Waving or Drowning?

Hearts & Minds

A quick shout-out to my new friend Byron Borger and his crew at Hearts & Minds Books. These folks know books and are definitely worth talking to. Byron's got a great post on their blog about Global Peacemaking, with an excellent recommended reading list.

Andrew Johnston

I think this is the second one of these things I've posted.

Beautiful.

Food Crisis (UPDATED)

It looks to me like Food Crisis is going to be the phrase of the year in 2008 (and beyond.)

UN sets up task force on food crisis

ELIANE ENGELER
Associated Press
April 29, 2008 at 6:28 AM EDT

BERN, SWITZERLAND — The United Nations plans to establish a task force to tackle the global food crisis to avert "social unrest on an unprecedented scale," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.

Mr. Ban, who will lead the task force, said its first priority will be to meet the $755-million (U.S.) shortfall in funding for the World Food Program.

"Without full funding of these emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale," he told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern, where the UN agency chiefs have been meeting.

Read the rest here

UPDATE: See also:

1. BBC: "How to stop the global food crisis": http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7365798.stm

"The New Economics of Hunger", Washington Post, 27 April 2008 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602041_pf.html

2. Zainab Bangura, Foreign Minister of Sierra Leone, video message to Avaaz members http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/9.php

3. Chinese news citing World Bank figures: http://www.cctv.com/english/20080426/102406.shtml

Reuters: "Rising food prices to top UN agenda" http://www.reuters.com/article/gc08/idUSL1890947220080424

4. See BBC article above, and "Rising Food Prices" by Alex Evans (Chatham House report) http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/11422_bp0408food.pdf

UN scientific report on fixing the world food system:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7347239.stm

The Guardian: "Credit crunch? The real crisis is global hunger", George Monbiot  http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/15/food.biofuels

Revolution Redux

Just so I can be sure to beat this Revolution thing to death, here's a video invite the good folks at The Meeting House have put together:

They've also put together this little trailer. Just turn your volume down a notch or two...

I think this is one series you're going to want to dial in for.

Refuge From Mean Streets

Speaking of Linwood House, The Province carried a pretty good article on us this morning. It might be useful for those of you who have been asking for more information on who we are and what we're up to. You can link to the article from here.

The Revolution (UPDATED)

Bruxy Cavey is starting a new series at The Meeting House on May 11 call The Revolution. When I saw Bruxy last month he was pretty excited about it. I'll definitely be dialing in on the podcast for this one.

They've got a web site set up for inviting friends. It takes a while to load, but if you click on any of the images once it's up you'll understand why.

UPDATE: There's a Facebook Event set up for the series, which gave me a look at the back of the card. This looks very, very good.

Back in Bangkok

FYI, Linwood House Ministries has a small team (including Sue!) in Bangkok for 2 weeks. I've just posted their first email update on the Linwood blog, and will be sending out further updates to a special email list. If you'd like to be on it let me know, and we'll keep you up to speed.

Thanks.

World Malaria Day - Challenge

Today is World Malaria Day, and to mark the occasion the residents of Delta House have donated 10 bed nets via the good people at Malaria No More.

We'd like to challenge individuals and faith communities to do what you can. The nets are $10 each.

Donate here.

Drew Goes Back to The Shack

Speaking of The Drew Marshall Show--we've been doing that a lot lately, but what can I say, the guy rocks--It looks like Drew will have Paul Young, author of The Shack, back on the radio again this Saturday.

Mike & Sue... On The Air

There's nothing like dropping your pants in front of the world.

The audio from our appearance on The Drew Marshall show last Saturday is now up on the site.