The water monitor is soon to finish his degree.  As with every significant milestone in life there are always things that you wish you did differently.  I wish I chose another university (just because it’s rated the best doesn’t mean it suits you the best), I wish I had a decent doctor in first year that diagnosed my glandular fever months before it was discovered.  These are aspects that have made my university life more difficult, though they are all things that have made me stronger.

What has not made the me stronger – perhaps weaker due to the lack of dietary energy and nutrients I’ve ingested – is the support from the federal government.  Youth allowance, Austudy – and for those who are very unlucky – newstart, are inadequate forms of income, especially for the youth who don’t have the option to stay at home and must move into the city, often in overpriced areas for location.

The water monitor understands that working during your degree is required, and probably good for you as you learn life skills.  Though, full-time study is called full time for a reason.  It is recommended that for every course you study, you should study for ten hours.  This equates to forty hours a week when you do four courses, the same amount of time as the standard full-time job in Australia.  This number increases when it’s assessment/exam time.

This year I had the pleasure of listening to the Dean of Students at the Australian National University, Prof. Penny Oakes, whilst she gave a speech explaining what it was once like to be a student (this was at a student activist event thing).  She said universities shouldn’t be “degree factories” and the allowance people received was an adequate amount for rent, stationary, food and even the occasional pint on the weekend – if you wanted more money you could always work.  Working was optional, not necessary.

Since then, obviously we have experienced a very significant amount of inflation; beer has gotten more expensive, text books for a science degree average close to $150/book, you have to pay for parking, rent in Canberra alone is around three to four times that of country towns (the water monitors origins are country).  Courses have also become more and more complex with the amount of research increasing every year.  I once heard something like there is 100 times the amount of things that were published in 1960.  Excuse the poor recollection of the quote, but since there is so much to absorb from the courses that I did, I didn’t have room to fit that in.

I also don’t have the time to work enough to stay over the poverty line. The poverty line in Australia is estimated to occur below $352.16/week by the Brotherhood of St. Laurence in March 2007. Payments for youth allowance were $174.05/week in that same month, half that of the minimum amount to be on the poverty line.  I guarantee you that this has not changed very much, except rent has become more expensive, groceries have become more expensive, everything apart from LCD TVs it seems has become more expensive.

This means that students have to make up the rest on top of their busy schedule.  Where does this time come from? The educational experience, hence making universities “degree factories” and not people developers.  You now go in one end, come out with the other with a degree (and debt) but the on campus experience minimised or annihilated.  Penny Oakes said in her speech that university is meant to not only teach about academics, but also develop who you are.  This experience has turned the water monitor into a bitter, overworked and overly stressed person who hasn’t really enjoyed university at all.  Is this the kind of society we are trying to forge?

I am lucky to have lower middle class parents and a plethora of dead relatives who have left their remnants of money  to them so when I call my parents up and say “My 50 year old house has no insulation and very inefficient heating and the Canberra winter is way too cold not to use it, can you please help me out,” they can help me out a little.  Not everyone has this option.  I know many people who instead of having my option of a very ‘indulgent’ two small meals made of generic goods with no variety, have ‘bolognaise’ – well, fried budget mince and onion and pasta for dinner, and a few rice cakes for lunch.  Yum! I, like many others, have had times where I just can’t afford food.  At these times I’ve been lucky to have a 2kg bag of potato.  I call this poortato, being so poor you only eat potato for days

After nearly 12 years of the Howard government neglecting education, the Australian Labor Party offered an education revolution.  A lot of it seems to have gone to re-building primary school halls and not enough has been allocated to secondary/tertiary education.  The water monitor thinks more money needs to go into supporting the tertiary students university life.  It is just not viable for people with out wealthy parents or a free place to stay near a university to go with out extreme stress put upon them.  I am one for equal opportunity, and I feel not enough emphasis is being put on disadvantaged sects of the community.  Everyone deserves the opportunity for an education and three meals a day during it.

In response to “Food Prices Scale High at 15.58%” in DC on 27-November-2009 (full article after the fold), I wanted to do something but Subhani beat me to it through this nice cartoon depicting the situation of a poor family sitting for a meal…

Food prices kept their upward trend hitting the common man hard. Food inflation rose to 15.58% for the second week of November with potato prices rising by 111% As compared to last year the prices of pulses were up by 35.60%, wheat by 12.53%, cereals by 13.04% and rice by 11.89%. Also prices of vegetables moved up by 11.96%, onions by 27.33%, fruits by 10.97% and milk by 11.36%. On a weekly basis, products which saw a rise in their prices are urad and poultry chicken (15% each), eggs (8%), moong (6%), arhar (5%), fruits and vegetables (3%) and milk and wheat (1% each). However, the prices of barley (2%) declined. The increase in food prices is due to shortages caused partly by a weak monsoon and partly by floods in some parts of the country. Said Mr Trehan and Mrs Mathur respectively -

In a country where even a simple vegetable like potato has become so expensive, how can one expect to have three meals a day. Survival has become really tough. How frugal can one become?

One has to think twice even for grocery shopping. Everything has become out of reach. Be it milk, vegetables or pulses. And worst, public transport has also gone so expensive. How can we honestly manage?

Inflation for all commodities more than doubled to 1.34% for the month of October from 0.50% in September due to costlier minerals and fuels, as per data released earlier. The finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee, said on Thursday that government is very deeply concerned about rising prices and will take all fiscal and monetary measures to contain it. Arjun Sengupta in his “Fair Food Deal for All” in DC on 30-November-2009 comments that it is high time that the government initiates a universal public distribution system (PDS) covering at least the essential commodities because the bulk of the population, about 70%, remains poor with their dire struggle for minimal livelihood -

About 350-million people remain below poverty line (BPL). The prices of essential commodities have been rising at an unprecedented rate. Not only foodgrains but vegetables like onions and potatoes are becoming costlier day by day. These affect all Indians but for the poor they are devastating as all their meagre incomes get exhausted, not meeting even a portion of the necessities. Prices of these products are no doubt largely due to shortfall in production but there are clear signs of market cornering, hoarding and price fixing. It is, however, very difficult to control speculatory tendencies by physical measures because the players are too many in the country and not just big traders and producers, even the common rehriwalla is hoarding. Unless those expectations are dampened they cannot bring down the speculation. The only way to do that is to increase supplies, if not through temporary production increase measures, then through additional imports.

To mitigate this problem, the universal PDS would be the first important step beginning with the BPL population by supplying them with the essential commodities at cheap and affordable prices. If PDS is targeted to a limited BPL population it may also be possible to increase their supplies through market purchase of these products and sell them at subsidised prices. This would push up the open market prices somewhat further. But targeted PDS can be sustained if the government is willing to subsidise the difference between market price and issue price of commodities. Hopefully increased prices, supported by planned increase in production incentives, will raise output in a short period reducing the supplies bottleneck. But in the immediate future, the government has to be ready to bear the cost of maintaining the PDS. However, the most important requirement is organisation of the system. That cannot be achieved by market incentives or subsidies. The government has to build up a huge and efficient structure of distribution throughout the country. It has to procure, purchase or import products and reach them to different destinations of the PDS. This can be done only with the help of state governments, first to identify the BPL beneficiaries and then to have fair-price shops supply the products efficiently. National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NACMFoI) or similar organisations can be created for vegetable and other such products. They should build up storages and have contract farming both at home and abroad. The time has now come for all kinds of out-of-the-box thinking to meet a serious problem of economic management in the country. Indian development, if it has to follow an inclusive path, must reinvent itself so that the poor develop an equal stake in our growth process.

Well, I agree in moral principle to Dr Sengupta (a Member of Parliament and former Economic Adviser to assassinated-good-riddance Prime Minister Indira Gandhi) but does this universal PDS not sound too communist? Why should the poor be further subsidized when already famers markets, ration shops and pink/white cards etc. exist? Are not the high prices a result of supply-demand and greed (read, free-market capitalism) and therefore, market-based solutions are needed? Let missionaries, NGOs, social enterprises and fortune-at-BoP marketing gurus deal with solving something tangible like hunger for a change other than human rights, empowerment or whatever cause. Oh wait, they tried. And failed. And chickened out.

cworks sriks6711, food prices, wholesale price index, public distribution system, vegetable balloons, poor family, below poverty line, primary articles, fuel power, inflation double, graph chart, pranab mukherjee, fair food, production shortfall, market cornering, price fixing, trader hoarding, grains import, contract farming, out of box, communist policy, articles subsidy, good riddance, indira gandhi, farmers markets, ration shops, pink cards, market-based solutions, fortune at BoP, NGO missionary, empowerment causes, hunger gurus, tangible problems, human rights, DC subhani, arjun sengupta, 27 November 2009, 30 November 2009

Thanks to the incredible response of you, our supporters, the Navy did not conduct active sonar operations within Scotland’s Moray Firth. They had planned to expand the huge military exercise Joint Warrior from the west coast of Scotland to the Moray Firth, home to our adoption dolphins.

With your support we worked hard to persuade them not to do this – and we stopped them.

This is an incredible success! Thank you to all of you who sent your protests and enabled us to achieve this victory.

To read more please click here.

However, while we have achieved a victory for the dolphins of the Moray Firth, Australian whales and dolphins have been facing another grave danger. The WDCS team, together with campaigners across Australia, have been fighting an ecological catastrophe – the Timor Sea oil spill.

Up to 2000 barrels of oil a day leaked from an offshore oil rig for more than 10 weeks. On November 3rd the spill was finally capped but we are extremely concerned that the ecological impact of millions of litres of oil spilled into these tropical waters is likely to persist for years to come, with direct health consequences for whales and dolphins.

Add your voice to our protest to prevent this ever happening again. Send an e-protest to the Australian Government about our fight to prevent this disaster from happening again.

With our very best wishes

Sarah Dolman
WDCS Head of Policy for Scotland.

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With Love & Bright Blessings

“Help Save Our Mother Earth”

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http://helpsaveourmotherearth.com

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Spread The Word

A world without polar bears by the end of this century: That’s what scientists are predicting unless we take action now. As the planet warms up, the sea ice polar bears depend on for survival is melting. If Ursus maritimus is to survive into the next century, we must do everything we can to protect its sea-ice habitat.

But inste ad of protecting polar bears in their time of need, the Obama administration is pushing Bush-era oil drilling projects in the Arctic. Continuing Bush policies of leasing and selling polar bear habitat for fossil-fuel exploration, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is about to approve oil-industry plans to drill in these critical areas next summer.

 

The good news is it’s not too late to save the polar bear — if we join together and take immediate action. In response to the Center for Biological Diversity’s successful lawsuit, the administration has proposed designating more than 200,000 square miles of Arctic coastline and sea ice as critical habitat for the polar bear.

Help save the polar bear by submitting your comments to Secretary Salazar today. Let the federal government know that polar bears cannot survive unless their habitat is protected from industrialization and oil and gas development.

Click here to find out more and take action.

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With Love & Bright Blessings

“Help Save Our Mother Earth”

http://twitter.com/ICareDoYou

http://helpsaveourmotherearth.com

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Join the push for a ‘patent pool’ and help 5 million of the world’s poorest people get the life-saving drugs they need.

Current copyright and patent laws keep the price of life-saving Anti-Retroviral Drugs (ARVs) too high for millions of people. But you can help to end this scandal. Join the push for a ‘patent pool’. Help millions of people get the HIV treatments they desperately need

What is a patent pool?

Currently, when you develop a drug it is automatically patented for 20 years. A ‘patent pool’ is a system where drug manufacturers agree, for a fair fee, to give up their HIV drug patents.

If ALL pharmaceutical companies join the ‘patent pool’ it will give companies the chance to develop these drugs for sale in the developing world. We need someone in the pharmaceutical industry to show leadership in getting this great idea off the ground.

GlaxoSmithKleine (GSK) is Britain’s largest pharmaceutical company. If they show leadership on this issue by joining the patent pool, others will follow. This is a first but vital step. That’s why we want you to email GSK and help to get them on board.

How will a patent pool help?

1. By pooling all HIV drug patents, competing manufacturers can get permission to produce the badly needed drugs.

2. This competition will bring prices down.

3. It will help the innovation that will create the essential new combinations and child-friendly drugs needed.

How can you help?

Email the Chief Executive Officer of GSK – tell him you want GSK to join the patent pool and help save millions of lives.

Best wishes,

 

Adam Askew
Health and Education For All Campaign Lead

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With Love & Bright Blessings

“Help Save Our Mother Earth”

http://twitter.com/ICareDoYou

http://helpsaveourmotherearth.com

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Spread The Word

By N.S. Palmer, Ph.D.

It’s time to “give the devil his due.” I hereby admit that President George W. Bush did the American people a favor. Just one.

It was a very small favor, of course. And as with all favors bestowed by the Bush crime family, it wasn’t free. We paid at least 10 times the retail price for it. But still.

What was the favor? It’s summed up in this article from today’s New York Times: “Food Stamp Use Soars, and Stigma Fades.”

By looting and wrecking the economy, throwing millions of people out of work, Dubya and his cronies cured Americans of the idea that only the shiftless and incompetent could be unemployed. They shattered the popular nostrum that we are masters of our own destiny, and that if the world comes crashing down on our heads, it’s because we didn’t work hard enough or didn’t think positively enough. They reminded Americans that a “social safety net” is there for a reason; and that if their neighbors need food stamps today, they themselves might need food stamps tomorrow.

It’s not the first time Americans have needed and received this kind of wake-up call. The Great Depression of 1929-1941 had the same effect. It convinced Americans for the first time that poor relief and promoting full employment were legitimate functions of government.

The U.S. population originally consisted mainly of English immigrants. With them, they brought the legal practices and the social attitudes of their mother country. In 19th century America, workhouses were common and the poor were stigmatized just as they had been in England. Echoing the views embodied in the English poor laws of 1834, American writer Josephine Lowell argued that poor relief should be provided only in workhouses and only under conditions so unpleasant as to discourage anyone from taking it:

“We have already accepted the postulate that the community should save every one of its members from starvation, no matter how low or depraved such member may be, but we contend that the necessary relief should be surrounded by circumstances that shall not only repel everyone not in extremity from accepting it, but [that] … discipline and education should be inseparably associated with any system of public relief.” [Lowell, 1884, reprinted in Mink, Gwendolyn and Solinger, Rickie, Welfare: A Documentary History of U.S. Policy and Politics. New York: New York University Press, 2003.]

During the Great Depression, almost a third of the American workforce became unemployed. We’re not there yet, and the Obama administration’s halfway measures might well prevent the worst. But we’re in pretty dire straits. From 1929-40, hard times tutored Americans in the idea that poverty was not necessarily a result of laziness or sin. As a result, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt could persuade Congress to enact an array of programs that formed the foundation of the American welfare state:

• The Social Security Act (1935): Together with amendments passed in 1939, this provided aid for several different groups, including retirees (Old-Age and Survivors’ Insurance) and children (Aid to Dependent Children, later renamed Aid to Families with Dependent Children).
• Unemployment compensation to help individuals who lost their jobs.
• Subsidies for medical care of poor families.
• Public-works jobs through the Public Works Administration (1933), Civilian Conservation Corps, and other agencies.
• Direct cash grants to states for poor relief under the Federal Emergency Relief Act (1933).
• Construction of public housing for the poor under the National Housing Act (1937).

After World War II, the Great Depression faded from memory and Americans once again became ambivalent about welfare programs. Social Security remained the linchpin of the welfare state, thus becoming a target of those who saw welfare as illegitimate.

In 1933, President Roosevelt told Americans that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

In 2009, the only things we have to fear are Democratic timidity and Republican obstructionism.

We can only hope that the need for economic recovery before the 2010 elections, plus Roosevelt’s example, will make the Obama administration more courageous and aggressive in fighting for the rights and jobs of ordinary Americans.

The Russian literary giant, Leo Tolstoy, once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot.  He wanted more of everything.  Here is how Tolstoy tells the story:

“One day a farmer received a novel offer.  For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day.  The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown.  Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace.  By midday, he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground.

Well into the afternoon, he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point.  He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run; knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost.  As the sun began to sink below the horizon, he came within sight of the finish line.

Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared.  He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth.  In a few minutes, he was dead.  Afterwards, his servants dug a grave.  It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide.”

The title of Tolstoy’s story was: “How Much Land Does a Man Need?” (Adapted from Bits & Pieces, November, 1991.)  In the end, Tolstoy suggests, all a man really owns is a 6-foot by 3-foot piece of earth, so we are better off putting our confidence elsewhere.

Jesus, like Tolstoy, warns us (Matthew 6:19 – 24, 33) that we had better not put our trust in the promise of materialism.  If we do, we will be sadly disappointed.  Instead, there is something of eternal value that we can give our lives to pursue.  Anything we forfeit here on earth to gain what is in heaven will be returned to us there 100 times over (Matthew 19:29) along with eternal life!

Unfortunately, the western church in particular has drifted away from this teaching of Jesus.  Like first century Judaism, we associate material blessings with God’s favor.  Yet, very few people as well as nations have ever passed the prosperity test (Deuteronomy 8:8 – 10; 31:20; Jeremiah 5:7; Hosea 13:6).  The antidote to the poison of material envy and greed is “seek first His Kingdom and righteousness and all these things will be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

However, this is not a prescription for poverty either.  We are not more spiritual if we are poor – or act poor because we do not want people to think we have anything, which is hypocrisy.  Instead, in abundance or in want, the Lord wants us to trust him for all our needs.  He wants to use us to pour out his riches and grace upon “all nations” so that through us all people will know that He is God.  Like Abraham, he was to bless us so that we can be a blessing!

Nowhere is this more evident than in the churches of nations of the two-thirds world that are marked by material poverty but spiritual abundance in revival, signs and wonders, and miracles.  These saints do more with less for the Kingdom of God, while the American church does less with more.  While we are rich in available materials and resources, we are growing more and more Biblically illiterate and spiritually impoverished.  Thinking that we are rich and blessed, we are truly “blind, naked, and poor.”

Waitsburg Tombstone ©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2009)

While in Albania, I saw a church that was struggling with the simple resources that we take for granted everyday and every Sunday.  Can you imagine attempting to teach Sunday school or disciple without materials in your own language?  Can you imagine a church without any resources to pay for a staff of pastors and office help to keep ministry going?  Can you imagine doing Children’s ministry without any props or tools?

This is what I witnessed in Albania.  Yet, I saw a vibrant church in prayer, reaching lost souls, fellowship, and growing future leaders.  I witnessed creative people and pastors inspired by God who gathered dozens of children to teach them about Christ.  I saw the church gather for prayer and then “hit the streets” to find people to pray for and possibly be a witness to them about the love of Jesus.

My family has paid a price for my trips abroad to Albania and India.  Seeing such poverty among the world’s poorest of the poor ruins a person.  It gives one a jaundiced eye toward our western materialism and consumerism.  As such, for the past several Christmases we have not exchanged gifts.  We have not given gifts.  Plus, we have asked our friends and relatives to help us express Christmas in a new way.

Every year we pick a world poverty problem to target and give towards efforts that attempt to meet it.  We have supported homes for girls rescued from forced prostitution; bought and put together medical kits for AIDS patients; bought chickens for a impoverished family.  This year we are buying a goat to be given to a family in need.

This is a great time of year to ask ourselves:  How much stuff do we need to be successful?  How many material things do we need to feel God’s care and love?  How long do we wait until we have the earthly things we need so that we can answer God’s call to bless others?  How much of this world’s stuff are we dependent upon for our personal happiness?  How much “earth” does one need?

©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2009)

I wish more kids would read historical fiction.  Books set in the earlier part of the 20th century would set quite a few jaws dropping if more kids understood how their grandparents and great-grandparents lived, and how much harder life seemed to be.

Little Audrey is a depressingly fascinating view of life in the 1940s in a coal mining camp in Virginia.  Few people have much money, most have no electricity, and simple things make people happiest.  At 11 years old, Audrey is the oldest of four daughters, and has more responsibility.  Mommy tries to make ends meet on Daddy’s meager scrips, or earnings, from the mine before Daddy drinks it away.  Some of the local kids call her “Little Audrey” or “skeleton girl” because she is so skinny, partly due to her bout of scarlet fever.  Even Audrey’s teacher knows how difficult her life is, and tries to help.

Although Audrey is confronted with tragedy, she realizes it may be a chance to improve life for her and her sisters.

This story is based on Ruth White’s real life.  The book is written with the hillbilly lingo akin to life in the hills of Virginia.  The richness and depth of this short (146 pages) novel bring to life how it must have felt living in that era, and makes us appreciate our lives today more.  Little Audrey would be an easier sell to girls than boys, but I think the book could benefit both genders.

Highly recommended:  Gr. 4 – 7

For more information:  http://us.macmillan.com/author/ruthwhite

My office is located right across the street from my apartment. The building is called The Grand, and is a Doubletree Hotel cum apartment building, with a little mini-mall in the downstairs. There are boutiques, a barbar shop, several real estate offices, chauffeur services, a teeth-whitening dental office, a little gourmet grocery store that makes amaaaazing pastries that will cost you your first-born, and Educate Tomorrow’s offices!

If anyone, and I mean anyone, is surprised at the state of the debt at Dubai World, it proves that some people just do not pay attention. The whipping boy for the recent world financial crisis has been the United States, and specifically our property fueled drunkenness. All the smart bankers around the world that invested in sub-prime debt instruments were mere dupes of the intellectually superior bubbas buying homes in Atlanta’s suburbs. And, of course, the dead-eyed subdivisions surrounding American cities were the only place where speculation happened.

Now the truth of the matter begins to seep through. The bubble in Dubai is merely the first major one to drop its trousers in public. What will everyone think when Shanghai or Beijing pops? What about Jakarta, Moscow, or Vancouver?

The reality is there are more shoes to drop. But I say, so what? Bubbles pop, people get hurt, but we survive and move on. The real danger is that the various political, theological, and monarchical classes will use these events as excuses to vest more power in the state and prolong whatever misery is created by the events. At no meaningful time in a century have the marktets been allowed to act without government intervention, often to the great harm of the people. See the U.S. in the thirties and Japan in the nineties for stark examples and bleak results. As scary as the Dubai World risk feels today, at least it is out of hiding and we can deal with it.

At no time since 1932 has a market bubble popped without some savior from the U.S. government intervening. In other words, it has been at least four generations since a market was allowed to heal itself, without a bailout. So how do we know that the markets would not function normally and recover? How could we ever know if fewer people would be harmed? The truth is, we do not. Our only experience is with government intervention before the fact (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and after the fact in the form of the stimulus and the resolution trust, for example. Think about that before you feel the urge to call the government for help; you know, the same government that created the Freddie/Fannie bubble, monster deficits, and perpetually false risk premiums. Lately it feels like we are living inside the movie: “Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bubble.”

Lazy Jack

© Edward Hunter and Thanks for the Laughs, 2009

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Advocates for the poor had better get their heads out of the clouds.  More and more we see people not caring about what really works to get people out of poverty but only going with what perpetuates the need for their idiotic wasteful  bureaucracy.

The stupid pinheads at Hunger Action Network wants to see an almost $3 increase in the minimum wage.

HT CS9

That would put so many employers out of business and impact more directly the people they’re trying to help than if they just leave the minimum wage where it is.

So few people work at the bottom level anyway.  When the economy is going well there’s a labor shortage which automatically increases wages better and faster than any shortsighted law.

IMHO they should lower the minimum wage and watch how many jobs that creates.  But that just makes too much sense to do something that might really work to get people out of poverty.

But these Hunger Action people only know one mantra that repeats the same cycle of defeat.  Raise the minimum wage and make unemployment and poverty go up.

Job and life skill training is what people need.  More skills raises the demand for what they offer making their wages go up due to higher productivity.

Tell The Hunger Action Network to take a big drink of “Get The Heck Outta The Way” and let advocacy groups that really work people out of poverty do their job.

This is just another redistribution of wealth scenario to make us more like North Korea every day!

I managed to do a commentary for youth.sg on world poverty, http://www.youth.sg/content/view/7556/59/, please have a look. However, a friend told me it looked heavily edited, yes it is. There is this lot I would like to post on my blog, because i find it simpler and easier to understand:

‘Made in China’ is a very common tag we find on our clothes, shoes or bags’ tags. I remember owning a Nike shoes that says ‘Made in Indonesia’ while some may have a ‘Made in Thailand’, ‘Made in Vietnam’, ‘Made in Pakistan’ or ‘Made in Philippines’.   It is widely known that this ‘Made in Somewhere’ tag represents where the goods were produced at. Hence, Nike, a United States product is made in so many corner of the world except for United States itself. Those production countries all share a same feature; they are termed as developing countries or ‘Third World’.  Hence, it explained why Nike would set up their factories there; so to utilise the widely available cheap labour. However, the whole process for Nike to produce sufficient products to cater to the developed countries’ population (like us) is worsening the developing countries’ population living condition. First, to produce the colourful Nike Air-Jordon Shoes, raw materials are needed and usually extracted from the same country of production. Hence, the production countries are depleting more and more of their natural resources which is both wealth and environmental asset. Second, factories processed the raw materials and produced harmful chemicals that are released into the air or river in the production countries. Hence, the population in these production countries can easily contact with diseases if they use the river water.  Finally, in economic terms, Nike would want to maximize profits and would do all means to keep production costs low. Hence, child labours are employed or maybe just violate the minimum wages level. If we zoom our lenses out to examine this process and asked ourselves ‘where do the money flow to?’, the answer is United States. Although jobs are created in the developing countries, their natural resources are extracted, polluted and their pay exploited. Hence, if we continue to satisfy our luxury wants, it create a demand and Nike would increase production or source for an upcoming ‘cheap’ country to start another production site. The poor will be left poorer.

I hope you see the whole picture now. and I need to say this again to you and myself,

this logo or that logo on your t-shirt, laptop, and so forth all share a corporate story that they didnt want you to know. Hence, its up to you and I to recognise and do something about it.

(Left) Denelio Bradshaw, (Middle) Rachel Hoffman, (Right) Andrea Green

Tallahassee Black Foot Soldiers in conjunction with the National Black Foot Soldier Network have issued a stern condemnation of the arrest and fore coming of twenty three year old Deneilo Bradshaw.

Bradshaw is charged with first-degree murder, armed robbery and possession of a gun by a convicted felon in connection with the fatal shooting of (F.A.K.E.) police informant Rachel Hoffman during a botched drug operation in May 2008.

“Rachel Hoffman’s hypocrisy came home to roost. They can’t find and stop the boats and planes bringing cocaine into this country but can find niggas on the street corners selling and smoking crack.

This is an illegal arrest and an illegal trial. In the day of the fulfillment of our evolutionary mastership, brother Deneilo Bradshaw’s oppressors will become his footstool. As this day is now only minutes away, those handling him are advised the mercy or lack thereof shown unto him he will return unto you. The day of the Great Earthquake is nigh.”

WEEK ONE:  2009

ADVENT

[Third Order, Society of St Francis, Australian Province)

A journey, a couple, a star, shepherds, a birth, and a child.   We pause to remember a story that is thousands of years old, and which echoes the hopes and longings of many peoples and places.  It is not a nostalgic reminiscence of times gone by, but a dynamic, divine challenge to enter into the mystery of God’s desire born among us.  Walter Brueggemann, Scripture scholar, calls it prophetic remembrance:  we look back to remember in such a way that we are compelled to live differently into the future.

God’s promise is revealed not only in the serenity of the child in the manger, or in the wonder of angels and stars, or shepherds and sheep, since to look only at the externals we risk missing the explosive enormity of the event.  Rather, our remembrance of the birth of the babe in a cattle stall is an invitation to reflect again on the greatness of God’s gift to us and for us.  As we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Christ child, we cannot forget that it is our story too!  We too are called to bring Christ’s reign of justice and compassion to birth in our own lives.

Mary and Joseph lived at a time when the Israelites were an oppressed people longing for that new world that God had promised. They waited in hope for liberation, for a world where lion would be at peace with lamb, where the lowly would be lifted, and the hungry fed. They longed for a world where the desire for power and control, wealth and possessions, self-fulfillment and pleasure would be transformed to a world where equality, inclusion, justice and peace prevailed.

They longed for more than the birth of a child. They longed to see that new creation born of God’s dream for all.  They waited on a promise.  We too wait for God, and God waits for God’s promise to be fulfilled in us, and God’s reign to embrace with peace every corner of our world.  With St Francis we come to know that we are the mothers of Christ when we bring him forth in lives that are gift for the Other. Christ is born again and again in our world, and God’s gift is enfleshed each time we participate in an act of birthing a new humanity, a new world, and a new future.

Now is the time to turn our eyes to see the oppressed; our ears to hear the cries of hundreds of millions living in extreme poverty. Now is the time to reach out our hands to draw back those excluded and marginalized.  Now is the time to proclaim the Good News not only with our lips, but in the choices and decisions of our everyday lives.

What is the promise that you wait to see fulfilled?

What is the promise that you will fulfill in your life?

India Waits for a New Tomorrow.

In the towns and villages of India God’s people are oppressed and bend low beneath the weight of grief, suffering and fear.  They long for God’s promise to come true.  They long for a new world where justice and equality, peace and inclusion are more than dreams.

The government of India has failed to protect vulnerable communities including Dalits, tribal groups, and religious minorities. Since 2008, supporters of Hindu militant groups in Orissa have attacked Christians, many of them tribal minorities or Dalits. The militants have burned churches, beat priests and nuns, and destroyed property. Several policemen were suspended for dereliction of duty after a nun alleged that she was raped. At this time at least 40 persons have died in the violence, with scores injured and thousands displaced.

Failure to secure justice for the 2002 Gujarat riots-in which more than 2,000 Muslims were killed following an attack on a train carrying Hindu pilgrims-has fueled anger amongst Muslims who face discrimination in access to housing and jobs.  The Indian government does little to protect them.

Despite a scheme launched four years ago to provide universal education, millions of children in India still have no access to education and work long hours, many as bonded laborers. Many children continue to be trafficked for marriage, sex work, or employment. Others languish in substandard orphanages or detention centers.

Human Rights Watch Report, 2009.

Recently, in a joint statement read at the General Assembly of the UN, Franciscans International spoke out on behalf of the persecuted and suffering peoples of India, making known their story: On 1 August, seven Christians including women and children were burnt alive, several dozens injured and around 177 houses were looted and destroyed mainly by fire using special chemicals. These killings and widespread violent attacks happened on unsubstantiated allegations…..The administration repeatedly failed to protect minorities …

Franciscans International, is an NGO working with the United Nations in the name of the whole Franciscan Family.  It is a voice speaking to the powerful decision makers of the world bringing about the change we long to see in our world.  For over 25 years Franciscans International has worked to fulfill God’s dream, facilitating systemic transformation in the world on behalf of the most vulnerable and our wounded planet.  Franciscans International works for that justice without which there can be no enduring “Peace and Earth”.

Ahh, feels great to finish the second book in The Wave Rider’s series.  The Wave Riders Book I introduces a wave pattern in our personalities that followed the “bipolar pattern” found in some mental health problems, only it was also happening in the mainstream population – I like to call it the “Pre-bipolar State”.   It also suggests that depression may be caused from the natural down of an adrenaline, high energy state.  

In the third book scheduled to be released Jan. 2010 I will introduce three trends that are already influencing our families and our finances.

I thought that the second book should be from 10 Revelation from Lawn chairs to Limos, bouncing back from bankruptcy and poverty as there are so many people feeling down now from these tough economic times. These 10 Revelations from the Leap from Lawn chairs ( my only living room furniture years ago) to Limos were important lessons that I observed through the process and hope that they may help other people through their tough times.  I try to show that poverty does not relate to your value and that there is hope and opportunity even when we feel that we have hit bottom.   The book will be available at The Wave Riders http://www.thewaveriders.com

The book is in the final edit and layout process for digital release in about 1 week and I hope it will reach people that need a boost this year.

The Wave Riders will introduce and release for sale within one week Indigo Irwin Kennedy’s second book titled:

10 Revelations in the leap from Lawn Chairs to Limos! 

How an overachiever – achieved bankruptcy and bounced back to success and joy through faith and discovery – Unlock the remarkable 10 secrets that only this journey through poverty and back again could reveal! A reflective journey into the sometimes humorous poverty patterns we create in our lives and how a little faith can go a long way home!  Learn how to bounce back from the bottom of bankruptcy and poverty. 

The final bottom; macaroni and cheese suppers for weeks and old, garage sale, broken lawn chairs for living room furniture.  So broken and old were our lawn chairs that our rear ends rested comfortably on the carpeted floor below.  Being over 40 when poverty hit, I thought it would be with me forever but life had other plans and gave to me 10 revelations that anyone could use that turned my world around and rooted deeply to build my life back up again.   it seemed a blur of unexpected, universally driven activity until  I stood only a few years later amazed when broken down lawn chairs turned into Limos and Caribbean cruise vacations.

 When released will be available only in digital format $14.95

We think that you will enjoy this in the second book in the series of books at The Wave Riders.  Indigo is now completing the third book in the series Creating Emotinal Balance in our Accelerated World.

The 3 Main books in The Wave Riders series are listed below