantly. How do I reconnect? How can I make a difference in my generation yet exist in a relatively insulated bubble. How can I stand against poverty and still live in wealth, compared to most of the planet. This is real life friction meets faith.
Frank posed two great questions on the Greenroom last Sunday night. “In one word how would you describe the world?” and “What do you think is the single greatest issue that affects our world today?”
Posted on February 27, 2009 - by Frank
Friday 27th Feb. – Lent 2009
If you would like to receive an email each day that outlines the latest posts from this site, click here and fill in the form.
While in prison for smuggling Jews out of Germany and later, executed for being involved in the plot to assassinate Hitler just before World War II ended, Deitrich Bonhoeffer penned this poem:
Christen Un Heiden – Christians and Unbelievers
Men go to God when they are sore and suffering,
Pray to him for succour, for his peace, for bread,
For mercy for them sick, sinning or dead:
All men do so, Christian and unbelieving.Men go to God when he is sore and suffering,
Find him poor and scorned, without shelter or bread,
Whelmed under weight of the wicked, the weak, the dead:
Christians stand by God in his hour of grieving.God goeth to every man when sore and suffering,
Feedeth body and spirit with his bread,
For Christians, heathens alike he hangeth dead:
And both alike forgiving.
On July 16th Bonhoeffer penned a letter to a friend that has been interpreted by many people in various ways. Some have read it as his denial of God. It has been seen as his theology of a religionless Christianity and sometimes as his idea of Christianity without God. These two sentences have thrown many people into states of anger as many others of us have embraced them:
Posted on February 15, 2009 - by Frank
Open the Eyes of Our Heart
Right now we have an Insight Tour in the Philippines. Occassionaly the team will be updating us on how the trip is going. This was written by Jane Laurie (TEAR Fund Regional Co-Ordinator).
Hello Friends
Well, what can I say. . . . it has been a rather emotional day for the team. We witnessed levels of extreme poverty and met families who despite living in these conditions are so inspiring and being full of faith in God.
It was exciting for me to meet up with a sponsored child that i met back in 2005 – he is sponsored by a school in Gore – and to see the change in him and his mum did my heart good. There were many examples today of just how much child sponsorship is making positive changes in peoples lives.
Posted on February 13, 2009 - by Dale Campbell (Advocate)
stimulating justice
I’m well aware that the current economic situation is one fraught with complexity and detail. It’s not a simple problem with a simple solution.
But I can’t help but feel nervous about these massive ‘economic stimulus’ packages. The mixture of strong insistence by leaders and hesitant cautiousness by would-be supporters is uneasy to say the least.
I truly understand the ‘right now’ urgency to keep things going and save jobs (at least for the moment). Real people have really lost their jobs and really have new and difficult problems. I certainly do not mean to be at all glib about the struggles both now and ahead for many in developed nations. But I cannot help but be reminded not only that these could well be short-term jolts to a long-term problematic system, but primarily of the stark and utter difference between the ‘problems’ of the ‘west’ and the problems of the ‘rest’.
Contrary to the capitalistic rhetoric of ‘rising tides that lift many small boats’ used to justify pouring hundreds of billions into ‘the economy’, we all know that greed does not engender generosity. We don’t need rising stocks, but realistic standards of living. We need to recognise that by insisting on our ‘way of life’ and our ‘economic competitiveness’ we are stealing life and resources from those who desperately need it; through admittedly complex (yet at the same time quite simple) processes. We need a justice stimulus.
***
Dale Campbell is a volunteer advocate for TEAR Fund New Zealand. He is an Associate Pastor at Northcote Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand and runs a blog that is well worth reading – Fruitful Faith.
Posted on February 13, 2009 - by Frank
A Sponsor Child Visited – The Philippines
Clarissa & Stephen Wickens recount the visit to their sponsored children – 15 -16 December 2008
We had decided more than a year ago that we would spend Christmas 2008 and New Year in the Philippines with Clarissa’s family. Since we were going anyway it seemed like a too good an opportunity to miss to visit our sponsored child, Ronald, and by the time we were ready to make plans for the trip we had a second sponsored child in the Philippines – Lea, who had been given to us when a girl we had sponsored in Africa had graduated from her programme.
Posted on February 12, 2009 - by Drew
The Christian Placebo
Have you read the article that’s circulating at the moment in which self proclaimed atheist, Matthew Parris argues cogently that Africa needs God?
“Now a confirmed atheist, I’ve become convinced of the enormous contribution that Christian evangelism makes in Africa: sharply distinct from the work of secular NGOs, government projects and international aid efforts. These alone will not do. Education and training alone will not do. In Africa, Christianity changes people’s hearts. It brings a spiritual transformation. The rebirth is real. The change is good.” (Matthew Parris from TIMES ONLINE 27/12/08)
Posted on December 14, 2008 - by Frank
Christmas Sucks
Someone told me yesterday that it’s Christmas soon and we should celebrate. He asked me if Santa was bringing me anything for Christmas. He told me that where he comes from Christmas is a time where everybody buys presents and gives it to their family and friends.
Posted on November 28, 2008 - by Frank
TEAR Fund Christmas Focus: Trafficking in Nepal
The following was submitted by Andrew Dallaston – TEAR Fund Education Officer.
A lot of kiwis have been trekking in Nepal. One notable kiwi trekked all the way to the top of Everest and then spent a fair chunk of his remarkable life helping the Sherpa people build schools and hospitals. But apart from Sir Edmund and the Himalayas most of us don’t know much about Nepal – that little country about the size of the South Island, sitting on top of India.
Posted on November 23, 2008 - by Frank
Trust Banks – A Tool for Responsible Business
A friend asked me a little while ago if I had any ideas relating to what they could do to use the business they are establishing, building and promoting to make it a more ethical entity and to make it something that is making a positive difference in the world. It is an exciting question to hear as I believe responsible business and business where the profit margin is not the be all and end all of what a business achieves needs to be the way of the present and future in terms of how businesses operate if we are to work towards establishing a sustainable world where people are recognized as the center of everything that is done. If a business can prove to be responsible in the way it approaches the world, it should be able to move forward and we should explore avenues to promote this.
Posted on October 16, 2008 - by Frank
Blog Action Day – How I Missed It + Poverty Sexed Up
There is an irony in the image I’ve used for this article. Here I was thinking I was a serious blogger… clearly not. When they go away on holiday, people operating serious internet sites cue up material and date stamp it to publish on the days they are not around and they remain committed to things they have stated they would be part of during that time. I didn’t do that and while I was enjoying my family and the sun in one of New Zealand’s wine lands, Napier, blissfully shunning access to email and other trappings of the internet, something I had been excited about taking part in came and went – it sailed on by with no thought from me and now that I am back in reality, I am feeling a little disappointed that I forgot and hadn’t given a thought to Blog Action Day 2008, which happened yesterday NZ time – October 15.
Posted on October 2, 2008 - by Frank
Bailout for Wall St? What About the Poorest?
WITH the meltdown of international banking and credit filling investors with dread, developed nations are using the crisis to legitimise backing away from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), said TEAR Fund Executive Director Stephen Tollestrup.
The MDGs signed by 189 nations promised to halve poverty for the poorest of our planet’s people by 2015 and increase aid to 0.7 per cent of their countries GDPs.
“The truth is”, says, Mr Tollestrup, “the MDGs go well beyond a handout. If we dare to think outside of the square we will find that we need to see productive and growing economies in the developing world to help us move out of this current mess and bring long term economic stability.
Posted on September 19, 2008 - by Frank
Human Trafficking – My Journey Begins
Human trafficking has well and truly captured my attention and I know it’s not an issue that is going to go away, so here begins my journey into one of the darkest issues facing our world today.
There is a popular saying – “knowledge is power” – as if knowledge provides some kind of ruling force that allows us to exert influence over others, but allow me to once and for all rephrase this rather self serving line so that it better serves humanity – “knowledge creates responsibility” – feel free to quote that.
Let me explain. In my world, with the issues I focus on, knowledge does not act as some force I can manipulate to subjugate others; it does the exact opposite. In my world, increased knowledge leaves me knowing about things that I must act on, it endows me with a sense of responsibility and that responsibility involves serving others rather than ruling them with a form of power. Knowledge of human trafficking inevitably creates such a responsibility. Once one has a working knowledge of human trafficking, we become endowed with a responsibility to act.
Posted on September 5, 2008 - by Frank
Blog Action Day 2008 – Poverty (with video)
I don’t think I am overstating it when I assert that the potential exists for bloggers to determine and shape what the world talks about. This can be seen on a minor level when influential blogs cover issues that are then picked up and spread around the internet by other bloggers and sometimes by mainstream media. The blogging platform is so recognised that mainstream media sites generally have rebranded many of their regular columns online as “blogs”.
The ability for a conversation to take shape within hours around an issue raised by one influential blogger is startling. The internet and the blogging community has made the world a very small place.
Imagine this potential being enhanced for one day, when thousands of blogs unite and agree to write around one issue on that day. Blog Action Day 2007 saw such a thing take place with around 20,000 blogs, including some of the most prominent blogs in the world and notable leaders from around the world writing in a way that made the topic of the environment accesible for their readers. Readership across all 20,000 blogs was in the millions.
Blog Action Day 2008 will take place on October 15, with the topic being poverty. At the time of writing this, there are already 3,623 registered blogs and a collective readership of over 7,000,000. The Humanitarian Chronicle will be added to that list.
The sheer number of blogs means that the global conversation on the internet has the potential to truly focus towards poverty on that day, with each blog bringing its own unique approach to the issue and inviting readers to engage the issue in a way distinct to the overall theme of that blog.
First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.
By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.
Out of this discussion naturally flow actions, advice, ideas, plans, and empowerment.
From the smallest online journals, to huge online magazines, to EU ministers, to professionals and amateurs, Blog Action Day is about mass participation. Anyone is free to join in on Blog Action Day and there is no limit on the number of posts, the type of posts or the direction of thoughts and opinions.
Take the opportunity to join The Humanitarian Chronicle and thousands of others on October 15 as we participate in Blog Action Day and steer the globe in a conversation about poverty. Check out www.blogactionday.org to find out how.
Update: The Humanitarian Chronicle is now officially registered to participate in Blog Action Day 2008.
Posted on September 2, 2008 - by Frank
Meat for the Poor
The present meat situation in Cambodia highlights some of the less spoken consequences of food access for the poor being squeezed by economic circumstances.
Cambodia’s inflation has sky rocketed, pushing food prices up. With beef being pushed beyond the reach of the poor, other meat sources have been accessed – namely rat. The price of a kg of rat has more than quadrupled since last year.
The problem is heightened by the fact that Cambodia is supplying a large demand for live rats in Vietnam as the poor in Vietnam who live on the border of Cambodia take up rat meat as a food source as well.
Around the world, rat is fast becoming the choice of food for the poor with officials in Eastern India encouraging poorer people to eat rat as a source of sustenance in order to save grain stocks and give people access to a cheaper food source.
As it becomes an increasingly viable option, commercial catching and selling begins to take over where the poor would have once simply caught it themselves – thus it begins to be driven outside of their ability to access it.
The increased desire and need to use rat as a food source is a clear indicator of problems and the longer the global food crisis continues and local economies get squeezed, the less even this will be a viable option for the poor as demand for rat increases. Cambodia is a case in point for this particular issue.
—
Image: CC – Some rights reserved. Original by
Posted on May 26, 2008 - by Frank
World Race – A Life Changing Experience
Twenty-somethings Embark on Journey of Self-Discovery and Service
Hundreds of twenty-somethings, compelled by issues of social justice and simple living, are leaving the comfort of their homes and possessions for a year to travel the world and serve others. They’re calling it a modern-day pilgrimage – an opportunity to find themselves and live amongst the poor.
Facebook Followers
-
Stand With Us
