Friday, 14 September 2018
Monday, 10 September 2018
Religion or Culture ... and then there is friendly and peaceful co-existence
There is a new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison commonly referred to as ScoMo. Sco-Mo is a Pentecostal Christian - which is a bit of a shock for most Australians - and he wears his religion on his sleeve. For most of Australia's political history, the Prime Ministers from the Liberal Party would usually be Anglican, Presbyterian or Methodist. Malcolm Turnbull, who ScoMo recently ousted, is a Catholic convert ... although his wife, Lucy, is from a Catholic blue-blood family.
So there is an interesting article in the Fairfax papers today giving rise to the question - Religion or Culture. The write of the article says there is a difference. In addition to the points made, Australians have always considered themselves a secular nation without national adherence to one particular religion. However, the reality was that most Australians, if pressed, would nominate a religion even if they never darkened the door of a church or were "Easter and Christmas" Christians.
Along with all this, Australia has always thought of itself as the nation of the "fair go". This concept has been sorely tested in recent times with the influx of people from the African continent.
Editor's Note: When I was growing up in 1950s Australia, there was no such concept as "interfaith" - and there was not the dispersion of faiths that there is to-day. Even Christians found it difficult to collaborate with one another.
Saturday, 8 September 2018
From The Golden Sufi Center: Oprah's SuperSoul Conversations --- available now on Podcast
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Wednesday, 5 September 2018
Friends Journal .... a Quaker perspective ... September 1, 2018
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Oné gloomy fall day in the early 1980s, I was on a tour of the infamous toxic waste dump in Love Canal, New York, with government officials from Canada and the United States. The dump’s contaminants were leaking into the Niagara River, and hence into Lake Ontario, the source of drinking water for 40 million Americans and Canadians. Needless to say, this was causing widespread alarm on both sides of the border, and, as an environmental policy analyst for the city of Toronto, my job was to prepare an appropriate response for the city council.
By that time, all the local residents had been evacuated, and there was a high chain link fence surrounding the site with large warning signs every hundred yards proclaiming “DANGER: HAZARDOUS WASTE AREA. UNAUTHORIZED PERSONNEL KEEP OUT” in big red and black capital letters. Looking through the fence, I could see rows of boarded up houses and empty streets. The silence was palpable, and I felt overwhelmed as I looked at the poisoned earth and the uninhabited neighborhood. The knowledge that the children were most seriously affected, combined with the fact that there were hundreds of other abandoned sites leaking contaminants into the river and the lake, became too much to bear. Looking back... |
Kate Davies is a member of Whidbey Island (Wash.) Meeting and author of Intrinsic Hope: Living Courageously in Troubled Times. She is also senior fellow at the Whidbey Institute and professor emeritus at Antioch University.
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Tuesday, 4 September 2018
Sunday, 2 September 2018
Following a threat from Donald Trump, UN agency helping Palestinian refuges is denied US funding
US ends funding to UN Palestinian refugee aid agency, following up on Trump threat
Updated
The United States has halted all funding to a UN agency that helps Palestinian refugees, in a move likely to further heighten tensions between the Palestinians and the Trump administration.
Key points:
- UNRWA says it helps around 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East
- The US had withheld $82m of funding in January, pending a review
- The UN has called for other countries to fill funding gap, with Germany already offering to help
US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the business model and fiscal practices of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) were an "irredeemably flawed operation."
"The administration has carefully reviewed the issue and determined that the United States will not make additional contributions to UNRWA," she said in a statement.
Ms Nauert said the agency's, "endlessly and exponentially expanding community of entitled beneficiaries is simply unsustainable and has been in crisis mode for many years."
UNRWA rejected the criticisms, with spokesman Chris Gunness describing it as "a force for regional stability".
Speaking in Jordan, where more than 2 million registered Palestinian refugees live, including 370,000 in 10 refugee camps, Mr Gunness said: "It is a deeply regrettable decision … some of the most disadvantaged, marginalised and vulnerable people on this planet are likely to suffer."
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