When people's sense of injustice is engaged, mountains can be moved.

I'm not an environmental scientist. I don't pretend to understand all the intricacies of climate change but I'm not blind either, and like you I have noticed that there appears to be a number of 'extreme weather' events that could be a result of changing weather patterns; which could be a result of a 'rich humanity's' exploitation of the environment; and which seem to impact most, the poorest and most vulnerable.

Climate change and its impact on the world is not just a scientific debate, it’s primarily a social justice issue. But until now all the rhetoric and argument has been presented as a problem of collective guilt. ‘We’ must repent and mend our ways.

This assigns blame in a way that mocks democracy and pretends that the poor and the rich are somehow equally responsible for the political gamesmanship that drives the agenda of governments and multinationals. Meanwhile the real crime – the very existence of rich and poor – continues to create havoc.

There are rich and powerful interests who will be quite content if social justice stays out of the climate change debate and no doubt will fight (as Copenhagen suggested) to keep it off the agenda. There are also climate change activists who seem to care little about the rights of their fellow humans, let alone their happiness.

But we had better start taking an interest because until the grievous infringements of dignity that most of humanity endure are addressed there will be no answers to climate change and its increasing influence on our world.

I am a Human Being

It was 'revealed' this morning that a number of Asylum seeker families have been 'detained' under security in a suburban Motel in Queensland - without the knowledge of the locals. But now that it has been revealed that their neighbours are asylum seekers they are not happy.

One of the residents interviewed suggested it was 'not right, who knows what is in that hotel'!

It reminded me of the hysteria whipped up in the wake of the Tampa incident when Australians objectified the situation. With our capacity to blur out the individual faces and ignore our shared humanity we are able to depersonalise the story and claim that we are only protecting our own.

The human tendency to prejudice and xenophobia is born and grows in a climate of ignorance, selfishness and unwillingness to learn.

The unfounded and irresponsible reporting of the TV journalist further inflamed the situation when she claimed that the hotel borders on 'a playground, a school and a main road'. What was she suggesting: that the 'asylum seekers' (let's keep them faceless commodities) 'were paedophiles looking for a quick get-away and an opportunity to silently melt into our community'? And what made it worse apparently was that the school is one of the areas most respected.

This kind of irresponsible reporting will result in tragedy. I hope I am wrong, but I bet this is not the last we will hear of the small motel in the suburbs and the frightened parents that have sacrificed a huge amount in an attempt to provide their kids with a new, safe and hope-filled life.

Be A Lifesaver

Australia has a proud history of helping refugees fleeing war and persecution. But in 2010, in the lead up to a Federal election, our politicians are trampling on this record and punishing these most desperate of people to score political points.

On Saturday 8 May, people around Australia are gathering to form human life rings, and show our politicians on all sides that they've got it wrong - Australians do care about saving lives and we won't accept punishment of people to win votes.

JOIN US on SATURDAY 8 MAY to create a human life ring, wearing your brightest red and yellow clothing.

SYDNEY - Bondi Beach11am - 1pm
For more details - http://www.amnesty.org.au/nsw/event/22927/

MELBOURNE - St Kilda Beach- front of surf lifesaving club11am - 1pm
For more details - http://www.amnesty.org.au/vic/event/22926/

BRISBANE - King George Square1pm - 3pm
For more details - http://www.amnesty.org.au/qld/event/22928/

ADELAIDE - The Human Rights Wall, Barker Gardens, Corner of Prospect and Alpha Roads,1pm - 3pm
For more details - http://www.amnesty.org.au/sa/event/22925/

Australia is a lucky country - most of us don't have to worry about persecution or the horrors of war. But do we care about people who do?

This event is supported by:
Actionaid - http://www.actionaid.org.au/
Amnesty International Australia - http://www.amnesty.org.au/
Asylum Seeker Centre - http://www.asylumseekerscentre.org.au/
Asylum Seeker Resource Centre - http://www.asrc.org.au/
Australian Council for Tamil Refugees GetUp - http://www.getup.org.au/
Hotham Mission - http://asp.hothammission.org.au/
Human Rights Law Resource Centre - http://www.hrlrc.org.au/
Jesuit Refugee Service - http://www.jrs.org.au/
National Council of Churches - http://www.ncca.org.au/
Refugee Council of Australia - http://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/
Uniting Justice Australia - http://www.unitingjustice.org.au/
Rise (Refugee Survivors and Ex-detainees) - http://riserefugee.org/home-page
Union Aid Abroad (Apheda) - http://www.apheda.org.au/
Liberty Victoria - http://www.libertyvictoria.org/

Crystal's Story

A few weeks ago a young woman walked into our building. A friend had given her a Bible, and she was trying to read it but wanted to know more about God and faith - that was the beginning of Crystal's journey with us here at Preston Salvos.

Crystal's story could be a movie script. Fighting addictions and 'demons' from her past she is a survivor and through her regular involvement with The Salvos and the mentoring of local leaders she has become a vibrant part of our family.

Crystal listened to the stories of need in countries far away during our recent 6 week Self Denial Appeal and at the invitation to bring a sacrificial gift of money she was the first one to walk down the aisle and place her envelope on the altar. This was new to her, she said, never before had she thought about the poverty and the need in her world.

Three days later Crystal was at church again, talking with a mentor; she looked pale and drawn; just a little melancholy, not the usual bubbly, excited person we have come to know. On questioning (and insisting) Crystal explained that she had not eaten for three days because she had put all of her money in the self-denial envelope. She explained: "I listened to the stories and saw the need; and after all, I was asked to deny myself, I was asked if I would give a gift that was self-sacrificing!"

Condemned

I watched a movie the other day that had one of those profound throw away lines.

Scenario: A prominent Christian man accosts a woman who, in his opinion, has acted badly and committed a sin against the church and God. The man yells at the woman: "you must ask God for forgiveness". The woman turns to the man and replies: "No I don't need to. God doesn't condemn me".

The words hit a raw nerve in me: why is it that (too) often people are condemned by the church and Christians? Especially when the Master we follow made it pretty clear that he "did not send his Son into the world to condemn".

I have cringed too many times as I have heard (or read) a self-appointed protector of a religio-centric moral code condemn and exclude people thereby marginalising and belittling them. A wise man once challenged me by saying: "show them Jesus and He will tell them what is right and wrong, not you."

The God I strive to know is not mean and exclusivist, a God who wins disciples through fear: the agenda of the Architect (I think) has always been, and remains, inclusion through grace.

"To be truly radical is to make hope possible rather than despair convincing."

(quote from Welsh novelist and critic Raymond Williams)

(In case you didn't know) the fiasco we know as The Copenhagen Climate Summit concluded last year with no targets, no binding agreements and no attempts to tackle the root causes of global warming. But despite the display of global (first world and corporate) bullying there were and are kernels of hope seeded.

The positions taken by some of the leaders of Majority World countries should have embarrassed their more affluent neighbours, but regardless of the response one man stood out. Evo Morales, Bolivia's President, has seized the initiative and called a new global summit - The People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights. This will take place in the Bolivian city of Cochabamba on April 19-22 of this year.

Amongst the aims of this Summit are proposals for a global referendum on climate change; the adoption and promotion of 'earth rights' and their transition into law; and the establishment of an international Climate Justice Tribunal.

The Objectives
The Peoples’ World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth Rights objectives are the following:

1. Analyze the structural and systemic causes of climate change and propose substantive measures that facilitate the well-being of all mankind in harmony with nature.
2. Discuss and agree the draft Universal Declaration of rights of Mother Earth.
3. To agree on proposals for new commitments to the Kyoto Protocol and projects for a COP Decision under the United Nations Framework for Climate Change that will guide future actions in those countries that are engaged with life during climate change negotiation
4. Work on the organization of a people’s world referendum on climate change.
5. Analyze and draw up a plan of action to advance the establishment of a Climate Justice Tribunal;
6. Define strategies for action and mobilization in defense of life against climate change and for mother earth rights.

You may or may not agree with the arguments of Climate Change, but regardless of your position maybe you can agree that our earth seems to be throwing up a regular number of awe-filled catastrophic events. At the moment most of these are happening in the majority, disadvantaged and 'easily ignored' world. But are we really going to gamble that the money and knowledge of the 'developed' world can keep disaster away?

The church needs to get behind The People's World Conference on Climate Change and Mother Earth's Rights. We need to pray for the leaders and we need to hope that common sense - that is sense for the common good of the earth - will prevail and people will seek to live for one another.

ANZAC Concert

Undeserving Overbreeding...

Talk of overpopulation has been with us for some time. In 1798 (when there where only 978 million people in the world) a Church of England curate and mathematician, Thomas Malthus, argued that, if unchecked population would grow exponentially and outstrip growth in food production, leading to famine and poverty. Initially he was wrong, population grew, but so did the capacity to produce food thanks to agricultural advances.

Today there are around 6.8 billion people occupying the planet. That's up almost 1 billion people in ten years. Estimates suggest that by 2050 there will be more than 9 billion.

There are a number of concerns about these facts; amongst them the apparent reality that Malthus may well now be right. This planet cannot sustain the current population - let alone another 2.5 billion people. Famine and poverty already mark our world. However, I would suggest that it's not because we don't have the resources, but rather because of selfish greed and inequity in distribution of available resources.

The UK based Optimum Population Trust suggests that the only way to attain sustainability is to 'reduce global population by at least 1.7 billion people.

Often the cause of concern is leveled at the speed at which 'others' - maybe people of other races, religions or social classes - are reproducing, threatening, presumably, the status quo of whatever the dominant group the commentator belongs to.

This was shockingly betrayed in the suggestion of Michael Laws, (Mayor of Wanganui, New Zealand) who proposed that in order to tackle the problems of child abuse and murder, members of the 'appalling underclass' should be paid not to have children. 'If we gave $10,000.00 to certain people and said "we'll voluntarily sterilize you" then all of society would be better off,' he told the Dominion Post newspaper.

Social (and population) engineering is not a new concept. In early 20th Century racial and Darwinian thinking encouraged the idea that the presumed 'superior' and 'fittest' would flourish, but the British upper class notice, and became concerned that the 'unfit' and 'undeserving' lower classes seemed to be 'overbreeding', or reproducing faster than they were. American sociologist Edward Ross, (1907) recommended policies that would encourage 'capable' people to heave children.

In 1938 the British Eugenics Society set up a Committee with the aim to control fertility; rather than accepting random results, they would, 'improve reproductive power of the eugenically good'. (Perhaps the most famous result of this thesis was the Nazi erradication of the 'eugenically bad'.)

Today, the fear of overpopulation continues to raise up social and racial engineers, but maybe the most insidious and covert response today is seen in the unwillingness of the minority, 'priveleged' world to share the abundant resources that already exist. Through the complex decisions of market monopolisation, withholding funds that could assist in mitigation responses and lending money at 'unbelievably unfair conditions', we have found a way of wiping out the 1.7 billion people that through lottery of birth apparently do not deserve to.

Vindaloo Against Violence

Dine at your local Indian restaurant Tomorrow, Wednesday 24 February 2010.

Let’s find a way to show support for the Indian community and signal that we will not turn a blind eye to violence in our city. This violence threatens all Melburnians’ sense of safety and pride in their home. I want the Melbourne Indian community -and all immigrant communities – to know that they are welcome and entitled to feel safe here.

How cool would it be if Melbourne displayed a show of force by all going out and eating Indian food on a certain night, to embrace and show solidarity with our local Indian community?
Let’s do it!

If you don't like Vindaloo, maybe you could do: Papadums for Peace, or, Korma for Karma, or Dosais against Disunity, or Idlis against Intolerance, or... get the point. Support a marginalised, voiceless person tomorrow.

Miracle: 28 Days On

Major Ced's Deployment Diary, Day 22: Monday 8 February

It's not often that I can use my blog for a real news scoop but I can today. This morning something of a miracle happened. Here's our official news release:

Evans Ocinia, a 28 year old man, was brought to The Salvation Army clinic after being miraculously pulled from the rubble in the Lionshead marketplace this morning. Two men, digging through the rubble, heard Evans begin to talk and call to them. He had been in the rubble for 28 days following the earthquake. The marketplace is located near The Salvation Army compound in Delmas 2 and the men knew we had a “hospital” nearby.

Evan was extremely dehydrated and has skin wounds but he didn’t appear to have any critical wounds or broken bones. He was able to hold his head up on his own and take some small sips of water from the doctor who accompanied the transport. Salvation Army personnel transported Evan to the University of Miami Hospital which is located adjacent to the airport in Port au Prince.

That's some story, eh? And it also testifies powerfully to the importance of hope, the resilience of the human spirit and the value of not giving in. It must also have some of the search and rescue teams shaking their heads in disbelief - and no small measure of reflection that the official rescue operation was brought to and end over 2 weeks ago.

The story is also another tribute to the work of our clinic and the medical teams deployed there. The lead doctor, at the moment Major (Dr. ) Ted Mahr, attends our daily morning staff briefings. Earlier this morning he had proudly reported that the clinic has delivered 8 babies since the earthquake. He told us at the end of this day that today they treated over 270 patients - and that it had been a 'hard day'.

Ted is supported by a team of doctors from an organisation called 'In His image'. Since the early days of the response this group has deployed medical teams of 12 - 14 people - rotating them in and out every 7 days. We could not have managed without them. Today I honour this fine team - the miracle of this mornings' 'find' is a fitting tribute for their commitment and dedication.

Haiti Earthquake Response

A Report from Major Ced Hills, Incident Command (Programme)

The work of The Salvation Army in Haiti in response to the earthquake of 12th January is proving to be historic for the International Emergency Services and for The Salvation Army. For the first time, the United Nations coordination group has requested that The Salvation Army Emergency team become the lead agency in managing a camp for Internally Displaced People.

The camp concerned is in the area of St. Martin in Port-Au-Prince, and accounts for more than 20,000 people, which is more than half of the total number of people made homeless in this area of Haiti according to statistics provided by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The camp comprises 2 areas - the soccer pitch and the adjacent Place de le Paix. These communities are regarded as one entity for the purposes of the current relief programme. The Place de la Paix is a hard standing, concrete floored area - the soccer pitch is grass. Registration of the families was undertaken using a team of 40 Haitian young people who were briefed and trained by Salvation Army emergency experts prior to being deployed in pairs to the camp. This same team are also being used as the labour force for distributions. It is recognised by the emergency team that the area comprising the camp is severely overcrowded, but as the families had already 'set up home' in this area immediately after the earthquake, it is believed to be in their best interests, not to insist on moving them to new camps at this time, in the hope that temporary shelters can be arranged for them some time in the next weeks and months.

Two other Non-Government Organisations are already working in the area with the Army; Concern Worldwide (CW) and Viva Rio (VR). Both were operating in a developmental way prior to the earthquake as were The Salvation Army personnel in Haiti, and it is believed that the 'local' community wish this support to continue. As soon as the Salvation Army were confirmed as the lead agency for the camp management, they met with both the other NGO groups who agreed to work with the Army and provide whatever services they could. Both NGOs are water and sanitation specialists and so, will install latrines and wash stand areas. In addition, Concern Worldwide have teams trained in hygiene promotion, nutritional targeting and therapeutic feeding. A positive partnership is now operating between the 3 groups and Damaris Frick of The Salvation Army International Emergency Services has established a weekly meeting of the three parties.

The role of the camp management is to register all those in the camp and ensure that all the services required to meet the needs of the community are in place and to act as interface between the community and other agencies. Advocacy is a large component of the role. Damaris Frick now has an office within the camp and meets each day with the camp executive committee. This group of 11 persons were chosen from the total committee of 75 people. It is believed that the Camp Management role currently being undertaken by The Salvation Army personnel could develop into an extended one as it may be many months before sufficient redevelopment has been undertaken in order to support a movement back to more permanent housing for those who have lost their property and belongings in Port-Au-Prince.

When Words Don't Match the Actions

I had the privilege of attending a Citizenship Ceremony a few weeks ago (on Australia Day) and there I listened to a member of parliament tell of his belief that all Australians, "even you new Australians" [his words] are equal.

With what to me seemed very little conviction, and even less passion, he announced that he existed only at the pleasure of the citizens, before he went on to reiterate that as Australian Citizens they were entitled to all the same benefits as he and they were his equal.

I might have believed him if I hadn't watched him! The very next morning I saw him on the street of his electorate - I watched as he brushed aside one of these "new Australian citizens" because he was obviously in a hurry to be somewhere else.

The experience once again reminded me that it is better not to announce what you stand for unless you intend to stand!