I have been encouraged by the "apostolic exhortation" recently sent out by Pope Francis I. Without getting into its content, I just sense that he is speaking out about economic issues (global and personal) more when church-goers are more accustomed to hearing a "social gospel". An economic gospel?! Well it's about time. Not enough can be said about "exclusion and inequality" - the two themes that he addresses. Here are two samplers, in case you haven't read it:
Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacralized workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting.
As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of markets and financial speculation and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution will be found for the world's problems or, for that matter, to any problems.
That’s enough! I only want to say "Amen!" to a Pope talking about such issues. It is not inappropriate.
By doing so, he helps me to ask you to bear with my own diatribes about rampant fraud, corruption and Triumphalism. Sometimes you may wonder, am I a missionary or a journalist? Thanks, I'll take that as a compliment.
The most recent example is at the heart of the Nkandla-gate scandal here in South Africa. President Zuma hired an architect to work on the security upgrading to his homestead, which was initially budgeted at R30 million. Then later he appointed the same person to oversee the whole upgrading, and there were cost overruns that have already reached R210 million, and rising. Well that is Triumphalism - runaway exhuberance to spend money inebriated by power without any restraints because you have been "turned loose" by the Big Boss to get a job done. Without impunity. Eish.
My prayer for you is to remember the Lausanne slogan: Live simply so that others may simply live.
This involves self-sacrifice. In South Africa, the virtue of self-sacrifice has been replaced with Triumphalism. Some call it greed. When Pope Francis uses phrases like "a new tyranny" and "the idolatry of money", I can only thank him for not mincing his words.
Pray for me, that I will not lose my audience by speaking out, by saying what a lot of people really don't want to hear.
Inequality is getting worse, not better. In today's news, the 10 richest South Africans got richer over the past year. But the gap is widening and resentment is rising. Economist Emmanuel Saez found that the incomes of the top 1% in the USA grew by 31.4% in the three years after the financial crisis, while the majority of people struggled with a disappointing economy. The other 99% of the population grew their incomes 0.4% during the same period. Globally, the gap between rich and poor is not closing. This week 500,000 youth are finishing high school in South Africa. But jobs are hard to find.
Exclusion is the name of the game for Triumphalists. Even when their exhuberance is for a noble cause, even social service delivery, the end does not justify the means. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions." In a constitutional democracy, you should be playing by the rules. Pray that the minorities in South Africa will still be heard, in a context where affirmative action favours the majority.
Sorry if this became more of an exhortation than a prayer letter. But I am in good company! God bless Francis I.
Tuesday, 16 June 2015
Monday, 15 June 2015
Deep Reflections on Recovery
The unemployment figures in South Africa are grim. The economic indicators suggest that the economy is slowing down – the past quarter had the slowest growth rate in 4 year (0.7%).
C4L itself has been running on empty for 6 months, imposing austerity measures and looking for ways to scale down. This is typical of many nonprofits.
Eighty years ago, the world was in the grip of the Great Depression. 1933 was the deepest dip in a decade of hardship and deprivation for many. A new president was inaugurated that year. He spoke the following phrases in his Inaugural Address, which point the way for another constitutional Democracy, on another continent, in another century:
Oh, wow! There has not been a dramatic stock market crash, no single moment of panic causing paranoia in our case. But we do share the problem of unscrupulous profiteers and of a system that does not even out disparities fast enough.
Two great concerns are highlighted:
1. FDR summoned a moral fibre in these phrases that was embedded in his people, although it had been submerged below that “evanescent” post-war generation of tinsel-town self-gratification.
He made work the core determinant of success, not profiteering with other people’s money.
The old and precious moral values FDR mentions are based on the Golden Rule of doing to others what you would like them to do to you. Or even better – sacrificially.
Can top leadership in South Africa credibly make such a call as this? Yes there were moral leaders in the Struggle like Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo. But are there now? A recent article in the Times (“State gravy train unstoppable for now”) concludes that there are still not enough checks and balances in place. Just as was the case in the Roaring Twenties, in the run-up to the stock market crash.
The out-going Auditor-General says that R28.7 billion was wasted by the State in the last fiscal year. “It is a matter of the legislation being too loose” he says, “The offender has got the upper hand over government because the legislation is not watertight enough to hold people accountable.”
2. FDR called on national unity - that is on non-partisanship.
Whereas in South Africa there seems to be political fragmentation. Mamphela Ramphele has started a political party espousing the values of the Black Consciousness Movement. Malema has started a leftist party espousing more government intervention in the economy. And NUMSA is mulling over departing from COSATU and the ruling alliance to form another party – probably led by Vavi.
Can anyone at this stage muster national unity at the depth that will be required to overcome “our common difficulties”?
We would like to see a “Non-regression Pact” signed by all opposition parties. Yes they will each chip away at the ruling party’s huge majority. But if the congress should ever slip below the 50% mark, it will still hold the biggest vote. What will happen if it then selects but one party - like Malema’s - to form a coalition with? In the absence of a united opposition, we need these smaller parties to assure voters that they will coalesce with one another in that eventuality. Not just become a power broker that can charge the ANC whatever it demands for its rubber-stamp.
In another context, Archbishop Tutu and 80 other prominent South Africans recently signed a declaration warning of an “assault on democracy”. But two relevant excerpts follow:
“Constructive engagement on the best way forward is possible and desirable, without resort to violence, and without fomenting hate or disrespect.”
“The lack of serious leadership and authority in disciplining this form of anti-democratic behaviour carries serious risks and encourages a spirit of hate which, once unleashed, may take many years to overcome with drastic consequences for our economy.”
Moral leadership is at the core. Disabled FDR embodied the fighting spirit of recovery. Who can South Africa look to as its economy falters, bleeding from corruption and graft?
C4L itself has been running on empty for 6 months, imposing austerity measures and looking for ways to scale down. This is typical of many nonprofits.
Eighty years ago, the world was in the grip of the Great Depression. 1933 was the deepest dip in a decade of hardship and deprivation for many. A new president was inaugurated that year. He spoke the following phrases in his Inaugural Address, which point the way for another constitutional Democracy, on another continent, in another century:
- We face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things
- Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind's goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence
- Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men
- They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision
- The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men
- Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit
- We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike
Oh, wow! There has not been a dramatic stock market crash, no single moment of panic causing paranoia in our case. But we do share the problem of unscrupulous profiteers and of a system that does not even out disparities fast enough.
Two great concerns are highlighted:
1. FDR summoned a moral fibre in these phrases that was embedded in his people, although it had been submerged below that “evanescent” post-war generation of tinsel-town self-gratification.
He made work the core determinant of success, not profiteering with other people’s money.
The old and precious moral values FDR mentions are based on the Golden Rule of doing to others what you would like them to do to you. Or even better – sacrificially.
Can top leadership in South Africa credibly make such a call as this? Yes there were moral leaders in the Struggle like Albert Luthuli and Oliver Tambo. But are there now? A recent article in the Times (“State gravy train unstoppable for now”) concludes that there are still not enough checks and balances in place. Just as was the case in the Roaring Twenties, in the run-up to the stock market crash.
The out-going Auditor-General says that R28.7 billion was wasted by the State in the last fiscal year. “It is a matter of the legislation being too loose” he says, “The offender has got the upper hand over government because the legislation is not watertight enough to hold people accountable.”
2. FDR called on national unity - that is on non-partisanship.
Whereas in South Africa there seems to be political fragmentation. Mamphela Ramphele has started a political party espousing the values of the Black Consciousness Movement. Malema has started a leftist party espousing more government intervention in the economy. And NUMSA is mulling over departing from COSATU and the ruling alliance to form another party – probably led by Vavi.
Can anyone at this stage muster national unity at the depth that will be required to overcome “our common difficulties”?
We would like to see a “Non-regression Pact” signed by all opposition parties. Yes they will each chip away at the ruling party’s huge majority. But if the congress should ever slip below the 50% mark, it will still hold the biggest vote. What will happen if it then selects but one party - like Malema’s - to form a coalition with? In the absence of a united opposition, we need these smaller parties to assure voters that they will coalesce with one another in that eventuality. Not just become a power broker that can charge the ANC whatever it demands for its rubber-stamp.
In another context, Archbishop Tutu and 80 other prominent South Africans recently signed a declaration warning of an “assault on democracy”. But two relevant excerpts follow:
“Constructive engagement on the best way forward is possible and desirable, without resort to violence, and without fomenting hate or disrespect.”
“The lack of serious leadership and authority in disciplining this form of anti-democratic behaviour carries serious risks and encourages a spirit of hate which, once unleashed, may take many years to overcome with drastic consequences for our economy.”
Moral leadership is at the core. Disabled FDR embodied the fighting spirit of recovery. Who can South Africa look to as its economy falters, bleeding from corruption and graft?
Monday, 1 June 2015
A Link Worth Watching
I was very challenged to watch this presentation by Dan Pallotta.
My place is the Nonprofit Sector is far away from its epicentre, where he sees a clash between morality and frugality. We are situated in a different but similar web of convictions and guidelines that underpin our work, which also needs an overhaul.
Yet I watched this in the very same week that a new Pope was selected, the first one ever to choose the name Francis. Finally! I hope that this is a signal that he is willing to tip over a few paradigms? Lest the church become nothing more than a "compassionate NGO" as he remarked this week.
Thanks for you prayers for our meetings. The Board meeting went very well. The other meeting never happened - again. Look like we have reached the end of the road in terms of "finding one another again" so dissolution of the Joint Venture is now on the horizon.
Back to the Board meeting. It has set up a task force to look very hard at the "big picture". Not just C4L and its choices but the missiology and convictions that underpin it.
This is likely to lead to more change, streamlining, and right-sizing - as we "strenghten the things that remain" and scrap what is not mission-critical.
My prayer request is for wisdom as we enter this exercise, and for the clarity of analysis and thinking that I appreciated in the video link above. As much as the content, I think that the presentation of it is superb. We need incisive analysis like that to really become social innovators.
I have sensed the power of your prayers in the past days, as I watch the Lord's creative script writing of history. It's nice to be part of a drama where you don't memorize your lines, but you are still amazed at the awesome author of the drama. He has once again shown us that He is in control and that not even a sparrow falls that he doesn't see. It looks like he has some pleasant surprises in store for C4L in the next few years. Stay tuned for more on this as it unfolds.
I echo the words repeated by the new Pope, Francis I, which also bode well: "Pray for me".
My place is the Nonprofit Sector is far away from its epicentre, where he sees a clash between morality and frugality. We are situated in a different but similar web of convictions and guidelines that underpin our work, which also needs an overhaul.
Yet I watched this in the very same week that a new Pope was selected, the first one ever to choose the name Francis. Finally! I hope that this is a signal that he is willing to tip over a few paradigms? Lest the church become nothing more than a "compassionate NGO" as he remarked this week.
Thanks for you prayers for our meetings. The Board meeting went very well. The other meeting never happened - again. Look like we have reached the end of the road in terms of "finding one another again" so dissolution of the Joint Venture is now on the horizon.
Back to the Board meeting. It has set up a task force to look very hard at the "big picture". Not just C4L and its choices but the missiology and convictions that underpin it.
This is likely to lead to more change, streamlining, and right-sizing - as we "strenghten the things that remain" and scrap what is not mission-critical.
My prayer request is for wisdom as we enter this exercise, and for the clarity of analysis and thinking that I appreciated in the video link above. As much as the content, I think that the presentation of it is superb. We need incisive analysis like that to really become social innovators.
I have sensed the power of your prayers in the past days, as I watch the Lord's creative script writing of history. It's nice to be part of a drama where you don't memorize your lines, but you are still amazed at the awesome author of the drama. He has once again shown us that He is in control and that not even a sparrow falls that he doesn't see. It looks like he has some pleasant surprises in store for C4L in the next few years. Stay tuned for more on this as it unfolds.
I echo the words repeated by the new Pope, Francis I, which also bode well: "Pray for me".
Saturday, 30 May 2015
Not Letting Go
Today I read some Dakota tribal wisdom: "When you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount." Food for thought. But letting go is never easy.
I've been thinking a lot lately about letting go. Like Abraham climbing Mount Moriah. I can't figure out what was going on in his head, more so in his heart. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. He had been taught to bless the name of God in adversity, like his ancestor Job.
But sacrificing your own son sounds to me like infanticide. What kind of God would really ask you to do that? What kind of father would make such preparations - even taking firewood with him, up there above the tree line? The answers can be glib - God was testing him, the God who sends angels as messengers, like the one who appeared to Abraham on that mountain top and told him not to do it. (This angel should be the patron saint of child rights activists.)
So if God placed a ram in a thicket for Abraham, why didn't he listen to the prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane? Prayers so deep that they caused him to sweat blood? His only Son. Why couldn't He do on Mount Calvary what he did on Mount Moriah? Even He had to let go...
Back to Moriah.... a three-day climb. Abraham only said to the sherpas he took along, when they reached the summit, to wait while he and Isaac went off "to worship". Child sacrifice was practised by other religions at the time, but is condemned not less than ten times in the Bible (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 17:17; 21:6; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 23:10; Psalm 106:37-38; Jeremiah 19:4-5; 32:35). Of course all of these came after the era of Abraham, but still...
We have all had our fill at times of our teenagers, but this was over the top. He even tied the boy up and placed him on the firewood on the altar built, before the angel appeared. Eish! The poor kid must have had nightmares about this in his later life. Worship? "WE" will worship? That was the royal "we" because judging by Isaac's questions, he was not privy to it.
Letting go is hard. Especially when you had a long wait to get the project started. More especially when the very start of it was a miracle. What kind of God asks you to give up a miraculous gift that He gave you?
Can you do it? Even if it doesn't make any sense? Is there a disconnect between worship and ethics? In South Africa, we know that devout Christians practiced apartheid. But they were not revered for this like Abraham. South Africa became a pariah among the nations.
How did missionary doctors feel when the hospitals that they built up were swallowed up by government health systems?
How did Candy Lightner - the founder of MADD - feel when she lost her daughter to a drunk driver?
Does God still test us? Or are there some questions without answers?
Please pray for me as I grapple with whether to let go. Is that what God wants me to do? Is that what he wants C4L to do? Pray for an angel who can tell me not to let go, who has the power to reverse what God ordained.
I've been thinking a lot lately about letting go. Like Abraham climbing Mount Moriah. I can't figure out what was going on in his head, more so in his heart. The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. He had been taught to bless the name of God in adversity, like his ancestor Job.
But sacrificing your own son sounds to me like infanticide. What kind of God would really ask you to do that? What kind of father would make such preparations - even taking firewood with him, up there above the tree line? The answers can be glib - God was testing him, the God who sends angels as messengers, like the one who appeared to Abraham on that mountain top and told him not to do it. (This angel should be the patron saint of child rights activists.)
So if God placed a ram in a thicket for Abraham, why didn't he listen to the prayers of Jesus in Gethsemane? Prayers so deep that they caused him to sweat blood? His only Son. Why couldn't He do on Mount Calvary what he did on Mount Moriah? Even He had to let go...
Back to Moriah.... a three-day climb. Abraham only said to the sherpas he took along, when they reached the summit, to wait while he and Isaac went off "to worship". Child sacrifice was practised by other religions at the time, but is condemned not less than ten times in the Bible (Leviticus 18:21; 20:2-5; Deuteronomy 18:10; 2 Kings 17:17; 21:6; 2 Chronicles 28:3; 23:10; Psalm 106:37-38; Jeremiah 19:4-5; 32:35). Of course all of these came after the era of Abraham, but still...
We have all had our fill at times of our teenagers, but this was over the top. He even tied the boy up and placed him on the firewood on the altar built, before the angel appeared. Eish! The poor kid must have had nightmares about this in his later life. Worship? "WE" will worship? That was the royal "we" because judging by Isaac's questions, he was not privy to it.
Letting go is hard. Especially when you had a long wait to get the project started. More especially when the very start of it was a miracle. What kind of God asks you to give up a miraculous gift that He gave you?
Can you do it? Even if it doesn't make any sense? Is there a disconnect between worship and ethics? In South Africa, we know that devout Christians practiced apartheid. But they were not revered for this like Abraham. South Africa became a pariah among the nations.
How did missionary doctors feel when the hospitals that they built up were swallowed up by government health systems?
How did Candy Lightner - the founder of MADD - feel when she lost her daughter to a drunk driver?
Does God still test us? Or are there some questions without answers?
Please pray for me as I grapple with whether to let go. Is that what God wants me to do? Is that what he wants C4L to do? Pray for an angel who can tell me not to let go, who has the power to reverse what God ordained.
Friday, 29 May 2015
South Africa has Changed
I read today that President Zuma had some pointed words to say last week at Davos. He spoke of prejudice against Africa being a deterrent to investment. In one response I feel like cheering him and like scolding him. For he is one of those former “freedom fighters” who is gaining a reputation for feathering his own nest by plunder of public resources.
Yes I have often said that Africa gets a bad rap and that it has huge potential. Yesterday I read an article which compares the South Africa of today to Yeltsin’s Russia – a time when power is consolidated centrally and when oligarchs arise who are vastly wealthy. One only has to think of Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma’s new deputy. He was Nelson Mandela’s choice as a successor but the “elders” of the ruling alliance told to wait his turn. In the meanwhile, he has become one of Africa’s richest men, and that can be attributed at least in part to his contacts and advantages in terms of affirmative action.
I am not scolding him, let me cheer Zuma a bit more. I also read this week that the assets of the world’s three richest individuals exceeds the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s 48 poorest countries. Many of those poor countries are in Africa, but while Ramaphosa may be wealthy on African standards, he is not competing at the highest levels globally of wealthy individuals.
I want to make an apology.
It occurred to me that in writing about social and economic injustice globally and even in South Africa, some readers may feel that my finger is pointed at them. Sorry if you ever felt that, it was not my intention but sometimes communication that is sent is not exactly what is heard. I do not believe in a simplistic cause-and-effect view that says “they are poor because you are rich”. Most of my readers are from a background of privilege like myself. I am not trying to make you feel bad about it, or even to follow my example of choosing the path of St Francis in my approach to wealth. Not every Christian is called to do that.
What I am trying to say is not so complicated that I couldn’t articulate it – but maybe I never was explicit enough. My view is that you are rich and they are poor because of the same unjust system that is perpetuating itself. David Korten put it this way: “ordinary people find their choices controlled by the hierarchies of big business, big government, big education, big unions, big media, and big religion”. You yourself can probably do as little about it as any body locked down by poverty in Africa.
My missives are directed against this system, not against you! I believe that John the Baptist had a similar message, although relatively little was recorded of it – just enough for me to identify with him a lot. Just like people listened to him - a bit off-beat and outspoken but nevertheless respected by his audience – I get enough responses to my missives to be sure that they are appreciated.
I believe that Jesus also was on this frequency. Sadly, I think that his messaged has been hijacked to emphasize other things. Brian McLaren describes this as trying to put together a jig-saw puzzle when someone has switched the lid on the box! It takes you awhile to figure out that all these pieces from the Gospels don’t fit into that narrow arrangement. Finally you scrap the lid of the box and work away at getting the pieces to fit one another. Gradually, you begin to get the big picture. I found this metaphor very helpful. Could it be that you are still using a misleading puzzle-box-lid when you read my missives and wonder where I am coming from? Here I go with my favorite writing strategy – deferring to someone who is better qualified and renowned than myself to say it for me:
“Taking the story of Zaccheus as an example of “salvation” from greed and hypocrisy, we will then seek to heal the system, beginning with our own role in it. Our actions will, I imagine, have at least three dimensions:
“First, we will seek to help the poor through generosity – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, showing hospitality to the homeless. In so doing, we must be careful to avoid a dehumanizing and demoralizing paternalism.
“Second, we will call the rich to generosity, as Jesus frequently did. We will call the comfortable to turn from their own endless enrichment and to instead invest their energies for the good of their poorer neighbours. In today’s world, this would often involve using their entrepreneurial skills to create good jobs, since unemployment is at the core of so many of the sufferings of the poor, including substance abuse, violence and disease.
“And third, we will work to improve the system, to detect and remove systemic injustice, so that the equity system of the societal machinery would indeed be equitable.”
C4L bulletins like this one fall into both the second and third dimensions. They try to cry out from the wilderness against a dominant system that locks some people into poverty and others into complacency. The bulletins also call you – rich or poor - to generosity. C4L is but one actor in but one country on but one continent, but its emphasis in 2013 is to create self-employment among youth in the “green occupations”. In other words, C4L exists to help the poor through YOUR generosity.
How has South Africa changed?
Since I took up residence here 18 years ago, the focus of concern has shifted from the AIDS pandemic to youth unemployment. Remember that citizens born since 1994, the year that I arrived, are now called the “born free” generation. They think differently from previous generations. Their Struggle is not against apartheid but against poverty.
The market drives the economy less and less as the ruling alliance wants it to be a command-economy. That is a huge difference. For so many business, the main customer is government. This is particularly true in the Training sector. You must understand that this is why C4L talks so much more than ever before about government “Learnerships” to train youth in entrepreneurship and the “green occupations”.
Unfortunately, another change is that government is getting more intolerant of voices crying in the veld about the need for systemic change. Speaking of John the Baptist, can you imagine him trying to get funding out of the Herodians – who collaborated with Rome - for his wilderness project? No wonder he only had locusts and honey to eat! Like him we depend on the generosity of those we call to defect from the dominant system, into God’s reign or kingdom. The jigsaw puzzle lid that I discarded promised eternal life by and by; but the pieces that I am fitting together now have more to say about justice - for abundant life.
Yes I have often said that Africa gets a bad rap and that it has huge potential. Yesterday I read an article which compares the South Africa of today to Yeltsin’s Russia – a time when power is consolidated centrally and when oligarchs arise who are vastly wealthy. One only has to think of Cyril Ramaphosa, Zuma’s new deputy. He was Nelson Mandela’s choice as a successor but the “elders” of the ruling alliance told to wait his turn. In the meanwhile, he has become one of Africa’s richest men, and that can be attributed at least in part to his contacts and advantages in terms of affirmative action.
I am not scolding him, let me cheer Zuma a bit more. I also read this week that the assets of the world’s three richest individuals exceeds the combined gross domestic product (GDP) of the world’s 48 poorest countries. Many of those poor countries are in Africa, but while Ramaphosa may be wealthy on African standards, he is not competing at the highest levels globally of wealthy individuals.
I want to make an apology.
It occurred to me that in writing about social and economic injustice globally and even in South Africa, some readers may feel that my finger is pointed at them. Sorry if you ever felt that, it was not my intention but sometimes communication that is sent is not exactly what is heard. I do not believe in a simplistic cause-and-effect view that says “they are poor because you are rich”. Most of my readers are from a background of privilege like myself. I am not trying to make you feel bad about it, or even to follow my example of choosing the path of St Francis in my approach to wealth. Not every Christian is called to do that.
What I am trying to say is not so complicated that I couldn’t articulate it – but maybe I never was explicit enough. My view is that you are rich and they are poor because of the same unjust system that is perpetuating itself. David Korten put it this way: “ordinary people find their choices controlled by the hierarchies of big business, big government, big education, big unions, big media, and big religion”. You yourself can probably do as little about it as any body locked down by poverty in Africa.
My missives are directed against this system, not against you! I believe that John the Baptist had a similar message, although relatively little was recorded of it – just enough for me to identify with him a lot. Just like people listened to him - a bit off-beat and outspoken but nevertheless respected by his audience – I get enough responses to my missives to be sure that they are appreciated.
I believe that Jesus also was on this frequency. Sadly, I think that his messaged has been hijacked to emphasize other things. Brian McLaren describes this as trying to put together a jig-saw puzzle when someone has switched the lid on the box! It takes you awhile to figure out that all these pieces from the Gospels don’t fit into that narrow arrangement. Finally you scrap the lid of the box and work away at getting the pieces to fit one another. Gradually, you begin to get the big picture. I found this metaphor very helpful. Could it be that you are still using a misleading puzzle-box-lid when you read my missives and wonder where I am coming from? Here I go with my favorite writing strategy – deferring to someone who is better qualified and renowned than myself to say it for me:
“Taking the story of Zaccheus as an example of “salvation” from greed and hypocrisy, we will then seek to heal the system, beginning with our own role in it. Our actions will, I imagine, have at least three dimensions:
“First, we will seek to help the poor through generosity – feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, showing hospitality to the homeless. In so doing, we must be careful to avoid a dehumanizing and demoralizing paternalism.
“Second, we will call the rich to generosity, as Jesus frequently did. We will call the comfortable to turn from their own endless enrichment and to instead invest their energies for the good of their poorer neighbours. In today’s world, this would often involve using their entrepreneurial skills to create good jobs, since unemployment is at the core of so many of the sufferings of the poor, including substance abuse, violence and disease.
“And third, we will work to improve the system, to detect and remove systemic injustice, so that the equity system of the societal machinery would indeed be equitable.”
C4L bulletins like this one fall into both the second and third dimensions. They try to cry out from the wilderness against a dominant system that locks some people into poverty and others into complacency. The bulletins also call you – rich or poor - to generosity. C4L is but one actor in but one country on but one continent, but its emphasis in 2013 is to create self-employment among youth in the “green occupations”. In other words, C4L exists to help the poor through YOUR generosity.
How has South Africa changed?
Since I took up residence here 18 years ago, the focus of concern has shifted from the AIDS pandemic to youth unemployment. Remember that citizens born since 1994, the year that I arrived, are now called the “born free” generation. They think differently from previous generations. Their Struggle is not against apartheid but against poverty.
The market drives the economy less and less as the ruling alliance wants it to be a command-economy. That is a huge difference. For so many business, the main customer is government. This is particularly true in the Training sector. You must understand that this is why C4L talks so much more than ever before about government “Learnerships” to train youth in entrepreneurship and the “green occupations”.
Unfortunately, another change is that government is getting more intolerant of voices crying in the veld about the need for systemic change. Speaking of John the Baptist, can you imagine him trying to get funding out of the Herodians – who collaborated with Rome - for his wilderness project? No wonder he only had locusts and honey to eat! Like him we depend on the generosity of those we call to defect from the dominant system, into God’s reign or kingdom. The jigsaw puzzle lid that I discarded promised eternal life by and by; but the pieces that I am fitting together now have more to say about justice - for abundant life.
Friday, 15 May 2015
Putting It Back
I read recently that Albert Einstein had two portraits hanging in his lounge for much of his life – Newton and Maxwell. This would need no explanation, for he was certainly in their league as scientist. But in later years, he took these down and replaced them with two other portraits – Ghandi and Schweitzer. When friends asked him why, he said: “It is time to remove the symbols of science and replace them with the symbols of service.”
One might respond to Einstein that science has done so much for people in need, and improved our quality of life immensely. For example, computers are easing our individual lives – and in coping with population explosion as well. They emerged largely out of the Apollo mission to land men on the moon. So there is no need to apologize for Science. We have a computer lab at C4L to train those working in witness and service how to operate computer tools. Science and technology can be a blessing.
On the other hand, as Einstein got older and wiser, perhaps he was saying something about priorities? Here I go with a lot of alliteration! The three sectors in democratic societies are public, private and philanthropic. They each have a key ingredient – power, profit and putting it back.
Abraham Maslow is probably the best known industrial psychologist. His “hierarchy of needs” helps in many settings to prioritize needs. He said that once more basic “survival needs” were satisfied, that other “higher needs” emerged. The highest one in his pyramid was “self-actualization”. In recent decades, psychologists have come to agree that he missed one. Like that most distant planet which was not perceived early on, another even higher need appeared – putting it back. So you find not only the wealthiest people establishing Foundations, but a whole sector call Corporate Social Investment (CSI).
The Secret to Perfect Happiness
I read recently in a Krishna tract that the Supreme Personality has six opulences – all strength, all fame, all wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation.
Huh? Where did that last one come from?! The simple answer is that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Even Einstein figured it out!
I want to wish that Perfect Happiness in this C4L Bulletin to three families - one from England, one from the USA and the third from Canada. I will not name them, but they will know who they are and more especially the Lord knows them and sees their deeds.
Each of these families has been generous to C4L for many years. One gave their annual gift last July, the other in October, and the third in March of this year. I was so intrigued when I realized that they each support one of C4L’s three programmes.
The family from England have supported the Opportunities for Youth endeavours – Kids Clubs for OVC, camps, and advocacy projects at community level. They came to visit C4L for the first time in 2010. I noted that all three of these families have visited C4L. They particularly cherish the memory of visiting a Child Headed Household in a township setting.
It is ten years since the American family visited C4L, but they have not forgotten us. Their gift in late 2011 is what finally got C4L across that vital accreditation threshold! In fact, this is the first year that C4L started as an accredited training provider. Viva! This is opening new vistas for us in terms of capacity building especially youth. It is part of C4L’s core business, Organization Development. For example, the above-mentioned computer lab helps learners to discover how to use technology to strengthen their NGOs, CBOs and FBOs.
The family in Canada visited us for the second time last November. Their gift early this year followed on from the 2-day encounter we had together when they passed through. Their preference has been to support our “livelihood security” programme – offering both technical and entrepreneurship training to youth. The technical training includes plumbing, solar water heating and some of the newer “green occupations”. The focus on renewable energy is dear to them as they are a training provider themselves – for the oil industry. So what C4L’s solar programme is doing really resonates with them.
We wish each of these families that Perfect Happiness. I am not preaching Krishna now! But your generous gifts are clearly in that category of “renunciation”. You have sacrificed a lot. You are “putting it back” and that is why nonprofits exist in the scheme of Democracy.
Bricks and mortar
I have a simple image in my mind. C4L is a strong wall, built from bricks. These bricks are the larger projects, usually funded by grants from Foundations or government donors. The three C4L programmes are slated to receive some of these in 2012:
Rest assured that C4L has applied for far more “bricks” than this, but they have not arrived yet! There are several new initiatives in the “proposals pipeline”!
What families like those mentioned above give is the mortar that holds these bricks together. Not much of the wall is mortar, relative to face brick, so you don’t notice it. But when you think of all that webbing between the bricks, holding them fast, it adds up!
You cannot build a wall only with bricks. And it is not only the responsibility of corporates, foundations and government windows of funding to fund nonprofits.
One of the opulences of the Supreme Personality is renunciation. Einstein was right about replacing the symbols of science with the symbols of service.
Thank you to all of you, beyond the three families mentioned, for your generosity and your prayers. C4L is emerging from a “funding drought” but we are very optimistic about the future, in spite of high unemployment, a water emergency and an energy crisis!
Always remember your own highest need – putting it back.
One might respond to Einstein that science has done so much for people in need, and improved our quality of life immensely. For example, computers are easing our individual lives – and in coping with population explosion as well. They emerged largely out of the Apollo mission to land men on the moon. So there is no need to apologize for Science. We have a computer lab at C4L to train those working in witness and service how to operate computer tools. Science and technology can be a blessing.
On the other hand, as Einstein got older and wiser, perhaps he was saying something about priorities? Here I go with a lot of alliteration! The three sectors in democratic societies are public, private and philanthropic. They each have a key ingredient – power, profit and putting it back.
Abraham Maslow is probably the best known industrial psychologist. His “hierarchy of needs” helps in many settings to prioritize needs. He said that once more basic “survival needs” were satisfied, that other “higher needs” emerged. The highest one in his pyramid was “self-actualization”. In recent decades, psychologists have come to agree that he missed one. Like that most distant planet which was not perceived early on, another even higher need appeared – putting it back. So you find not only the wealthiest people establishing Foundations, but a whole sector call Corporate Social Investment (CSI).
The Secret to Perfect Happiness
I read recently in a Krishna tract that the Supreme Personality has six opulences – all strength, all fame, all wealth, knowledge, beauty and renunciation.
Huh? Where did that last one come from?! The simple answer is that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Even Einstein figured it out!
I want to wish that Perfect Happiness in this C4L Bulletin to three families - one from England, one from the USA and the third from Canada. I will not name them, but they will know who they are and more especially the Lord knows them and sees their deeds.
Each of these families has been generous to C4L for many years. One gave their annual gift last July, the other in October, and the third in March of this year. I was so intrigued when I realized that they each support one of C4L’s three programmes.
The family from England have supported the Opportunities for Youth endeavours – Kids Clubs for OVC, camps, and advocacy projects at community level. They came to visit C4L for the first time in 2010. I noted that all three of these families have visited C4L. They particularly cherish the memory of visiting a Child Headed Household in a township setting.
It is ten years since the American family visited C4L, but they have not forgotten us. Their gift in late 2011 is what finally got C4L across that vital accreditation threshold! In fact, this is the first year that C4L started as an accredited training provider. Viva! This is opening new vistas for us in terms of capacity building especially youth. It is part of C4L’s core business, Organization Development. For example, the above-mentioned computer lab helps learners to discover how to use technology to strengthen their NGOs, CBOs and FBOs.
The family in Canada visited us for the second time last November. Their gift early this year followed on from the 2-day encounter we had together when they passed through. Their preference has been to support our “livelihood security” programme – offering both technical and entrepreneurship training to youth. The technical training includes plumbing, solar water heating and some of the newer “green occupations”. The focus on renewable energy is dear to them as they are a training provider themselves – for the oil industry. So what C4L’s solar programme is doing really resonates with them.
We wish each of these families that Perfect Happiness. I am not preaching Krishna now! But your generous gifts are clearly in that category of “renunciation”. You have sacrificed a lot. You are “putting it back” and that is why nonprofits exist in the scheme of Democracy.
Bricks and mortar
I have a simple image in my mind. C4L is a strong wall, built from bricks. These bricks are the larger projects, usually funded by grants from Foundations or government donors. The three C4L programmes are slated to receive some of these in 2012:
- Organization Development - has applied to the MICT SETA for 20 Learnerships in End User Computing
- Opportunities for Youth – awaits the start of 25 Learnerships in Project Management from the Services SETA
- Livelihood Security Unit – awaits the start of 50 Learnerships in Business Practice, also from the Services SETA
Rest assured that C4L has applied for far more “bricks” than this, but they have not arrived yet! There are several new initiatives in the “proposals pipeline”!
What families like those mentioned above give is the mortar that holds these bricks together. Not much of the wall is mortar, relative to face brick, so you don’t notice it. But when you think of all that webbing between the bricks, holding them fast, it adds up!
You cannot build a wall only with bricks. And it is not only the responsibility of corporates, foundations and government windows of funding to fund nonprofits.
One of the opulences of the Supreme Personality is renunciation. Einstein was right about replacing the symbols of science with the symbols of service.
Thank you to all of you, beyond the three families mentioned, for your generosity and your prayers. C4L is emerging from a “funding drought” but we are very optimistic about the future, in spite of high unemployment, a water emergency and an energy crisis!
Always remember your own highest need – putting it back.
Friday, 1 May 2015
May Day
A good friend recently explained that - as a distress call - the term “May Day” is really from the French SVP m’aider meaning “please help me”. Well, this is only a call for help in the usual mode of a prayer letter…
Most of you (if not all) also get the intermittent C4L Bulletins, so you have heard that several government grants are immanent for C4L. That is a huge lift to me personally, although it is more of a medium term factor than short term relief. This is because government funding moves with glacial slowness.
However, these recent funding approvals should lift C4L to a new plateau in terms of government funding of training through “learnerships” (a combined work-study approach). This is part of C4L’s 10-year strategy for sustainability – and succession. I do not see C4L getting past me in its current incarnation. It has to outgrow the incarnation before it can outgrow me! So the ascent has begun…
I have often quoted the adage that the role of nonprofits leaders is “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable”. In the following poem, which I wrote recently, you can find me caught in this role of intermediation. Frankly it’s not a pleasant place to be. Comforting the afflicted has a nice “look and feel” to it - until you recognize the inherent pitfalls. But afflicting the comfortable can only be described as an occupational hazard for NGO directors.
You just have to call a spade a spade, as Jesus did when he met the rich young ruler. From one youth to another, he said that wealth was getting in the way of eligibility. So I am in good company in writing these lines, which I hope you will take to heart. Pray for me to deal with the angst that this role causes me. I think it is captured in the poetry?
Alienated By Entitlement
Only one letter before the F-word
Comes the E-word that nobody wants to hear...
In a global village
Who says that some continents
Can consume natural resources
Faster than others?
No creed condones it
But some still feel entitled
To leave the lights on when not in the room
To drive a gas-guzzler
Even to the parish church on Sunday mornings
Instead of walking
And to give less to Charity
When they hear that Aid begets Dependency
That there are millions who never get off the Dole
Some of them hooked on drugs
Whose sense of entitlement is deeper?
In a rainbow nation
Who is the most privileged?
Those who live behind walls topped with razor wire
Coasting along on accumulated capital?
Or those who don't have to perform to standards
Protected in their jobs by affirmative action
Overpaid and underproducing?
They both feel entitled
To live in their black enclave or white ghetto
Alienated by entitlement
In Sunday morning worship
Whose prayer rises fastest?
Who does God hear above all the clamour?
Not all are privileged with the gift of tongues
Not are entitled to miraculous healing
Thus saith the high and holy One
Who inhabits eternity
I dwell in the high and holy place
And also with him
Who is of a humble and contrite spirit
Is it humble to be so sure that your doctrine is sound?
Is it contrite to have shoes in your closet
That you never wear
When others go barefoot?
Eternal security feeds entitlement
When doctrine was corrected
Purgatory was abandoned
But blessed assurance crashed humility
The body language of a contrite spirit
Is to kneel prostrate before the altar
Not to raise both hands in Alleluias
Like the Pharisee
Praying beside the groveling tax collector
Who did God listen to?
The only thing gold is good for
Is paving the streets of heaven
Interlocking gold bricks as paving stones
Each one with an imprint embedded
Joe the Samaritan helped me after I was mugged
Frank of Assisi clothed me with family hand-me-downs
August of Halle paid my school fees at the Ragged School
William Booth helped me shake off my drug habit
Theresa of Calcutta comforted me before I died
The road to hell is also paved
With good intentions
Most of you (if not all) also get the intermittent C4L Bulletins, so you have heard that several government grants are immanent for C4L. That is a huge lift to me personally, although it is more of a medium term factor than short term relief. This is because government funding moves with glacial slowness.
However, these recent funding approvals should lift C4L to a new plateau in terms of government funding of training through “learnerships” (a combined work-study approach). This is part of C4L’s 10-year strategy for sustainability – and succession. I do not see C4L getting past me in its current incarnation. It has to outgrow the incarnation before it can outgrow me! So the ascent has begun…
I have often quoted the adage that the role of nonprofits leaders is “to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable”. In the following poem, which I wrote recently, you can find me caught in this role of intermediation. Frankly it’s not a pleasant place to be. Comforting the afflicted has a nice “look and feel” to it - until you recognize the inherent pitfalls. But afflicting the comfortable can only be described as an occupational hazard for NGO directors.
You just have to call a spade a spade, as Jesus did when he met the rich young ruler. From one youth to another, he said that wealth was getting in the way of eligibility. So I am in good company in writing these lines, which I hope you will take to heart. Pray for me to deal with the angst that this role causes me. I think it is captured in the poetry?
Alienated By Entitlement
Only one letter before the F-word
Comes the E-word that nobody wants to hear...
In a global village
Who says that some continents
Can consume natural resources
Faster than others?
No creed condones it
But some still feel entitled
To leave the lights on when not in the room
To drive a gas-guzzler
Even to the parish church on Sunday mornings
Instead of walking
And to give less to Charity
When they hear that Aid begets Dependency
That there are millions who never get off the Dole
Some of them hooked on drugs
Whose sense of entitlement is deeper?
In a rainbow nation
Who is the most privileged?
Those who live behind walls topped with razor wire
Coasting along on accumulated capital?
Or those who don't have to perform to standards
Protected in their jobs by affirmative action
Overpaid and underproducing?
They both feel entitled
To live in their black enclave or white ghetto
Alienated by entitlement
In Sunday morning worship
Whose prayer rises fastest?
Who does God hear above all the clamour?
Not all are privileged with the gift of tongues
Not are entitled to miraculous healing
Thus saith the high and holy One
Who inhabits eternity
I dwell in the high and holy place
And also with him
Who is of a humble and contrite spirit
Is it humble to be so sure that your doctrine is sound?
Is it contrite to have shoes in your closet
That you never wear
When others go barefoot?
Eternal security feeds entitlement
When doctrine was corrected
Purgatory was abandoned
But blessed assurance crashed humility
The body language of a contrite spirit
Is to kneel prostrate before the altar
Not to raise both hands in Alleluias
Like the Pharisee
Praying beside the groveling tax collector
Who did God listen to?
The only thing gold is good for
Is paving the streets of heaven
Interlocking gold bricks as paving stones
Each one with an imprint embedded
Joe the Samaritan helped me after I was mugged
Frank of Assisi clothed me with family hand-me-downs
August of Halle paid my school fees at the Ragged School
William Booth helped me shake off my drug habit
Theresa of Calcutta comforted me before I died
The road to hell is also paved
With good intentions
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