Green News from Cuba

photo credit

Cuba has been quietly leading the way in recent years in significantly reducing its consumption of fossil fuels and its overall energy usage. Planned measures by the government have focused on two main areas - reducing consumption and increasing the use of renewables. Measures include:

• replacing, free of charge, the entire nation's supply of incandescent light bulbs (9 million) with compact flourescents over a six month period
• providing subsidies to allow families to purchase 2 million energy-efficient refrigerators, 1 million fans, 182,000 air conditioners and 260,000 water pumps
• changing the pricing structure for electricity to allow households using less than 100 kWh per month to benefit from an extremely low tariff (less than 4 cents per kWh). Prices rise dramatically for households using more than this amount.
• a national education programme through schools, TV and other media to highlight the issues associated with energy reduction and usage
• making moves to partly decentralise the nation's electrical production with the building of over 1800 micro-electrical plants generating supplies for their local town or district.
• a major plan of repair and upgrade to the nation's electrical transmission network - posts, poles and cables.
  

Efforts to reduce consumption have lead to significant reductions in oil consumption, saving over 961,000 tonnes of imported oil between 2006-2007.

On the use of renewables, measures have included:

• building two wind farms
• building a 100 kW solar electric plant - the first to be connected to the national grid
• creating 180 micro-hydro systems
  
• the creation of over 8000 off-grid local solar power systems for use in rural areas
• the construction of 300 biogas plants, converting animal waste to cooking fuel
• sugarcane biogass (using non-edible residue) is adding about 500 MW to the national grid
  
• the formation in 2007 of a National Group tasked with accelerating the implementation of renewable energy sources. The group focuses at present on 14 different renewables and the practicalities of their implementation in Cuba

Source.

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Should We Use Twitter in Church? A Response to Josh Harris

Although not really the main focus of this blog, I was stimulated by Josh Harris's post on the use of Twitter in church.

His conclusion is to leave the tweeting out during the church meetings and his reasons are as follows:

1. Doing so will be likely to distract me from the word of God (as I am likely to be tempted to check emails, etc.)

2. Tweeting, even in response to the sermon, is time spent not actively listening to the sermon.

3. Tweeting focuses on me broadcasting rather than listening and, thus, is a different activity to that needed to benefit from the word.

4. We may set the wrong example to other people - they may think we're merely checking our emails and this may lead them to do likewise.

5. Popularity in the culture does not make an activity appropriate in the church.

6. Nothing will be lost by tweeting after the Sunday meeting.


Judging by the number of comments on Josh's blog, this seems a pretty live issue, with John Piper even entering the debate. So here goes with a response, point by point:

1. If it is true that tweeting distracts you from the word of God, then it is certainly an activity to be avoided.

My difficulty with Josh's first point, however, is that, having been honest about his own struggles in this area and sharing the effect that tweeting during the sermon has on him ( I assume he has tried it), he moves from that to a general claim that the action must have the same effect on every human being.

A superficial consideration of this premise, or a familiarity with the varieties of human experiences, will reveal it to be unsustainable. Everyone is different and one man's meat is another man's poison. The Lord Jesus only required us to cut off our hands if they were causing us to sin. If they were not, we are permitted to keep them attached to our arms.


2. Tweeting is not time spent listening. This is surely being righteous over-much. The act of listening (to God's word) is far more multi-faceted than the mere act of sitting still and hearing. It involves, for instance, thinking about what is heard, engaging our will and emotions in response to it; applying it to our lives as we hear; praying while we listen, etc. Actively listening to the word of God may also involve us weeping or trembling at it (a response that God says he "esteems") .

Any or all of these excellent actions may involve us, temporarily, "not listening" in the narrow sense that Josh suggests. But, surely, they are all very much at the heart of how a godly congregation should listen. If an individual finds that they can use a tool of some kind to focus their response and enrich their capacity to engage with the message, that is surely a valid act for them, subject to it being done unto the Lord and with due regard to the needs of the weaker brother. I note that, annecdotally, several of those commenting on Josh's post do in fact state this to be the reason they use twitter during the sermon.

Furthermore, Josh's assumption that the act of tweeting cannot be done while actively listening is, presumably, a statement which he himself has found to be the case in his experience. To make a rule based on this experience, however, appears unwise and a possible case of imposing one' s own freedom (or lack of it) on another.

I would disagree with those who compare tweeting with note taking. I compare it more with saying "amen" to a particular point in the sermon. I don't know if he still does it, but CJ Mahaney was one of the first Christian leaders I observed giving verbal feedback during Bible teaching - often of a vigorous kind. Are we to prohibit this activity because it is "not time spent listening"? Please see my concluding comments for more on this point.

3. I agree that tweeting is broadcasting, but this action does not have to be seen as incompatible with listening. My definition (above) of what is involved in active listening is, I think, relevant to this point as well as to the previous one. I am not qualified to comment on listening from a neurological or educational perspective, but there may be more to discover from those fields of knowledge and common grace about what it is exactly that is involved in effective listening.

A subsidiary point could be made here that, by sharing the individual's response to the sermon, the effect of it is being spread in real time and in a natural, relational way.

4. Example. Oh! The great argument that has stifled innovation in God's church for centuries! Exactly the same argument has been used repeatedly in connection with a hundred and one developments in church that are now uncontroversial, including (in no particular order):

• using TV monitors in the meetings (people will think they've come to a cinema, etc)
• using guitars (people will think that it's OK to listen to rock music)
• wearing suits (people will think they've come to a business convention)
• not wearing suits (people will think they've come to a hippy festival, etc)

This argument is really a dead end for two reasons. Firstly, because it focuses so much on externals at the expense of heart attitude that it is difficult to see how such an argument will tend towards producing anything other than ....... well, externalism!

Secondly, it suggests that Christian adults who are often handling major responsibility in the world of work all week, are incapable of dealing emotionally or intellectually with another individual who is accessing a palmtop or other device during a public meeting. Do such people actually exist in our churches? If so, I would want to ask the question, "Where did they learn to be so uptight?" My concern is that they might have learned such unseemly traits in church itself.


5. Josh's analysis of the relationship between church life and the surrounding culture is, to my mind, the weakest element in his article. To say that we do not need to incorporate a thing into church life just because it is popular is at one level, a mere truism.

At another level, however, it reads a little bit like the age-old line, "We don't want change just for the sake of change" to which I reply, "Why not? We're quite happy with predictability for the sake of predictability."

Anyone who argues that we should "start doing something" in church because "they do it in the world" is clearly a sad person who needs befriending and taking out more. The fact is, people are using twitter increasingly in public conferences and other presentational settings and it is a trend that is naturally finding expression in some churches. The issue, therefore, is a pastoral one - should leaders encourage or discourage this practice for the good of the body - not one based on making the meetings more culturally relevant to the outsider.

6. Several things will be lost by tweeting after the Sunday meeting instead of during it. Most significantly, I would suggest, is the sense of immediacy. Preaching, if I have understood correctly, is meant to cause a response now. Of course, such a response cannot only be expressed through tweeting! But, if the point of preaching is that it is meant to have an effect in the moment, we should be careful that we do not confuse this aim with the ability to form a considered evaluation of a sermon at a later point.

Some final thoughts:

Listening (to paraphrase Jonathan Edwards in his Dissertation Concerning the End for Which God Created the World) is a subordinate end not an ultimate end when we gather to hear God's word. The ultimate end of listening to preaching is, of course, to glorify God, but between the subordinate end of listening and the ultimate end of God being glorified, other subordinate ends exist. In particular, we should expect the preaching of the word to effect change in us, conforming us in greater measure to the will of God and the character of Jesus Christ.

If this is happening, we should rejoice whether or not tweeting is happening. If it is not, tweeting or sitting still is a non-issue.

Iran Mosque Bombing: an American Role?

The group or groups blamed for today's bombing of a Shia mosque in southern Iran are, according to former CIA operative Robert Baer, among those who during the Bush era received Congressional funding for their terrorist operations.

The full story is here.

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Peru: Is This an Oil War?

In scenes reminiscent of the American frontier during the C19, this week has seen a state of emergency declared and the Peruvian Army ordered into the country's Amazon region to help the police put down a protest by indigenous tribal groups against the granting of oil drilling permits to multi-national companies.

As previously reported on this blog, Anglo-French group Perenco is sending about 1,000 workers into the Peruvian Amazon to drill in lands which contain significant numbers of native Amazonian tribes, including several that have had no contact with outside cultures and are therefore particularly susceptible to imported disease. Canadian petrochemical firm Petrolifera are also active in the region in the Ucayali Basin, and control about 4.5 million acres in Peru.

Perenco's operations are in the Maranon Basin near the boarder with Equador in an area that it claims holds over 300 millions barrels of oil which it hopes to extract at the rate of 100,000 barrels per day. Perenco secured the drilling rights after Perenco President Francois Perrodo met with Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez and pledged to invest $US 2 billion into energy-related development in the area. Perenco plans on drilling over 100 wells, building local pipelines and central processing facilities in the area, which is home to the Cacataibos, Isconahua, Matsigenka, Mashco-Piro, Mastanahua, Murunahua and Nant tribes.

American energy company ConocoPhillips owns a concession of over 10 million acres in the Peruvian Amazon and has been criticised by NGO Amazon Watch for the risk their operation poses to indigenous people groups who have chosen a policy of non-contact in order to preserve their traditional culture and to protect themselves from disease.

Directives by the Government of Peru passed over the last two years have relaxed restrictions on oil exploration in the Amazon and up to 30,000 people have been holding a month long protest to call for the repeal of these decrees. There have also been blockades of key rivers and roads into the affected areas, as illustrated in the video below.

A British friend and long-time resident in Peru recently told me that the public money pledged to educational and health care improvement among the Amazonian tribes rarely reaches its intended recipients and that corruption in all levels of government is known to be widespread.

Peru Indigenous Mobilization from Amazon Watch on Vimeo.

Up to date news and fuller details about organised campaigns to stop oil and gas exploration in the Peruvian Amazon can be found here.

Possible actions concerned citizens could take include:

• writing to the President of Peru
• contacting your congressman or woman
  
• writing or emailing your local MP or MEP
• contacting your local Peruvian embassy

Alternatively, concerned citizens could always write or pay a visit to the oil company of their choice and have a chat with the managers there about how you feel their company is behaving in northern Peru. Contact details are as follows:


Perenco

Thames House
Thamesfield Way
off Pasteur Road
Great Yarmouth
Norfolk
NR31 0DN

Tel: +44 1 493 414 000
Fax: +44 1 493 414 001

Petrolifera

Suite 900
332 Sixth Avenue SW
Calgary
Alberta
Canada
T2P 0B9

Fax: 403.538.6225


R. A. Gusella
Executive Chairman
(403) 538-6201

or

Gary D. Wine
President and Chief Operating Officer
(403) 539-8450

or

Kristen J. Bibby
Vice President Finance and Chief Financial Officer
(403) 539-8450

ConocoPhillips

Meet the Leadership Team or The Board of Directors and then pay them a visit at

600 North Dairy
Ashford

Houston,

TX 77252-2197

Phone: 281 293 1000

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Urban Farms: Lessons from America

If, as many believe, part of the response to the current ecologiocal crisis lies in locally sourced food, then growing food in and around cities has to feature as part of that solution.

The following examples from the US introduce and illustrate some of the opportunities, challenges and issues associated with growing food on any scale in modern cities:

• In Detroit, the city council has agreed a deal with Hantz Farms to re-use up to 70 acres of the lower east side to create the world's largest urban farm. The move is designed "to help meet Michigan's increasing demand for locally grown produce" in a city whose population has declined by over 100,000 since 1990. The farm will be privately owned. Hantz aims to take on up to 5,000 acres of the city in due course.
  

• Vertical Farms are an idea whose time has come, according to Columbia University Professor Dickson Despommier. The images of these as-yet-unbuilt farms are certainly beautiful. The reality is that no-one has actually yet built one though Despommier has suggested a cost of $20-30 Million to build a five-story prototype in New York City.
  

• Red Hook Community Farm in New York City is run as non-profit project and engages hundreds of children and young people in producing locally grown fresh food. Viewed as a model by many.
  

• Levels of lead and other metals present in urban soil carry the risk of significant health dangers if they enter the food chain. Some anecdotal evidence from Chicago and Houston here.
  

• The office of the mayor of New York City is proposing a tax-free initiative to encourage 1,000 mobile food vendors to sell fresh fruit and vegetables in areas of the city where they are often difficult to find - so called "food deserts." The move is causing some concern among small corner store owners in poorer parts of the city who fear loss of trade.
  

Post script: came across this interesting post about Detroit's possible transition to a post-growth city.



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Smoking Outdoors: the Next Ban?

I've observed over the years that trends which take root in California usually arrive in the UK a year or two later.

If that is true, British people may want to take note of a law being passed through the California state senate this week banning smoking on public beaches and state parks. Senator Jenny Oropeza, one of the bill's sponsors, claims that 1/3 of debris on America's breaches comes from cigarettes.

I predict it is a matter of time before similar legislation is proposed in the UK Parliament - probably via the national assemblies in Wales and Scotland first.

Remember where you heard it!

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The Revolution Begins - in the Kitchen?

Enjoyed Robert Waldrop's post on Cultivating a Local Food System.

His six steps for ensuring local food stability are:

(1) preparing meals from basic ingredients

(2) frugal supermarket shopping

(3) gardening

(4) food storage

(5) home preservation of food

(6) buying local foods


His blog also includes more information on point 1 - preparing meals from basic ingredients and includes a link to this rather helpful site on making bread in five minutes. Apparently it's all to do with the no-knead method and it's not as complicated as I have always believed.

To the work surface. Hasten the glorious day.

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Don't Neglect Geothermal Energy

The U.S. Geological Survey has estimated that there may be enough super-heated water underground to generate more than 30,000 megawatts of electricity - enough to power upward of 25 million homes.

"Geothermal energy is, in our opinion, an undervalued option that needs a serious look and could pay off big if there is a long-range, year-to-year commitment to it" Jefferson Tester, associate director of Cornell University's Center for a Sustainable Future

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Dreaming of Freiburg

At last, Europe has a model of a green city.

Collective inertia has kept us for decades saying how impractical it would be to:

• remove cars from large sections of a city
• source large amounts of food from local farmers and suppliers
• build highly-energy-efficient houses and public buildings
• prioritise residential neighbourhoods for use by pedestrians and cyclists
• develop a mass transportation system that is cost-effective and efficient
• harness solar power on a large-scale
  
• blah, blah, blah

Meanwhile, while sitting on our backsides explaining why it couldn't be done, the German city of Freiburg has transformed itself into something of a model of a modern sustainable city.

No doubt, people who are more knowledgeable about these matters than I am will explain why the German dream city is not quite as environmentally sound as it might otherwise be. All I know is that its city council - run by the Green Party - has achieved some major successes while the rest of us are living in car-infested cities, wasting energy as if it grew on trees (boom, boom) and eating processed food that has traveled half way round the world.

Just shows what politics can achieve.

Meanwhile, Wales has set ambitious and legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gases by committing to becoming energy self-sufficient through using renewable electricity within 20 years and to reducing waste to zero by 2050.

The proposals would make Wales one of only three countries in the world legally bound to develop "sustainably".

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Rumsfeld Preaches A Different Gospel

Former Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ordered Bible verses to be placed on the front of top secret military intelligence documents prepared for cabinet and Presidential briefings during the Bush years.

The covers of these documents have now been made public and combine to paint a picture of a gospel of violence and nationalism.

The images, which can be viewed here, are a sober reminder of the dangers of misusing the word of God to support one's own agenda - in this case the Project for a New American Century , a right-wing think tank advocating the aggressive expansion of American diplomatic and military influence around the world, especially into the middle east. The Project was the first body to articulate the concept of a "regime change" in Iraq, several years before it was expressed as government policy by the Bush administration.

President Obama has ordered these Bible verses to be removed from future intelligence briefings under his administration - a move which may be criticised by some as evidence of the secular nature of the current administration but which, in my view, could be equally seen as the kind of action needed to purge a gospel of war from the corridors of power. Perhaps this act could be loosely compared with Hezekiah destroying the bronze serpent - an object that had been a means of grace but whose use had been perverted into a form of idolatry.

Historically, third stream Christian groups have included many pacifists or, as some would describe themselves, active peacemakers. Even those who have not been pacifists have been careful to avoid the trap of using Biblical proof texts to justify militarism, as Donald Rumsfeld has so crudely done.

The Shame of the Christian Brothers

Rarely has the term Christian Brothers been used in a less appropriate way.

The Roman Catholic lay teaching organisation of that name has been heavily criticised in a nine-year official investigation into child abuse in Catholic institutions in Ireland over a period of sixty years, during which time thousands of vulnerable children experienced physical, sexual and psychological abuse at the hands of nuns, priests and lay teachers.

To add to the injury of the original abuse, the perpretators cannot be brought to trial as a result of a legal ruling in which the Brothers sucessfully argued that the names of all involved should not be made public.

As a Christian believer myself, I am appalled at this report and am reminded of the words of Christ when he vehemently attacked the religious leaders of his day:

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." Matthew 8:5-6

And,

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean." Matthew 25:27

And finally,

"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?" Matthew 23:33

The full text of the Irish report can be viewed here.












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The Next Evangelicalism?

Interview: Soong Chan Rah from Eugene Cho on Vimeo.

Wal Mart Bashes Unions

Wal-Mart, America's biggest employer and owner of the ASDA brand in the UK, has been lobbying hard this week to defeat a bill currently before the US Senate that would have made it easier for unions to organise local branches within companies.

The Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to form a new local "bargaining unit" simply by collecting a simple majority of signed cards by employees. Opponents of the measure argue for a secret ballot to be required before such unionization could take place on their site.

More than 500 business organizations had formed the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to oppose "card check" as the new measure is known. The lobby group - which includes Wal Mart - has spent up to $10 million on its campaign to oppose the measure, fearing increased unionization and rising labour costs. The bill now looks unlikely to pass through Congress with several moderate Democrats announcing their intention to oppose it or seek to renegotiate its terms.

"We were outspent, outhustled and outorganized," said one union leader.

Source, LA Times





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Jesus and the Dishonest Politician

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The newspaper editors and the bloggers brought in a member of parliament caught with his fingers in the till. They made him stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this man was caught in the act of claiming expenses beyond what is reasonable. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such men. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at him." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the member of parliament still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked him, "Man, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," he said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

John 8:1-11





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MP's Expenses and the Culture of Acquisition

I've resisted blogging about the current scandal surrounding MP's expenses for several reasons not least of all lack of time.

One simple observation that has come through loud and clear, however, is that there are a minority of individuals in the UK, both inside and outside Parliament, who simply earn vast amounts of money.

For instance:

• LibDem MP and Home Affairs Spokesman Chris Huhne, is a millionaire and owns seven homes in Britain (according to the Telegraph)
  
• BBC news reporter Carrie Grace (until this week a relatively unknown reporter) is paid £92,000 a year and gets defensive about it here.
  

My wife and I have never and will never earn a fraction of these amounts of money, despite having good university degrees and being professional people beyond our middle years. When writing this statement, it will be assumed by many that we are jealous or that we should in fact aspire to approximate these levels of salary. Neither assumption is true and that, in fact, is exactly my point.

The dominance of unrestrained capitalism post-Thatcher has created a culture in the UK that sees unlimited individual earnings as either morally neutral or a positive good - a state we should all aspire to.

I don't agree with that. I believe it can be harmful to the common good of a society if some within it earn vastly more than some others.

In my opinion, the story over MP's expenses is just a sideshow that misses the point. The big picture is entrenched economic inequality in Britain on a vast scale.

I think that's the real problem.

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Menno Simmons on Poverty and Piety

O preachers, dear preachers, where is the power of the Gospel you preach? . . . Shame on you for the easygoing gospel and barren bread-breaking, you who have in so many years been unable to effect enough with your gospel and sacraments so as to remove your needy and distressed members from the streets, even though the Scripture plainly teaches . . . [that] there shall be no beggars among you.

Menno Simons, “Reply to False Accusations” (1552), in Complete Writings, ed. J.C. Wenger.

Distributism Part Two

Although not yet a fully paid-up convert to the economic theory of distributism, which I introduced in a previous post, the system does have the advantage of combining in my mind a number of previously disparate strands of thought which have exercised me over the years.

Among these have included:

• a decentralised approach to life. My observation is that both the centralised planned economies of twentieth century socialism and the emergence of multi-national corporations over the last fifty years have tended to produce powerful oligrachies that end to reduce democratic actvity whil claiming to preserve it. Decentralism affirms both the ability and the naturalness of individuals taking actions that they percieve to be in their best interests without the stuperfying levels of management and bureaucracy that typify centralised organisations
• an emphasis on small scale business. Whatever our views about the causes and origins of the current financial collapse, there can be little doubt that the sheer scale of the institutions at the heart of it was a significant factor in their downfall. This was also a factor in their ability to hold nation states hostage with dire threats of the damage that their collapse would do to the economy as a whole if they were not rescued by those same states
• an emphasis on localism. Ever since reading Nick Spencer's essay Where do we go From Here? I have been convinced of the social, personal and environmental benefits of geographical rootedness. Much current environmental thinking - from issues as apparently diverse as transport, leisure, energy production and food - emphasies the ecological benefits of "acting locally". Although distributism did not arise historically from an explicit environmental agenda, many of its conclusions are compatible with the emphasis on localism that informs much current, progressive environmental thought.
  
• an emphasis on self employment. For whatever reason, I have always fouind the idea of working for myself, which I am currently doing, far more satisfactory an arrangement than being employed by another person, this latter arrangement appearing to me (personally) as merely a step up from servitude.
  
• its origins in a Christian worldview. The early distributionists were Roman Catholic thinkers and, although not a Catholic myself, I do identify with some of the ethical views that underpin distributism. These include an affirmation of the dignity and social usefulness of work, an acceptance of the legitimacy of private ownership, a rejection of the capitalist pursuit of excessive (or "artificial" wealth) and a recognition (contra classic marxism) that mankind is a spiritual being not merely a materialistic entity.
  

In essence, I can see how distributism (defined as the widespread ownership of private productive property) contains emphases that can be found in theoretical aspects of capitalism - its emphasis on private property and individual freedoms, for instance - as well as in socialist thought - its demand for structural economic change that takes away the means of production from "the few" and gives it to "the many". Time will tell whether distributism is robust enough to be sucessfully implemented against the backdrop of the powerful vested interests that currently pull the strings of the global economy.

I guess there's only one way to find out.....

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Am I a Distributist?

Have you ever had the experience of reading something that unexpectedly brought together in your mind a number of previously unrelated strands of thought and wove them into a coherent whole?

Such was my experience recently when reading Thomas Storck's introductory essay on the economic theory of distributism, a word interestingly that my spell checker does not recognise, but which, I predict, is likely to be read and written about with increasing frequency in the coming years.

Storck describes Distributism as "an economic system which encourages the widespread ownership of private productive property." If I have understood his essay correctly, Storck means by this a system by which the vast majority of the population own the means of production and use these means directly for the creation of socially useful, quality products and services as well as the creation of meaningful financial gain for themselves and their families.

Paradoxically, distributism challenges capitalism - with its tendencey to concentrate wealth in the hands of the few and its focus on employer-employee relations as the prime structure for facilitating income generation - by asserting the need for far greater numbers of (small) business owners. Ideally, in the distributionsit world, as many as possible would pursue individual owner-operated trades which intimitely link production with ownership. "Distributism therefore seeks to maintain a healthy relationship between ownership and production by maintaining and encouraging small businesses, small workshops, small farms in which the owner would always be personally involved in the actual production of the product or service....... Distributists seek to minimize the employer/employee relationship by making as many people as possible owners of their own productive enterprises."

Interest in the system, championed by GK Chesterton and Hilaire Belloc in the early decades of the twentieth century, appears to be experiencing something of a resurrgance as groups and individuals think long and hard about the meaning of the obvious collapse of Western developed capitalism.

I'll share further thoughts in future posts as I continue this journey, so don't you go away now, you hear?

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Hazel Blears as Labour Party Weather Guage

When Communities Secretary Hazel Blears publicly criticises her government's communication strategy, you know things are bad.

Ms Blears is the member of the cabinet most likely to be wheeled out into television studios to defend the government when it faces a range of unpopular issues. I've seen her defend the indefensible on numerous occasions, from the invasion of Iraq to the abolition of the 10 pence tax band. She is asked to do so because of her loyalty and professionalism, even though she may personally disagree with a specific policy.

So when the MP for Salford feels it necessary to write an article critical of the government, it's a legitimate assumption for outsiders to make that things are pretty dire in the senior ranks of the Labour Party.

Let's hope the general election is sooner rather than later so that the electorate themselves can have their say on the Brown (and Blair) years.

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Iran Claims Swine Flu Originated in America

If you enjoy reading your news between the lines, there is a great piece here from the Iranian news agency Press TV quoting the US Center for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) who say that cases of the H1N1 virus were reported in the state of California several weeks before the first reported outbreaks in Mexico.

"The patients," the report says "had neither been to Mexico nor had they come into contact with pigs."

So there.




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Middle East Table Talk

Over the last year, my family has had a succession of students lodging with us from various Arabic-speaking countries in the middle east and north Africa.

Without wanting to reveal too much about specific individuals, it would be fair to say that our guests have all been well connected to senior members of the governments of their home countries.

As we've got to know each other, I've learned a lot of new things, some significant some mundane. Here's a sample of the anecdotes shared around our meal table over the last year by people closer to life in the middle east than I will ever be:

• Prior to the first Gulf War, it is claimed, the governments of Iraq, Jordan and Yemen made a secret deal between themselves to effectively carve up Saudi Arabia and Kuwait between the three of them. Money was exchanged and deals done, only to be thwarted by the arrival of large numbers of American troops in Saudi Arabia itself in preparation for Operation Desert Storm. Interestingly, I understand, though have not been able to verify this yet, that both Jordan and Yemen abstained from the vote in the UN General Assembly that confirmed the imposition of sanctions against Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait. It was well known at the time that both countries provided sanction busting services to Iraq during and after the first Gulf War.

• Camels - loved and kept in large numbers by Saudis and Kuwaitis - have extremely long memories, especially if mistreated. There are stories circulating about camels attacking former owners, even though they have not seen them for years, as retaliation for a beating given many years earlier.

• When Sadaam Hussain met King Hussain of Jordan on one occasion, he presented the King with a gold plated automatic weapon. Apparently, Sadaam's gift of choice to foreign heads of state was almost always a rifle or pistol of some kind.

• When a student living with us failed to reach the necessary grade in an exam which was a requirement for admission to a leading British university in the south of England, he announced that "I pay money" and was shocked when we informed him that that was not how things worked in Britain and that doing so could land him in prison.

• It is widely assumed in Jordan that the territorial integrity of Iraq is unsustainable and that the country will inevitably split into three states at some point in the coming 10-20 years. Interestingly, I noted on this site in November 2006 that such a solution was a distinct possibility. It is a view that receives absolutely no attention in the western media or in government but is , apparently, widely assumed in Jordan and possibly elsewhere.

• The cheapest place to take a holiday in the middle east is, apparently, Damascus, where high quality hotels come at a low price. Mind you, Syria is also one of the five worst countries in the world to be a blogger, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
  

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North Sea Carbon Dioxide Storage

OK. So it looks like it will be possible to store CO2 in the porous rock under the North Sea, potentially opening the way for the large-scale application of Carbon Capture and Storage (CSS).

I'm no scientist but I need to ask the question: after the "hundreds of years" that the gas can be safely stored, what happens then?

Is this just another nuclear waste story - store it somewhere until we think of what to do with it in the long term?

Informed answers are welcome.

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Seeker Friendly, New Testament Style (Part 1)

Debates about the extent to which church meetings are or should be accessible to the uncommitted or casual visitor have occupied a great deal of attention in Christian circles in recent years.

It is interesting to note within the context of this debate how little space has been given over to analysing how the new testament church actually understood the issue. Instead, an assumption is often made that a desire to be accessible to the un-churched outsider is an entirely new preoccupation, unknown to the early church. The reality however is quite different.

Paul's Corinthian correspondence, while focusing on the life of the church itself, also has an eye on those outside, as we shall see in a series of forthcoming posts on the subject.