Neglected tropical diseases

An excellent and relatively brief factsheet from the World Health Organization highlights the reality that one billion people, most poor and marginalised in rural parts of low income countries, are living with and dying too early from diseases such as buruli ulcers, chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis), dengue fever, dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease), leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (bilharzia), trachoma and yaws.

To my shame I have not even heard of many of these diseases, have heard of some but really know nothing much about them, and can comment in a knowledgable way about only two. I guess that underpins how neglected these debilitating conditions are.

WHO notes that key challenges to addressing the incidence and impact of these diseases include:

• Limited visibility since the diseases are tied to specific geographical and environmental conditions and do not spread easily to industrialized countries;
• Not on the radar screen of most decision makers, mainstream research and funding agencies;
  
• Little market incentive to develop medicinesand vaccines as mainly poor people areaffected.
  

The authors note that "children and women are disproportionately affected by some neglected tropical diseases and may face additional barriers to seeking and receiving treatment. Women also tend to suffer more severely from social stigma. Dissemination of information is necessary for awareness-raising, and for impeding stigmatization, which is both a cause and consequence
of neglected tropical diseases."

I thought the 'cause and consequence' phrase was interesting. Stigma is so pervasive.

And as we in the 'West' manage to find billions and billions of dollars to bail out imprudent financiers and to deploy ineffective but highly visible thermal imaging devices in our airports - what proportion diverted to sanitation and safe drinking water, housing and education, information and community development would be needed to eliminate these conditions and to adequately provide for those already affected.

As Pete commented I need to start in my own backyard with this. And to advocate for those whose voices are seldom heard when the money is distributed.

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

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.

Tea ceremony

This afternoon the Canada Bay Council hosted a tea party. It was nice to meet my favourite Fair Trade tea suppliers Kenteco in person on a lovely autumn afternoon. After a busy weekend writing questions for the Australian Medical Council examinations, I caught the train home and arrived at McIlwaine Park just in time for the last Chinese tea ceremony of the day. This was so professionally performed. Juxtaposed with two of the audience volunteers being young girls who responded so well to the formality of the occasion. It was a joy to see. The blessing - how something so apparrently simple as a cup of tea can be provided with such care, respect and attention to detail. New discipline for this next week of Lent: seek to attend fully to each person in daily interactions. And remember the importance of enlivening the tea before brewing it. I didn't take a camera - so pic below is from Google but looks similar to today's experience.

Developmental snapshots ex libris

Christine invites us to her 25th Poetry Party and over a year of poetic inspiration! She writes

I had no idea when I began these how meaningful they would become to me and to those of you who participate by writing or reading. Thank you for the wonderful creative community that forms around each of these.

I select an image and suggest a title and invite you to respond with your poems, words, reflections, quotes, song lyrics, etc. Leave them in the comments or email me and I’ll add them to the body of the post as they come in along with a link back to your blog if you have one (not required to participate!) I’ll add your contributions all week and then I will draw a name at random on Friday morning from everyone who participates and will send the winner a special prize in honor of my 25th Poetry Party — a signed copy of my new book Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening and Awareness . Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog and encourage others to come join the party!

This week’s theme is simple, I invite you to write a poem celebrating the gift of the written word in your life.

The photos below were taken this past summer in the library at Melk Benedictine Abbey in Austria (to see the library, click on the link in the righthand sidebar that says “The Abbey museum, marble hall, library, church” and then click “Library.”)

From their website: “In the order of importance of the rooms in a Benedictine monastery, the library comes second only to the church” –another reason I love the monastic tradition!

Developmental snapshots

Books from long ago

Grandparents' bay window seat

Christmas afternoon

Aunty Ruth's Bible

Write and draw in my notebook

as I daily read

Box came from city

while I was at school today

Read until dinnertime

D H Lawrence is

required reading for English

Hide it under bed

(what would Mother say?)

Behavioural Science

Grown up now share books with Dad

Discuss not agree

(and that is fine)

Long distance plane trip

Wonder at power of fiction

almost forgotten

Dust coated bookshelves

Emptying parental home

cherish memories

Grandmother's Bible

gift to highland teenage lass

Treasure here and now

Johnny Appleseed Friday Five

Across the Pacific from here, they are celebrating the 234th birthday of Johnny Appleseed. Singing Owl has posted a Friday Five in his honour:

September 26, 1774 was his birthday. "Johnny Appleseed" (John Chapman) is one of America's great legends. He was a nurseryman who started out planting trees in western New York and Pennsylvania, but he was among those who were captivated by the movement west across the continent.

As Johnny traveled west (at that time, the "West" was places like Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois) he planted apple trees and sold trees to settlers. With every apple tree that was planted, the legend grew. A devout Christian, he was known to preach during his travels. According to legend, Johny Appleseed led a simple life and wanted little. He rarely accepted money and often donated any money he received to churches or charities. He planted hundreds of orchards, considering it his service to humankind. There is some link between Johny Appleseed and very early Arbor Day celebrations.

So, in honor of this interesting fellow, let's get on with the questions!

1. What is your favorite apple dish? (BIG BONUS points if you share the recipe.)
Apple crumble. The recipe depends what is in the pantry but the basic idea:
Put rolled oats (about a cup), walnuts (or almonds, or other nuts) (1/2 to 1 cup), 1 tbs brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon or allspice, and any seeds on hand (pumpkin, sunflower etc) and 50-75g cold butter into a food processor and blend until butter is in small pieces. (If no food processor put dry ingredients in a bowl and chop butter into the mix)
Cut up plenty of apples and slice into a pie dish.
Pile on the rolled oats topping
Bake at 180 degrees celsius until top is golden and apples are soft.
Almost everything in this recipe can be substituted. It is OK with white sugar, wholemeal or even plain flour, and other grains and spices.
2. Have you ever planted a tree? If so was there a special reason or occasion you can tell us about?

When I bought my first house it was newly built and I planted out the section with lots of trees. We planted a tree to mark the place where we placed each of our children's placentas. Our son co-planted a tree to commemorate a church anniversary when he was two years old. Our daughter was born in 1989 and we planted a tree in a community planting the following year to mark the 150th anniversary of the signing of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, the Treaty between the indigenous people of New Zealand and Queen Victoria. We have planted lemon and peach trees in our garden. I've not before reflected on trees in my life but there have been quite a few!
3. Does the idea of roaming around the countryside (preaching or otherwise) appeal to you? Why or why not?

Appeals greatly because I like the feel of the earth beneath my feet and sun (through the sunblock) on my skin. Not so keen on the preaching - but meeting people on the way and sharing our stories would be grand.

4. Who is a favorite "historical legend" of yours?

Again so many! Sir Edmund Hillary. Kate Sheppard. My great-grandfathers - legends within their families.

5. Johnny Appleseed was said to sing to keep up his spirits as he traveled the roads of the west. Do you have a song that comes when you are trying to be cheerful, or is there something else that you often do?

It's a happy day
And I praise God for the weather
It's a happy day
And I'm living it for my Lord
It's a happy day
And things can only get better
Living each day by the promises in God's word :-)

Assisting natural process

Dying well. Something we all probably want to happen. And to witness or know with our loved ones. In thinking about a possible career move into palliative care, I began to think of this professional role as being like that of a midwife. Assisting with a natural process, using knowledge, skill and experience to work together with all those affected to manage a transition. From one stage of being to another. A role of privilege and of responsibility.

In my previous role in child rights advocacy I read a national review which found that there was inconsistent access to palliative care services for children and their families. On a population level this is not a 'common' health need, but it is one of those areas of health and wellbeing where the impact of the situation means that it is a priority.

So I was pleased to see this month that the editors and editorial board of the journal Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine have decided to have a rolling theme issue on palliative care, dying and bereavement. Dr Rivara says:

Our intent is to bring these issues to the forefront of pediatrics and adolescent medicine, just as they are in the minds of those children and families who are confronted with such loss. We hope the attention of the Archives will advance science and provide help to physicians dealing with these issues on behalf of their patients and families.

On a global scale of course there are many many more children who die needlessly. Their need is not for palliative care. But for the basics of clean water, food, or protection from preventable communicable disease. And for far too many the prerequisites of the basics - life free from conflict, war and environmental degradation. Despite recent improvements, over 26,000 children aged under five still die every day. I cannot rejoice that the annual toll has 'fallen' to 9.7 million.

Yet these are not mutually exclusive issues that we face. Our children have the right to be fully considered as nations make decisions about their health expenditure. AND our children have the right to be fully considered as all nations make decisions about expenditure. On weapons. Or water.

Be watchful and wary ...

Several people have been blogging about organisational integrity after the issues to do with Dave Walker and a chain of Christian bookstores in the UK. Sam Norton at Elizaphanian has links to the relevant sites and information.

The latest British Medical Journal page includes a video describing very clearly how drug companies recruit doctors to boost market share in pharmaceuticals. It makes me question the independence of recent American Pediatric and Cardiology recommendations that children as young as two should be tested for high cholesterol and treated with statins.

I'm hoping to get some more information and to determine the extent of the evidence base underpinning such recommendations. I take this information as a pointer though, to be ever watchful and discerning about the 'principalities and powers' that influence apparently independent and individual choices.

Pink bootees finished!

Son is taking them to his friends' baby daughter tomorrow. She is a precious wee babe, three years ago her Mum and Dad lost a baby at term. Just over a year ago they had a little boy, and now this wee girl is added to their family.

This was a vintage pattern and knitted using some of the needles I inherited from my mother. Modern machine washable wool though!

Call to prayer for Zimbabwe

Our congregation started on Monday with a nightly prayer vigil for the people of Zimbabwe in the lead up to the run-off election on June 27.

Yesterday we received this call from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches

Dear friends,

Many of us have been saddened by the events unfolding in Zimbabwe. In the presidential elections that took place on March 29, the people of Zimbabwe expressed themselves. Then they had to wait for several weeks before “official” results were announced. In accordance with those “official results” a run-off election was called for Friday, June 27.

Credible reports reaching us indicate a blatant intimidation of voters and people being tortured. Some have died. Already Zimbabweans have been suffering under the burden of high inflation and lack of essential commodities. The current spate of violence and intimidation seems to be targeted at those who did not vote for the ruling party, especially in some specific rural areas. This creates a very intimidating atmosphere for the run-off elections. We are committed to the rights and welfare of all Zimbabweans, not just to one party or the other. Our main concern now is to ensure that Zimbabweans feel free to express their democratic rights.

The World Council of Churches has this week called on all Christians to set aside this Sunday, June 22 to pray for Zimbabwe. We echo this call, and ask all our member churches to keep the people of Zimbabwe and the elections on Friday, June 27 in their thoughts. Please join Christians all over the world in praying for Zimbabwe this Sunday, and every day of next week.

Thank you very much.

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Dr Setri Nyomi
General Secretary

I was a student doctor spending three months in Raxaul, India when the nation of Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980. It was a time of such hope for a new nation. One of my colleagues was toying with the idea of naming her baby Zimbabwe, she was so struck by the image of the bird of freedom. I remember her saying "They even have a bird on their flag. Imagine a country having a bird on their flag."

The reality now is so vastly different and recorded in so many places including UNICEF and the UN. The Times leading article today calls for international action (photo of Robert Mugabe above is from The Times)

Last night I really didn't know how to pray. The horrendous reality is there before me. What can I do or say from my comfortable vantage point to make any difference? The Psalms of lament help. And the amazing testimony of the Zimbabwean people who, covered in bruises from continual beatings over many hours, were still able to say that they knew they stood for something much bigger and more important than the violent agenda of their oppressors.

I can in some small way stand beside these courageous people. I can unite with people around the globe at this crucial time in holding this country and all its people in our hearts. I recognise the value of the relationships within the Church, and partnerships between churches in different countries, that bring a personal dimension to the situation. I can pray for peace and justice to prevail.

This morning as I was pondering on my response I read Eternal Echoes. I found Sally's paraphrase of Gerard Kelly's poem provides words that I can say in the face of unspeakable pain and suffering:

Because he lives,

a fire burns in my bones,

and my eyes see possibilities

and my heart hears hope

like a whisper on the wind

and the song that rises in me

will not be silenced

as life disrupts

this shadowed place of death

like a butterfly under the skin

and death itself

runs terrified to hide.

Because he lives!

The whole poem is here


Again to quote Gerard Kelly via Sally
How can I stand before someone who has faced untold suffering and not offering weak platitudes still be able to say and believe that there is a day coming when this will be no more, that Jesus will indeed wipe away every tear from our eyes? God's plan is for restoration. THIS IS OUR HOPE!

I find it hard to be hopeful in the face of all that is happening around us. And yet I cling to hope. Sometimes I worry that hope stops me from taking action (because God or the UN will set it right). At a deeper level hope propels me to action, because I can do no less. Letter to Kevin Rudd on the way. And I will be there in the evenings listening, and learning, reading and praying, lighting a candle, threading prayer beads, making and planting a cross in the sand tray, alongside others.

Celebrating parents

Well this post is light-hearted (at least to start with) and clearly in the trivial facts category. I was intrigued to note in Sally's glimpse of paradise that Fathers' Day was celebrated in the UK last weekend. And then in Ravelry this evening I read lusciousluka who said:

Fathers are acknowledged and celebrated around the world throughout the year. The majority of countries celebrate on the third Sunday of June (or June 15th this year), with our friends down under throwing parties on the first Sunday in September. For a complete list of Father’s Day dates around the world, check out this list on Wikipedia.

SO a quick trip to Wikipedia seemed in order and I was amazed to find out that around the world there are 21 different Fathers' Days, with the first Sunday in September being an entirely Australasian custom. AND there are 32 different Mothers' Days often with explicit links to Holy Days and seasonal festivals. In many Arab countries the vernal equinox marks Mothers' Day, which is also the Persian New Year. Australia and New Zealand are in the most popular group; 64 countries celebrate Mothers on the second Sunday in May. France can never experience the juxtaposition that we did this year, as Mothers' Day shifts (from last Sunday in May to first Sunday in June) if it would coincide with Pentecost.

What a bunch of trivial facts. You will have noticed that I am a pedant with the punctuation as well - against Wikipedia's advice that: Although normal English punctuation guidelines indicate that the holiday should be spelled "Fathers' Day" / Mothers' Day (as it is a plural possessive), common usage dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Father's Day" is the preferred spelling.

But - here is the reflective bit - I was surprised at my surprise about UK Fathers' Day. Despite the fact that 14 years ago we were in California for four weeks in June, and my beloved had a year with two Fathers' Days. On that trip the kiddies were really kiddies (1,4,6) and I remember that after a few days of the brilliant Californian summer one of them asked if it would be Christmas soon. There is obviously something quite deep-seated which links our celebrations to the physical season. I realise Fathers' Day is like this for me - September 'feels like' Fathers' Day. Even though I have never been that attached to the custom, its observation is rooted deep in my experience.

In his notebook on Monday HM commented :

Yesterday was "Father's Day" in the US. Later this month will be the tenth anniversary of my Father's death. ...

I am not completely certain as to why, but in this last week going into two, my father has reappeared quite strongly in my daily consciousness...

And then I woke up yesterday morning, and I realized that it was father's day. I had not been paying attention, and really did not think--consciously anyway--of the day until its arrival. But the fact of the resurgence of my father in my recent consciousness being concurrent with the arrival of father's day was not lost on me....

I wonder if these occasions somehow affect us more when our parents are no longer with us. At that deeper level. For me this year Mothers' Day was less than two months after my mother's death. I spent a good day, with a walk along the Parramatta river to hold together the many different and juxtaposing facets that emerged. HM has caused me to think about how it might be in 10 years time. It will be interesting to map the journey over time. Prospectively for Mum and retrospectively for my Dad.

AND for me that Wikipedia list gives plenty of opportunity to manipulate my location so that I get to celebrate multiple Mother's Days in a single year.

Maybe :-)

Stool like a pineapple...

It is the close of a good day. Morning at home quietly getting ready for guests. Cooking Milton's chicken and rice which was DELICIOUS! Lunch with three wonderful children and their lovely parents. Youngest child found my kitchen stool and said "This is a stool." After sitting on it and trying it out said "It's like a pineapple." "Why?" the adults asked. "Because it is" he replied. We obviously just didn't get it.

I do love that amazing ability of children to make connections. A capacity we lose early I suspect. Yet it is so easy for adults to make wrong connections. An innocent word can be interpreted as a deliberate insult and relationships marred. A look or a glance imbued with unintended meaning. Irritation when those closest relax and act naturally rather than the way expected.

Tonight I connected for the first time in their own home with two more parents raising wonderful small children. Over a glass of lemon squash I learned of the challenges and joys they live with. A real privilege for me. And I got to see the dad's Star Wars ROOM - full of collectibles from the first movie to the present.

Drove home down Marsden Rd and was yet again struck by the lights spreading out into the distance as I came over the brow of the hill.

I'll go to sleep feeling blessed by the many connections that link us and our ideas and somewhere in there we link to the one in whom we live and move and have our being, So be it.

Rain of the Children

Attended the premier of Vincent Ward's new movie Rain of the Children here in Sydney last night. It is a brilliant work. A docu-drama where Ward goes back to the subject of one of his first works. The images of Puhi (the special/chosen one) and the story of her life will be with me for weeks. I recommend that you ask for this remarkable movie at your film festivals, and if you have the chance go to see it. Read more about it following the link above and here.

Filicide and faith ...

I'm rostered as liturgist for end of the month. I see that the lection includes Genesis 22 - Abraham offering his son Isaac as a sacrifice on God's command. It's a story I'd rather ignore. I remember one sermon suggesting that Abraham was psychotic. And a psychiatrist pointing out that there is no record of Isaac ever speaking to his father again after the incident (I don't know if that is true). Brueggemann and colleagues are quite helpful - noting that the point of the story is God's generosity in providing what is needed. This commentary does not seek to explain away the story, but rather to accept the narrative at face value (i.e. a test of whether allegiance is to the giver or the gift) and to ignore the family violence dimensions.

I am working on a review of literature about parents who kill their children. It is the worst of family violence and a blatant indictment on rich countries that we tolerate the destruction of so many young lives. American pediatrician Jeffrey Goldhagen puts it like this:

As nations, the United States and the United Kingdom venerate and romanticize childhood, while at the same time, we abuse, molest, incarcerate, subjugate, segregate, and exploit our children. Although glorifying the developmental state that we call childhood in the abstract, we have as societies done much to eliminate it as a reality for many communities of children in our countries. As a result, gross inequities and disparities define the epidemiology of child health in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

Preventing abuse and neglect of children is a fundamental responsibility of every society. Every country, except Somalia and the USA, has ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and explicitly accepted the responsibility to ensure that all children enjoy safety, nurture, opportunity, health and that they actively participate in decisions that concern them. Child protection is a key issue in all countries - there is extensive and complex debate about the best approach to achieve safe outcomes. But the bottom line is that children must be secure and separated from perpetrators of abuse.

Yet here in our sacred scriptures we have a perpetrator of abuse held up as a model in faith. You may say that Isaac suffered no wound. But I say being tied up and placed on a pyre and having a knife held to you is an extremely damaging act that is likely to have long-term emotional and psychological consequences. How do I craft prayers and find music to go alongside this?

Wikipedia has some interesting information - including:

• Many commentators think Isaac was an adult in this story (as indeed most historical artists depict him - see 1418 sculpture by Donatello at top of post
  
• The equivalent story in the Quran has Abraham's son as a fully consenting participant
• In a time when child sacrifice was "rife" - this story is a clear statement that such practices are abhorent to God

In a comment on a past blog on Liberal Jesus, Richard Beck said...

I've been reading some midrash on the Akedah. This doesn't answer anything and may actually sharpen your moral concerns, but a lot of midrash on this subject deals with the fact that Isaac doesn't (overtly in the text) return back home with Abraham. The issue for the rabbis is why?

Interestingly, some rabbis have suggested that this whole incident was so psychically traumatic to Isaac that he had to go away for a time to heal, psychologically speaking

Richard is a Psych Professor and his comments very like the ones I remember from long ago. Maybe this story is one of the motifs for psychology/ psychiatry training????

Now I'm sufficiently orthodox to want to check these ideas out in some more conventional theological places, but it was helpful to take a look at this cyberspace emporium of information. Maybe it's a bit like "an eye for an eye" - an exhortation to moderation rather than unmitigated revenge out of proportion to the original wrongdoing.

Given the pressing public health importance of family violence, and the often complicit role of religion in keeping women and children in positions of oppression and danger, I feel that this must be investigated and addressed in some way. There is work to be done ....

And blogging this has helped me to move from a position of seeking to avoid the text to wanting to explore it fully. The lamenting Psalm 13 ties in well with the consequences of child maltreatment.

Responding to love

Lots of responding in this past week but nothing much on the page that I initiated. So what is happening and what am I simmering away with? Sally's blog on obedience was very timely as I was struggling with my reaction to the material being used in our church children's programme. It seems to come from a very 'hard' type of Christianity that promotes moral behaviour and rigid obedience to codes of behaviour. The overall theme seems to be that being a Christian means we HAVE to make the right choices.

The material for June is on the theme of humility. It has been interpreted as "putting others first" (from Phillipians 2.3) BUT the context of that is that God has poured out abundant love on us and in our gratitude we are able to recognise that all people are equal (Phillipians 2.1 - interpreted). Somehow the challenge is to present humility as a response - as Sally explained obedience. And not as an obligation.

It is relevant I think that when I did a web search on humility I could not find anything about teaching humility to children. Despite the assertion in the material that children are born self-centred and have to learn to put others first - the bulk of the educational evidence seems to suggest that when children are secure and know they are loved they are able to follow the example of parents and to consider others' needs as well as their own.

A Bible Gateway search for the word humility found it mentioned only eight times. And none of these mentions was attributed to Jesus. I'm not at all sure that it is a key Christian principle or even part of early church doctrine.

But I also recognise that my reaction TO the material is inextricably linked with my reaction AGAINST a lot in my childhood. Too much of my faith formation was in the hands of well-meaning people who worked from the premise that we children were sinful and needed to be saved. A colleague who shared a similar upbringing saw over a year ago that I needed to leave JOY behind - the acronym for Jesus first, others second, yourself last. But I still struggle to do this. There is a narrowness in some expressions of Christianity that I have found unhelpful.

One of the saddest things I have heard in all this is about a little girl whose view of God is being steadily constricted as she enters into the world of church and school. Her inclusive mother/father is now male and increasingly authoritarian. Her prayers that previously used many and diverse images are beginning to seem standardised and formulaic.

My immediate concern is that the material used to nurture our children in faith should be underpinned by sound theological and child development principles. Using stories from the Hebrew scriptures as object lessons does raise some questions for me in that regard. I do believe that it is possible to have a fun and engaging programme WITH sound life-affirming theology.

But I also recognise the emergence of baggage that I need to deal with and not heap onto my colleagues in addressing the matters at hand.

We are not there yet

Just another quote that is very relevant for today, from Olara Otunnu, the U.N. special representative on children and armed conflict, in 2004.

…the view is still that the suffering and victimization of children in situations of conflict is tragic, it is sad, it is unfortunate, but terrible things happen in war. We've got to shift from that level of awareness to one of outright repudiation in which we'll say, 'War might be likely and bad and terrible, but we simply can't accept that these things are done to our children in situations of conflict. We are not yet there.

Past treasure 3

This is a speech from a few years ago, in my homeland of Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then Section 59 of the Crimes Act has been amended so that the statutory defence of correction is no longer available to parents accused of child assault. The speech complements my Bloggers Unite post below. NOTE that the statistic about child abuse deaths in Sweden is from an independent researcher and is significantly lower than the child maltreatment deaths recorded in Swedish national statistics.

A World Fit for Children

Each and every child on our planet deserves to enjoy the same rights - from birth and on into adulthood - no matter where they are born, who their parents are, what abilities or limitations they live with. They have the first call on our resources. They each have the right to a family and an identity, to love and care, to safe warm homes and places to play, to protection from harm, to education for life in a peaceful world, to health and health care.

Above all it is their voices that should guide decision making in our world.

Data and statistics are things I deal with every day, and there is a certain detachment from reality and individuals when using concepts like mortality rates and intentional assault. It can be overwhelming to constantly think of the individual griefs and pains and losses that the numbers represent. But some things go straight to the heart. A routine report on causes of death shows that WAR is one of the major causes of death for CHILDREN in our world. Not for soldiers, not for Presidents or Prime Ministers or bankers or bureaucrats. But for CHILDREN it is up there in the top 20 causes of death in both high and middle-low income countries.

I couldn't and cannot detach from that.

The movie Kandahar is backed by scientific enquiry that confirms that children and women are at increased risk of serious injury from instruments of war. And confirms the absolute evil that cluster bombs are manufactured to be ATTRACTIVE to children.

I agree with Brian McLaren's analysis that these problems are underpinned by a malfunctioning security system, that invests in destruction and not in life. I need to participate in a deep shift so that everything WILL change. This new YouTube video of Brian's is just brilliant for Bloggers Unite day. Let us all be atheists to forces that kill so many of our precious children, let us not detach from any one of the ten million who die unnecessarily each year, let us unite to persuade investment in things that matter and not things that destroy.

My baby steps involve checking the origin of products like coffee and chocolate, investing in sustainable aid and development approaches, working to persuade my local congregation to work in partnership projects and not to ship masses of 'stuff' to 'the poor' in charity-based initiatives and proselytising operations.

And above all to listen to our children. Their wisdom can guide us to create a world that is fit for them. "We want a world fit for children, because a world fit for us is a world fit for everyone." (Do read this whole link if you have time. It is wisdom we need to hear).