Archive for June, 2005
Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
Blogshares is an online game in which people trade imaginary shares in real blogs.
Each blog in the Blogshares market has 5000 shares. 1000 of those are reserved for the owner of the blog. When you join up with Blogshares you are given 500 shares to start off with. You can buy shares and sell them, over time increasing your profile.
The value of shares is calculated by the ratio between incoming links and outgoing links. The higher the ratio the more valuable a blog is.
Currently my blogs are valued as follows:
The key in growing your share profile is to invest in blogs before they get too well known. Once people start adding a blog to their blogroll, the value climbs up. In the graph here you can see where a few people added this blog to their list. And then I added a dozen links to other blogs here - which pushed the share value down! To those who invested heavily here, sorry! Just be patient and one day the ratio will even out.
The value today of the shares in the blogs listed in my blogroll to the right:
- A Considerable Speck $28.02
- Beyond Flatland $0.24
- Circle of Pneuma (not listed)
- Emergent Kiwi $2,288.64
- Eclectic Itchings $0.45
- Emergesque $113.14
- Fernando’s Desk $2.47
- Gink World $229.66
- Jordon Cooper $12,617.02
- Liquid Thinking (not yet available to trade)
- Living Room $1213.90
- Maggi Dawn $1,681.63
- Mountain Masala (not yet available to trade)
- Neurotribe $1.68
- Charlie Wear’s Notes at Next Wave $300
- Planet Telex $27.78
- Robby Mac $1.12
- Scotwise $286.39
- Tabletalk $0.47
- Tall Skinny Kiwi $902.99
- The Ooze $3,104.20
- Too Old to Blog $0.36
- Urban Onramps $7.27
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Wednesday, June 15th, 2005
Have you signed the Micah Call? I wrote something on the Micah Call on my micahchallenge.org and sign the Micah Call.
Anyway, I just received an encouraging email from the Micah Challenge office in Australia…
At a meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers in London at the weekend, debt was high on the agenda. The seven men decided to write off the debts of 18 of the world’s poorest countries (14 of them in Africa). These countries have all reached completion point under the HIPC scheme, which means they have met strict guidelines on economic stability and plans for poverty reduction. Around US$40 billion of debt will be cancelled immediately, once the G8 meeting in 3 weeks time approves the proposal.
Nine more HIPC countries should qualify for debt write-offs within the next 18 months (these are nations which have reached decision point but have not yet met all the requirements for completion point).
Eleven other countries in the HIPC scheme have fallen behind in their efforts to meet World bank and IMF guidelines and will not benefit from this deal. Though they could eventually qualify, many of these nations are dealing with conflict. As well, there are poor countries outside the HIPC process which will not be covered by the G8 plan.
This is a very positive step in the campaign to halve global poverty by 2015, BUT other steps are needed - the debt cancellation which was announced is equivalent to only about 10% of total unpayable debt; Micah Challenge and Make Poverty History still call for more poverty focused aid and opening up world markets to goods from poor countries ie fair trade.
The G8 leaders will meet in Scotland from July 6-8 to approve these plans on debt and also to discuss Britain’s proposals to double aid and trade more fairly.
Implications for Australia: the G8 will ask all donors to contribute - Australia’s cost will be a maximum of about 2% of US$1.5 bn = A$40 million per year
For more details on this issue, see BBC Business News
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Tuesday, June 14th, 2005
I’m working at home most of today. It’s days like today I get the chance to interact with the local neighbourhood. Over lunch today I heard the milkman drive into the neighbour’s driveway. The moment I’ve been waiting for. Back in 2003 we were getting our milk delivered on Wednesday. We cancelled when we went to Cairns for a couple of months. So today’s the chance to return the polystyrene ‘eski’ to the milkman.
And it turns out that our milkman is dead. He died just over a year ago, after a binge on alcohol, smokes and meat pies. The guy who does the Dairy Farmers round on Sundays and Wednesdays now is the same guy who has been doing the Pauls round on Tuesdays and Fridays. I’d been wondering why we hadn’t heard back from the guy when we got back from Cairns.
The reason we went with Pauls was the fundraising promotion in which Pauls donates money to schools in return for the redemption of their plastic milk bottle tops. I had a chat to one of the guys who works for their promotion department and he’s said that the “Collect-a-Cap” campaign has won them a huge share of the white milk market in Queensland.
It’s interesting moving from one country to another. We’ve had a few family members over from New Zealand who are struggling to work out the colour codes for milk. NZers are used to silver top being full milk, dark blue being full milk homogenised, light blue being low fat homogenised, green being trim, yellow being calcium-enriched trim. Here it’s all different and depends on what brand you’re buying.
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Tuesday, June 14th, 2005
Disciples are not better than their teacher, and slaves are not better than their master. It is enough for disciples to be like their teacher and for slaves to be like their master. If people call the head of the family Satan, what will they say about the rest of the family? Don’t be afraid of anyone! Everything that is hidden will be found out, and every secret will be known. Whatever I say to you in the dark, you must tell in the light. And you must announce from the housetops whatever I have whispered to you.
Matthew 10: 24-27 (CEV)
I’ve been called a few names in my life. I can laugh about a few of them now but at the time they stung like anything.
The first one that comes to mind is “Maggot”. I must have been about 10 years old when I made a snide comment about one of my classmates having the strength of an ant. Now it didn’t help that in reality ants are very strong, capable of lifting many times their own weight. A few guys in my class decided I needed to be brought down a peg or two and gave me the aforementioned nickname for the next two years of school. It wasn’t until I got to high school that I could escape the torment.
First day on the bus to high school and what do you know? Someone took a look at my ugly white legs and long hair and picked another humiliating name for me that would last for another couple of years. “Dryball”. Blast. Third year at high school was a lot better. I was in long trousers. Fourth year at high school a few guys decided I might be gay. Wrong they were. But “Dunky” is still off limits as a name.
I learned through my school years to develop a resilient self esteem that could cope with ridicule or rejection. I’m probably a lot quieter a person now because of the experience. But I hate to think how arrogant I’d be without it. I’ve learnt the hard way about the impact of labelling people with names, brands or put-downs.
I find it very difficult to keep my respect for anyone who puts others down. I’ve worked with a lot of people outside the church and seen more respect for people of faith from these people than from people ‘inside the church’. Sure, we might think we know a ‘dickhead’ when we see one. But it’s another thing to attach that label to the person, in or out of their presence.
Jesus, I must admit, did throw a few derogatory names around. Thieves in the temple. Snakes. White-washed tombs. He obviously got mad at religious people like the ten year old me and brought them down a peg or two. I wonder if he was able to connect with his critics in a more personable respectful manner?
Jesus also was labelled and denounced by his critics. He was written off as a drunkard and a glutton who associated with seedy people. A liar. A tool of the devil. A naive man who couldn’t recognise the lustful intentions of a prostitute.
And here Jesus tells us his followers that they could expect more of the same for themselves.
So what’s he offering as a way through all this? Here’s what I think Jesus models and calls us to:
“Poise. Live your lives with integrity, with honesty. Don’t hide who you are in fear of what others think. Be who you are, despite the uneasiness of your detractors. Your commission is not to make people feel comfortable or uncomfortable. You are called to to be clear and clean communicators of everything I’ve modelled and spoken about.”
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Monday, June 13th, 2005
Have just come across the Methodist Blogroll. Based at www.wesleyblog.com it is designed to connect blogs written by people from any Methodist tradition around the world. Well I’m a member of the Uniting Church in Australia which is part of the World Methodist Conference. I’ve emailed Shane Raynor to join the list. I’m not sure where I’ll fit the blogroll yet.
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Sunday, June 12th, 2005
Ennis, my wife, celebrated her 50th birthday last night - in style. We had family from New Zealand. Friends from Ennis’ school, friends made through the kids, and friends from Pacific Parks Uniting.
We hired out a restaurant at the local race course and made it into a multi-generational multi-station party venue. There was karaoke. There was XBox on the big screen TV. And Playstation projected on to a wall with projector.
We had round tables, square tables and cocktail tables. The bar was open. We reviewed Ennis’ life in a PowerPoint presentation of 50 photographs. The family sang their composition to the tune of “Ave Maria”. We continued to party into the night.
That’s Ennis in the photo, woman in black in the middle, singing “I’ll be a friend”.
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Saturday, June 11th, 2005
Started off with a hectic day yesterday. Up at the crack of dawn after a bad night’s sleep. Answered a few emails before breakfast. Got the kids out of bed and ready for school. Oldest had to be there by 7.15 am. He might have been there by 7.20 am. The other two were at school by 8.10 am. Came home again, did a bit more online work. Called in to see my sister and brother in law who are staying on the Coast. Sorted out a new mobile phone SIM card for them. Called in to the bank to arrange the last bit of finance for the party tomorrow (reason for sleepless night). And headed into work. Which is when I got to listen to the ABC Queensland conversation hour - Steve Austin and Val French talking with Geoff Small on going slow.
Geoff’s linked up with LifeSmart and is based in Forest Lake in Brisbane.
Here’s the blurb from Steve’s Conversation site:
Do you enjoy life? Are you happy, or do you feel constantly pressed for time and wonder why life is passing you by? Geoff Small is the co-ordinator for the Society for the Appreciation of Slow in Australia. Their aim is to improve the quality of life in a hectic world, by striking a balance between fast and slow.
Geoff was once a high-flying CEO. “I spent most of my life in very high level positions. I worked as a manager and got to the point where I knew the girls at the Qantas desk better than my family,” he says. “I did some career coaching when I quit my job, and found that 50 per cent of people were looking for other alternatives to life. So I moved into a business to help teach people how to get more out of their life.”
But Geoff says slowing down does not mean doing everything at a snail’s pace. Rather, it is about being able to manage the pace of life such that you go fast when you need to and go slow when you want to. In Europe there are now 65 “slow” cities, as well as a large following of the slow food, slow exercise, and slow sex movements.
Geoff maintains that despite telecommunications, media overload, and ecomonic conditions, it is very easy to stop to smell the roses. “If you’re living on tight deadlines, you’ve got to stop thinking about them. If you are forever fast, you never slow down. If you know what it means to be slow, you have the ability to get slower,” Geoff explains.”One thing I do is take the watch off on Saturday morning and then don’t put it back on until Sunday night,” he says.
Geoff disagrees that slowing down is only achievable for the wealthy. “No, I think that’s a major misconception. I think that people who don’t have a lot of money can change their circumstances as much as those who do.”"We have been trained on a system over the years that success is based on material gain. And we have also been taught that we need to set ourselves some high goals in terms of career, money we can generate, how big a house we have, are we going to have a wide-screen TV,” he says. “That causes high anxiety in people and that causes unhappiness.”
The 1-hour conversation is available to hear online at this ABC Radio site, Real or WMV.
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Friday, June 10th, 2005
I spent Friday afternoon in a workshop with Norm Habel, developer of Seasons of Creation. The workshop was hosted by Queensland Churches Together - so we had a good selection of people from Uniting, Anglican and Catholic backgrounds.
Norm’s a Lutheran minister from South Australia, with a background in Old Testament at the School of Theology in Adelaide. He reminded us that his name is Norman, not Normal. Must be very freeing not having to be Normal.
The afternoon workshop was designed to introduce us to worship resources linked to themes of ecojustice. Norm’s background in inclusivity of children, reconciliation and indigenous theology flavoured the work but weren’t the main feature.
We heard how Norm and an Adelaide church five years ago developed liturgies for celebrating and healing the Earth, published in the book, Seven Songs of Creation. It was linked with the “Earth Bible” project, an international academic collaboration on ecology and theology. The Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of Victoria/Tasmania sponsored a development of resources for a three year cycle of four Sundays. This was paralleled by similar development by ECEN - European Christian Environmental Network.
And now the project is ready to roll out in September each year.
2005
Forest Sunday, Land Sunday, Outback Sunday and River Sunday
2006
Earth Sunday, Humanity Sunday, Sky Sunday and Mountain Sunday
2007
Ocean Sunday, Fauna Sunday, Storm Sunday and Cosmos Sunday
Resources on the Seasons of Creation web site provide material for liturgy and Bible studies. Norm’s also written new words for hymns that tie into the themes and theologies being developed here. A good example is one of the songs he wrote to the tune of “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah” in which he provides an alternative to the ‘heavenism’ found in the traditional words.
Norm Habel in Action
It was good to see Norm in action. He readily engaged with the suggestions from the workshop, jotting down notes for further development of the resources. One of the tensions we explored was the reference to Adam as the man of the earth. Focusing on Adam, and not mentioning Eve, led to a predominance of masculine imagery in the liturgy on the land. So what to do? Compromise the original Biblical material of Genesis 2 (adama as dirt) and use “Adam and Eve”, or just leave out references to Adam?
Norm was fairly open about the process he was working through with his development team. The Uniting Church team members kept reminding Norm that the liturgy needed to be kept simple. There’s always more content to add into a service of worship. Trouble is most people have a limited capacity to engage with new concepts, even if they are exciting and backed up with imagery and experience.
Books by Norm Habel
Norm’s been writing books since the 1970s. He wrote a series of books for children then, many of them in the “Purple Puzzle Tree” books.
Literary Criticism of the Old Testament, Fortress Press, 1971
Norman’s introduction to the method of literary criticism shows how to identify the elements of structure, style, form, language, and composition in the books of the Old Testament.
Norman Habel identifies six discrete ideologies in the Hebrew Bible regarding land: royal, agrarian, theocratic, prophetic, ancestral household, and mmigrant.”
The Land is Mine: Six Biblical Land Ideologies, Fortress Press, 1993
Norman identifies six discrete ideologies in the Hebrew Bible regarding land: royal, agrarian, theocratic, prophetic, ancestral household, and immigrant.
Rainbow Spirit in Creation: A Reading of Genesis 1, Liturgical Press, 2000
Norman Habel and Jasmine Corowa work with “Rainbow Spirit Elders” to share the story of the creation of the land with colorful illustrations that show the Rainbow Snake as part of the seven days of creation. The book offers a new interpretation of the Aboriginal culture and a view of the Creator Spirit as within the earth, not apart from it.
Posted in Theology, Worth Reading | No Comments »
Friday, June 10th, 2005
Ennis, my wife, turned 50 yesterday. Which means we’re now in different decades. Yes there’s an age difference. She married a younger man. It got people talking twenty years ago. And still makes people think. People aren’t so worried about men marrying younger women. Anyway, we’re right for each other. That’s Ennis in the foreground in the photo to the right.
So the first round of celebration was yesterday. Ross Alexander, a guy we fostered in his teenage years back in the 1980s, sent some flowers and phoned up from London. Excellent buzz that was. He’s got a Ph.D in computing and works with NEC in the UK.
We went out for dinner at the local restaurant that’s been open only three months. Two of Ennis’ sisters from NZ are over for the big celebration on Saturday. So there were ten of us round the table last night.
Pictured here is the unveiling of “New Horizons” an unframed over sized print by Ken Duncan, Australian photographer. We’ll have to save up for the framing! That’s Gloria, Ennis’ sister from Wellington in the foreground. And Gerald, her nephew from Auckland in the background.
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Friday, June 10th, 2005
Had coffee with three of the guys from Forge Queensland yesterday. We met at the Coffee Club by the beach at Mooloolaba on the Sunshine Coast. I was there to connect up with the Forge Missional Training Network, on behalf of Seeds of Hope, the Uniting Church underground movement in Queensland.
Steve Turner
Steve’s the Director of Forge Queensland, and pioneer of a missional community called “Joshua Tree” on the Sunshine Coast. That’s him in the photo to the right. His support is raised through friends and supporters and overseen by Youth For Christ Australia. Steve’s overseeing the development of training for mission interns, accredited through ACOM. We talked about the possibility of a Queensland equivalent of ‘Future Travellers’ - an internship designed for 18 - 25 year olds. We talked about the possibilities of connecting with denominations who could benefit from the training offered by Forge. Steve has a wealth of experience in connecting with young people and their families that comes through in his approach to sustainable missional community.
Dave Allan
Dave’s a professional coach with access to a wide range of resources for people in business, church planting and the stuff of life. He runs his own business, Advance Lifestyle Development - Personal and Executive Coaching, and does some work for CoachNet, the brainchild of Robert Logan and Neil Cole. Dave’s the administrative genius behind Steve’s pioneering leadership.
Ken Baker
Ken and his wife Leanne are pioneering with City Wesleyan, a missional community in Newfarm. This central Brisbane community is strong on social justice, evangelism, creative arts, movies and State of Origin! We had some stirring conversation around the need for alternatives to consumer-driven life. He talked about The Corporation, a film exposing the corporation’s grip on our lives. The film could provide a useful edge to Duncan’s TV Ad Land.
Future Partnership
So what’s next in the dance with Forge? A few of us will be at Dangerous Stories: the Forge National Summit on Emerging Missional Church in Melbourne next month. There’s a ‘postcard event’ on Saturday August 13. And a Forge Queensland intensive, October 28 - 31, focusing on pioneering leadership. I’ve made a commitment to sitting in as much as possible, while we work out how we can best work together.
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Postkiwi Duncan Macleod posts on life, faith and culture in Australia, drawing from his involvement in the creative industry, the Uniting Church, the blogosphere, generational research, the emerging church and life on the Gold Coast.
