Waving or Drowning?

*** An Important List ***

My friend Beth just emailed me about the Live 8 list. It hasn't been as well publicized (I guess that's where we come in), but it's an important one. These are the names that will be on the screens at the Live 8 concerts, and given to the G8 leaders. As Beth put it, there were "embarrassingly few" North Americans on it... so sign up and pass the word.

It's very easy - your name and country. That's it.

the whatever

Last night was pivotal for the whatever as a community.

"K", the latest addition to our crew, shared his story with us. He is earnestly seeking authenticity and community, a place where he can know and be known. He was vulnerable and courageous, and we love him all the more for it.

A couple of us who helped move some donated furniture to a young single mother two weeks ago shared that experience with the rest of the tribe. Two or three others told us about last week's edition of The Journey. 12 of the 13 women who attended were first-timers, and so the circle continues to widen. We even talked about the adventure of 35 people gathering in Roberts Creek to help paint Linwood House last weekend.

Being selfish for a minute, last night was just what I needed. I shared with everyone my strange state of mind. Other than "K"'s story, I really wasn't looking forward to the whatever last night. I've become immersed in the whole Make Poverty History / Live 8 / G8 thing, and it's rocked me to the core. I've been reading a lot, from the optimists and pessimists, the cynics, the realists and the fatalists. The last thing I wanted to do last night was sit around and talk about the issues of Poverty, Justice & Mercy (our latest discussion topic). I wanted to do something. The rest of the tribe reminded me that we are doing something. Lots of things, actually, and it was encouraging to hear again.

We incorporated some new (for us) resources that you may want to check out.

Unknown to him I'm sure, Roddy Hamilton is a part of the whatever. We often use his material, which he publishes as Mucky Paws, available here.

Last night we shared the reading "On The Edge" (Mucky Paws October 2004) as we led into communion. We read Psalm 24, and then looped "Give Me Clean Hands" from Richard Swan , as we slowly served ourselves and meditated. As a benediction and blessing we ended our evening with "Play Time".

Thanks "K". Thanks Roddy.

Play Time

May our faith be a little more wild,
and a little less guarded.

May we wonder a little more,
and fear a little less.

May we dip more than a toe
in the great sea of faith.

When we reach out to hold something,
may we find you already holding us.

When we stray into questions and doubt,
may we find you waiting with a new adventure.

When we find answers,
may we go back and look for the question.

May we have a faith that lifts stones,
rather than rakes the sand;
a faith that fidgets,
rather than behaves;
a faith that keeps stretching,
rather than becomes moribund.
a faith that stays up late,
rather than wanting early nights.

Help us discover the doing of faith
rather than it’s management;
exploring the outer edges,
rather than retreating to the centre;
making new words,
rather than wasting play-time defining the old ones.

May we live through faith,
for the Faith,

and God,
may we find you doing the same.

So be it
Amen

rgh
6th August 2004

A True Revolution of Values

"A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. A revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists in the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America only to take profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: 'This is not just.'"

- Martin Luther King Jr. (Quoted in Sojourners)

"Worth The Sacrifice"?

Will has reflected on GWB's speech last night.

I watched the President's speech this evening. I had hoped for an apology but expected a defense of the current state. My expectations were met while my hopes were yet again unrealized.

Check out his complete post. I think Will has clearly and succinctly articulated what so many wish to say, if we could just avoid getting sucked into yelling matches.

Needles

I read this with interest this morning; I'll explain why in a minute.

Global Challenges | U.K. Rejects U.S. Opposition to Needle Exchanges at UNAIDS Board Meeting
[Jun 29, 2005]

U.K. officials on Monday at a UNAIDS board meeting in Geneva expressed opposition to a U.S. proposal to change UNAIDS policy to ban needle exchanges, saying the programs are effective, especially in countries where injection drug use is contributing to the spread of HIV, London's Guardian reports. "We support effective harm-reduction programs, especially needle and syringe exchange and methadone substitution therapy because they have been proven to reduce HIV infection among injecting drug users and their sexual partners in many countries," U.K. International Development Minister Gareth Thomas said during his opening statement. Earlier this month, a U.S. official asked that all references to needle-exchange programs be excluded from the UNAIDS governing policy paper, and the board might vote on the issue for the first time during the three-day session, which concludes Wednesday. Injection drug use accounts for about 80% of HIV/AIDS cases in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and the practice contributes to the spread of the virus worldwide. Earlier this year, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime at the 48th session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, Austria, adopted the U.S. position opposing needle exchanges. U.S. foreign aid cannot be used to provide funding or services to programs that include needle exchanges (Boseley, Guardian, 6/28). Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) on Friday sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging her to stop U.S. efforts to remove the reference to needle-exchange programs in the UNAIDS policy document, CQ HealthBeat reports. "The National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Academy of Sciences have all found that syringe-exchange programs save lives and do not increase drug use," the letter says (CQ HealthBeat, 6/28).

My own thinking on the issue of needle exchanges has undergone a complete 180 degree shift. (I think I wrote about this issue a while back.) A couple of years ago the city of Vancouver, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth, initiated a program in the Downtown East Side. Initially I was dead-set against the idea, fearing that such a program would only increase drug use. As the piece above implies, indications are this is not the result of these programs.

More important is the human element. As our own ministry started to get more involved in the DTES and we started to get to know some of the people involved, it became more personal. In the end if a needle exchange program keeps someone alive for one more day, it's worth it. Sometimes that is the best you can hope for: keep them alive and HIV negative. I can work with that.

Around the World With Live 8

The great Neil Young will close the Canadian version of Live 8 on Saturday. Man, I wish I was going to be there. Speaking of Canada, Tom Cochrane was in Ottawa to offer the prime minister a pair of tickets to the Live 8 concert Saturday, and to plead with Martin to more than double aid to impoverished countries. And he wasn't alone.

Also, it looks like Elton John will be doing a home and away series, appearing in London on the Live 8 stage, then jetting off to Dublin for an evening gig.

Moscow is in as the 10th venue, and the Pet Shop Boys will be headlining.

Bill Writes a Cheque

"It's shocking how little research is directed toward the diseases of the world's poorest countries. By harnessing the world's capacity for scientific innovation, I believe we can transform health in the developing world and save millions of lives."
Bill Gates (Reuters, 6/27).

Gates Foundation Awards $436.6M to 43 Research Projects Targeting Public Health in Developing Countries
[Jun 28, 2005]

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Monday awarded $436.6 million to 43 research projects addressing public health problems in developing countries, including the development of vaccines for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria, the AP/Tucson Citizen reports (Johnson, AP/Tucson Citizen, 6/27). The money will be directed to Grand Challenges in Global Health, a Gates-funded initiative launched in 2003 to create a competition intended to attract scientists, researchers and inventors to find solutions to global health issues (McNeil, New York Times, 6/28). The grant recipients each will receive up to $20 million over five years -- with $436.6 million coming from the Gates Foundation, $27 million from the Wellcome Trust and $4.5 million from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Sternberg, USA Today, 6/28). The grants will be administered by the three funding organizations, as well as the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (AP/Tucson Citizen, 6/27). The grant agreements allow scientists to patent their inventions, but they must guarantee that the resulting products will be made available at a low price or at no cost in developing countries. Funding also can be cut off if periodic goals are not met (New York Times, 6/28).

Project Details
The 43 projects were chosen from more than 1,000 proposals received from scientists around the world, London's Guardian reports. They include research into ways to improve vaccines so that refrigeration, needles and multiple doses are not needed; developing ways to prevent insects from transmitting diseases such as malaria; discovering ways to treat latent infections, such as TB; and developing ways to fight drug-resistant bacteria. For example, a team from St. George's-University of London in London is developing an HIV vaccine for women that aims to stimulate an immune system response to the virus in the vaginal lining. A team from University of Oxford received $10 million to conduct research into stimulating the immune system in ways that could lead to vaccines for HIV, TB and malaria (Boseley, Guardian, 6/28). In addition, two researchers from the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute received a total of $32.5 million to continue their efforts to find an effective malaria vaccine (Paulson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 6/28).

(From Kaiser Network.org)

The Youth of America

Taking their cue from the MPH and One videos, Ira Israel and some Southern California teens created this message to accept the challenge and spread the word. Way to go..

(Link from the One Blog)

Various & Sundry G8/Live 8 Links

First, from the BBC. They have an excellent resource page called Africa Lives On The BBC.

They also have in-depth coverage of the upcoming G8 Summit, the deal, etc.

And, because I know you can't get enough of all things Canadian, here's the CBC's Canadian Live 8 page. (Feel free to ask about Stompin' Tom.)

UPDATE: Andy commented last night and let us know about the available Live 8 news feeds.

Double Standards

Over at Veiled4Allah, Al-Muhajabah raises a good point:

I'm kind of bemused at the sudden excitement over banning desecration of the American flag. Wasn't it just a short time ago that many of these same people were blaming Muslims for being upset over desecration of the Quran?

Now, if you get upset about people desecrating a flag, don't you think you could have a little empathy for how other people feel about desecration of what they believe to be the revealed word of God?

I haven't dropped by her blog in quite a while, and that has been my loss. I learn something every time.