Creative response to censorship

Last Sunday in Fiji we purchased a newspaper which had several blank spaces - except for words along the lines of "this article could not be printed due to government printing restrictions". Another Fiji newspaper has taken a novel approach with a satirical jibe at stringent censorship imposed by Fiji's military Government: filling the space with some no news. Fiji's military ruler Frank Bainimarama has posted censors in the offices of newspapers and radio and television stations, ordered foreign journalists out of the country and shut down the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's radio transmitters.

Some no news examples:

Read all about it: man gets on bus

• April 16, 2009

In a satirical jibe at stringent censorship imposed by Fiji's military Government, the Daily Post newspaper has been filling the space with some no news.

Headlines in Wednesday's edition included "Man gets on bus" over an item reading: "In what is believed to be the first reported incident of its kind, a man got on a bus yesterday. 'It was easy,' he said. 'I just lifted one leg up and then the other and I was on.' "

Another headed "Breakfast as usual" began: "It was breakfast as usual for the staff of this newspaper. 'I had leftover roti from last night,' senior reporter Manueli told his colleague yesterday morning."

A third story began, "Paint has apparently dried on his old couch, Max reports. Given the job of painting the couch, Max was excited at the prospect of the paint drying. But when asked how it dried, he was nonplussed.

" 'It just went on wet, but after about four hours, it started to dry. That was when I realised, paint dries,' the young scholar observed.

For Fiji, ever Fiji,

Last weekend in Fiji I noted how regularly the national anthem played on television. At dinner last night we were discussing recent events in this beautiful island nation and someone wondered about life expectancy. So I've just looked it up - 68 years in 2007. Well below Australia and New Zealand.

Some of the other indicators are very concerning. While primary school enrollment is at 91 per cent, I learned last week that the growing economic climate has resulted in some children, especially from rural areas, being withdrawn from secondary education because the parent's cash crops were washed away in the January floods. Even in urban areas more than half the population are without improved drinking water facilities (maybe why a fellow traveller had to leave our aircraft on the way home due to apparent gastroenteritis).

In 2007 other indicators like vaccination rates were positive, equalling many developed countries in the Pacific. The challenge will be to maintain these rates in the face of serious cuts in government agency budgets.

From this far away perspective it is hard to know the best response to recent events. For us in the Uniting Church in Australia, we need to look to our partner church the Methodist church in Fiji and to support them in theior important role. And to keep watch with them.

Amen

Prayer for Easter 2

Life-giving, life-restoring, birthing and rebirthing Godde
You roll away the stones
that keep us from seeing who Jesus is
Your love stretches beyond the furtherest horizon we can imagine,
and extends to us on our fragile planet
We praise you

Gracious Godde of sea and sky
That love was most perfectly revealed in Jesus Christ
Who greets us and lovingly extends a hand
that recognises our deepest pain and loss
coming closer to us than we could ever imagine
sharing fully in our humanity
We praise you

We can so easily fret and worry
Thinking that we have gone beyond the limits
of your capacity to forgive and respond

Bond-breaking death-challenging spirit
Break into our hearts and minds
That we may know the great wonder of being loved
beyond anything we could have imagined
Empower and embolden us
To confront forces of destruction and love what brings life

Amen

Resurrection gift

The 33rd Poetry party is posted at Abbey of the Arts. There's a new way to link to this week’s theme of Practicing Resurrection so please visit the website to join the party. Christine's introduction (below) really resonated with me. I had a sense of being let down on Sunday when I realised suddenly that I was reading the final Lent Event prayer. I haven't settled on any Easter discipline as yet - but have been aware of the need for some way to mark the season of Easter. My reflection is also informed by a weekend spent in a tourist resort in Fiji while the country underwent massive political upheaval and by a rather heavy and very interesting book I am reading Can these bones live? in which Barry Harvey cites the work of Victoria Barnett on the contrast between the handful of ordinary citizens who took action to rescue the victims of the Nazi regime and those who continued to go about their daily lives unaffected by what was occurring all around them (echoes of Auden's Musee des beaux arts here too). Contrary to the stereotypes of my youth, "strongly held religious religious feelings and beliefs were not significant factors for distinguishing bystanders from most rescuers", rather the rescuers were distinguished by a vision of themselves as citizens of an alternative society, a vision that "compelled them to be attentive, to see that they had a personal stake in what was happening around them" (Harvey, p.93-94)

Christine writes:

A few years ago it occurred to me that we spend a lot of time in church talking about what practices to take on for Lent, but when Easter comes, this glorious season of resurrection, we often slip back into our ordinary lives and everyday prayer. Hopefully we arrive transformed by our Lenten journey, but the season of Easter is not just that amazing day when the tomb was discovered empty. We celebrate Easter for a full 50 days, days that slowly grow longer in the Northern hemisphere and more vibrant as the blossoming of the world unfolds around us.

As I pondered this topic, the image that immediately flashed into my mind is the one you see [below] — a little girl playing at the beach, giggling with delight. She is fully embodied in this moment, free of self-consciousness, fully herself, luminous.

I invite you to write a poem (or other form of reflection) about what your practices of resurrected life might look like. How would it feel to really embody resurrected life in your own being? If you made a commitment for the Easter season to complement your Lenten commitment, where is the invitation you discover?

You live

How do I now live
in this rich depleted place
information-filled and justice-empty?

Responding to an invitation
not fully understood
a poor recording of your voice

Undertaking to find out
what is going on around me
being attentive

Fifty days to connect
inextricably with context
holding a stake

What gift!

Mother dear

Little did you realise
in the struggle and haze
of your last days
what a juxtaposition
(now you would chide me
for throwing such a
big and convoluted word
into the conversation)
what a mixed up year
with strange coincidences
this one following your death
would be for your daughter
who so loves rhythm of season
pattern provoking memory

For you died on St Patrick's day
the Monday of Holy Week
anniversary passed weeks ago
Funeral and Easter
ran into each other
Farewells and family times
intertwining
Blurred memories
stark in the remembering

This passover season
feels like the first Easter without you
And this coming Easter day
marks the 80th anniversary of your birth
It is a crazy juxtaposition
The liturgical connection with your death
The chronological connection with your life
Held together
In one weekend

Sad Jesus

This powerful art work is by Nathan Berry of Telford, Shropshire, UK. Thanks Nathan for letting your Dad Mark post it on his blog. It will help a lot of people all over the world remember what happened at Easter. And thanks to Matt Stone for drawing it to my attention.

Time out

Sally posted the Friday Five this week with this wonderful graphic of Mary and Martha. She writes:

Holy Week is almost upon us, I suspect that ordained or not, other revgal/pals calendars look a bit like mine, FULL, FULL, FULL........

Jesus was great at teaching us to take time out, even in that last week, right up to Maundy Thursday he withdrew, John's gospel tells us he hid! He hid not because he was afraid, but because he knew that he needed physical, mental and spiritual strength to get through...

So faced with a busy week:


1. What restores you physically?
A walk by the river or a spell at the gym
2. What strengthens you emotionally/ mentally?
Beauty - in nature or in art
3. What encourages you spiritually?
Liturgy (I am almost familiar with the Mass now and loving it) scripture, personal prayer
4. Share a favourite poem or piece of music from the coming week.
I found this the other day at Jan's place and it is accompanying me along this part of the Lenten journey

Salvation

By what are you saved? And how?
Saved like a bit of string,
tucked away in a drawer?
Saved like a child rushed from
a burning building, already
singed and coughing smoke?
Or are you salvaged
like a car part -- the one good door
when the rest is wrecked?

Do you believe me when I say
you are neither salvaged nor saved,
but salved, anointed by gentle hands
where you are most tender?
Haven't you seen
the way snow curls down
like a fresh sheet, how it
covers everything,
makes everything
beautiful, without exception?

by Lynn Ungar

5.There may be many services for you to attend/ lead over the next week, which one are you most looking forward to and why? If there aren't do you have a favourite day in Holy week if so which one is it?
This is quite a hard question as I realise that I view the week as a whole and don't really pick out any specific days. I am most looking forward to 'doing' (I don't know the right verb) the Stations of the Cross in the campus church - not sure which day I will manage it but probably Wed or Thurs. And for Easter itself we are flying to Fiji for the weekend so it will be really interesting to first find a church and then to discover how Easter is celebrated in a different culture. Watch this space!