Holy moley. It’s a funny feeling sitting here in our first true days of summer – and instead of listening to the cricket, we’re learning about one of the greatest natural disasters of modern history.
The sheer scale of this event that has made in impression on me. At the end of 27th December, the confirmed death toll is 23,000 across 9 countries, following the largest earthquake for 40 years (9 on the Richter scale). It makes humanity seem very, very small when people, houses, cars, trees, animals can be obliterated on such a massive scale. Like washing ants down a plughole.
Although this disaster will probably not have great overall historical or geopolitical repercussions, (although the economic impact is already being calculated), it pisses all over September 11th 2001 in terms of size and the number of people directly affected. The fact that the people most hit are among the poorest in the world makes this event even more tragic.
The human side to the event is almost overwhelming. The BBC’s “Have Your Say” has become a heart-rending bulletin board not only for people from around the world to describe their personal experiences of the tsunamis, but to also post queries about missing loved ones and make requests for aid from remote areas.
“ I heard someone who said that she lost 2 (out of 4) of her children. She said that she didn’t know which one to pick up because she couldn’t carry them all.”
“The main requirement in this area is drinking water, medicine, and shelter. Please help.”
“ We are desperate for news of our daughter Charlotte Jones who was on the island of Racha Yai near Phuket when the wave struck. She is 24, 5 foot 6 inches with distinguishing dreadlocks.”
Yup, Christmas is really about family. Driving to Christmas lunch, for once all the cars on Auckland’s roads are filled to brimming with uncles, aunties, grandma and grandpa and all the kids. Everyone going to share in the simple fellowship of a meal together and to reaffirm ties of blood, love or friendship. We could really see it in some ways as a re-enactment of the journey that Mary and Joseph had to take 2000 years ago in returning to Joseph’s ancestral hometown for Herod’s census. It is probably lucky today that most of us undertake these journeys back to our whanau, back to our roots largely voluntarily, rather than through the obligation of a tyrant.
Comfort and Joy
Un-Decking the Hall
I was interested and possibly horrified by this article in the Washington Post that describes the extraordinary efforts and resources that many larger churches put into elaborate Christmas pageants.
In describing some of the shows being put on this year around the D.C. area, the article says “Perhaps the most expensive production this year was the one put on by Upper Marlboro’s Evangel Cathedral, which featured three camels, four llamas, vintage cars, body-jolting thunder and a cast of 270 actors. According to Associate Pastor Kevin Matthews, the 15 performances cost $524,000 and were attended by more than 32,000 people.”
Half a million dollars for Christmas show? I don’t even want to know how much that is in New Zealand pesetas. I’m sure that many of these large churches see these events as a vital part of their outreach/evangelism, but I get the impression from the article that some of the large churches seem to be getting into some kind of Christmas pageant “arms race”. It’s a bit like the need to buy the latest and greatest toy for your kid at Christmas, and perhaps the phenomenon is a slightly twisted reflection of the escalating falsification of Christmas that’s happening in the secular world.
Maybe I’m just old fashioned, or maybe I just don’t fully appreciate the scale on which Christianity is preached and practised in the United States. (Indeed, why am I worried about church activities in suburban Washington, D.C., a place I’ve never even been to?)
I just think that big Christmas events like this could have a tendency to turn the simplicity and beauty of the Christmas narrative into something that can be sold at any K-Mart.
I’m inclined to agree largely with a professor of spirituality who is quoted in the article – he describes the massive Christmas productions as “big showy musical revues in Las Vegas or New York [expressive of] a kind of triumphalistic theology of the gospel and the church . . . than about the God who has come to us in the form of a little child . . . [and] addresses us out of a divine humility.”
Le Monde carries good coverage today of the liberation of the journalists Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot after 124 days as hostages of the Islamic Army insurgent group in Iraq. Since the kidnapping on August 20th, this is a story that never died in France – every night French TV news ended their bulletins with a note of how long Chesnot and Malbrunot had been in captivity. There was also a rare show of unity across the political spectrum in the French media, with Edwy Plenel, the editor of Le Monde expressing his solidarity with the staff of Le Figaro, for whom Malbrunot was a correspondent.
Indeed the unity of outrage around the world about the victimisation of journalists in the Iraq conflict has been remarkable. While I don’t want to idealise the job of a journalist, the deliberate targeting of the media by terrorist or insurgent groups seems, at best, counter-productive. And the fact that Malbrunot and Chesnot were French, spoke Arabic and had many years of experience in Middle East reporting makes their kidnapping even more bizarre.
As Chesnot’s brother, Thierry, said today, “C’est un magnifique cadeau de Noël” .
It is tragic that the same edition of Le Monde also has to detail the assassination of Gambian journalist Deida Hydara.
Yup, the weather’s got worse. Here’s a picture taken in Mount Eden yesterday morning. Hail like we’ve never seen before in Auckland. The only upside is that we’ll be able to go skiing this Christmas.
This article in the Herald also caught my eye – suggesting that the generous remuneration awarded to Chief Executives may not be achieving the desired results in business growth. The philosophy of “incentivising” good performance may not be as well-founded as we think. A notable quote from the article:
“the paper suggests that today’s corporate managers are somewhat like landed aristocracy in the 19th century or political elites of the Third World: the benefits they receive, and any value they create, are the result of the prevailing form of development rather than any real contribution. “
Arrr, blow me down and call me a socialist.
What’s rumbling in North Korea? These rumours of a purge at the top of the government and military have been robustly denied by the DPRK in an unusually strong statement, saying that it’s all misinformation from the US.
The DPRK still has one of the best and saddest websites in the world – I don’t think it’s changed in three and a half years since I first discovered it. Am I going too far if I say that its clumsy design, using large jpeg images for all its buttons, links and text seems simply too proletarian to be true?
On the other end of the political spectrum, it looks like Pinochet may finally stand trial. But like all these sorts of things, I’m not holding my breath in anticipation of a quick judicial process.
Bringing dodgy heads of state to justice is probably very important, but doesn’t often achieve very much in real terms. In a rare reminder of the fate of another despotic leader, Patrick Coburn of the Independent reminds us that the arrest of Saddam Hussein, one year ago today, has accomplished very little to bring peace or stability to Iraq.
And let’s not even get started on the ongoing trial of Slobodan Milosevic.
Photo: Terren in Virginia
It obviously wasn’t just me who noted yesterday’s liberal lollyscramble in New Zealand. I’m also looking forward to smokefree bars! Woohoo!
And as tenor collaborateur and outlaw zapatista Eamonn Deverall points out today in the Herald, there’s a long way for Mr Zaoui to go before this whole sorry episode is over. This story will run and run. It would make a change to actually see the government actually present some evidence against Mr Zaoui, but this could take a while…. Until then we can just hope that he gets some peace and quiet at St Benedicts and doesn’t get overcome by the instant celebrity cult that seems to have surrounded his release on bail.
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