I have been reflecting on the mendicant orders. Just like no one wants to eat pig, but they will will eat pork, mendicant is a much more refined word for begging.
It started in Africa. An Egyptian, St Anthony was the first of the “desert fathers”. Around 300 AD he became a recluse, acting alone, not asking anyone to join him.
The first one to actually organize a monastery was Pachomius, about 320 AD, also in Egypt.
The first monastery in Europe was started by an African – St Athanasius – in about 335 AD. He was in exile, in what is now Germany.
St Martin started the first monastery in France around 350 AD.
St Augustine was the first to form a celibate community, in 395 AD. It was another first for Africa – in Hippo.
St Patrick Christianized Ireland starting in 432 AD, after ministry preparations in Gaul. His use of Abbeys was unprecedented – the Abbots were the main church leaders, as opposed to the European configuration which organized dioceses around bishops.
It was not until around 550 AD that Canadorius deployed monks for the first time in the translation of manuscripts.
During the so-called Dark Ages, around 575 AD, the Celtic Church re-evangelized Europe, founding 40 monasteries. Pope Gregory I noted that the Celtic monks were the first to dress differently, with robes and distinctive haircuts. He was the same pope who promoted the rigorous Benedictine Rules, which had been formulated by an Abbot by that name.
Bible Translation
Concurrent to these dates was another phenomenon – the emergence of Bibles in the vernacular. This is often associated with the much-later Protestant Reformation about the time that the printing press emerged, but the truth is that several translations had been undertaken long before that.
Armenia was the first nation to declare itself Christian, in 303 AD. By 400 AD, the Bible had been translated into that language.
Around 340 AD, Bishop Ulfilas translated the Bible for the Goths. This is at the root of Gothic influence over church and community life for many centuries – particularly in architecture.
When St Jerome translated Scripture into Latin, in 405 AD, it was still a live language. Too often his Vulgate is remembered as part of the “hocus pocus” syndrome that emerged - long after Latin ceased to be spoken in streets and homes, like Hebrew before it. But at the time this translating was done, it was part of a trend have scripture into the vernacular.
So it was only a question of time before Canadorius thought of deploying monks in the translation of manuscripts.
From Self-denial to Self-reliance
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum...
Ignatius, who was the first person to coin the phrase “catholic church”, was also the first to distinguish between the offices of bishop, elder (presbyter) and deacon. He saw the bishop reflecting God's role, the elders reflecting the role of church councils, and deacons reflecting the ministry of Jesus. Structure was starting to set in, although a quick look at I Timothy 3 and Acts 15 will confirm that this thinking was in line with practice and teaching in the early church. Like Tertullian, who coined the phrase “trinity”, such new concepts and structures were evolving during the turbulent era after the Apostles and before the conversion of the Emperor Constantine, in 312 AD.
In 361 AD, the last pagan emperor ascended. From 363 onwards, all emperors were Christian. At this time there were various bishops and none was paramount. Thus the rise and fall of various heresies and tendencies, as these were debated and defended.
By 390, St Ambrose, bishop of Milan, actually excommunicated the emperor! This was a far cry from a persecuted, underground early church.
Leo I became the first pope – in 440 – by declaring the supremacy of the bishop of Rome. By that time, Patrick was already evangelizing Ireland! There was no pope yet at the time that he set out from Europe to evangelize the emerald isle, where he had previously been captive in slavery.
Unraveling
The following centuries see the Roman Church asserting its predominance – over the emperor and the state, the Church of Ireland, the Eastern Church and even crusades against Islam. In the same way, the Vulgate became the paramount translation, even when and where most people no longer understood it! The self-denial of the desert fathers gave way to self-reliance in the monasteries (ora et labora – pray and work) and to self-indulgence on the part of bishops and popes. That is the background to the mendicant orders...
From Desert Fathers to Urban Brothers
St Francis of Assisi was quite an amazing person. He saw through it all; self-gratification had replaced self-sacrifice. He questioned the pursuit of wealth and political power – when most people received stones after asking for bread. He looked for a way that was opposite to institutionalization and alliance with the state. This meant that he had to steer clear of both the wealthy Bishops engaged in the intrigues of city life, and also the powerful Abbots whose isolation was no longer in a cave like St Anthony, but in a position that dominated rural life. He started a poverty movement. As Jesus had told his disciples: “If you want to be perfect, go and sell all you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven; then come and follow me.” (Matthew 19:21)
“Go and preach, 'The Kingdom of God is near!' Heal the sick, bring the dead back to life, heal those who suffer from dreaded epidemics, and drive out demons. You have received without paying, so give without being paid. Do not carry any gold, silver, or copper money in your pockets; do not carry a beggar's bag for the journey or an extra shirt or shoes or a stick. Workers should be given what they need.” (Matthew 10: 7 – 10)
It was a rebuke. There were portents of Ghandi's non-violence in his approach. It was called “mendicant” - that nice word for begging. The Franciscans called themselves brothers, not fathers. They did not retreat into the wilderness, they engaged in community servicve. They were activists, not just pietists. Their lifestyle was as much a witness as anything. It spoke volumes about their faith. They didn't just believe in miracles, they counted on them.
Post-Modern Mendicancy
We live in a different time, but there are parallels. I read in Wikipedia this week that Evangelicals now outnumber both Catholics and “main-line” denominations in America. They are only outnumbered by Fundamentalists. But the real discovery for me was that there is now a new movement called the “emerging churches”, whose members are referred to as “emergents”. While this came as a surprise to me, it is familiar, for the Africa-Initiated Churches (AICs) are a force to be reckoned with in my part of the world. The biggest denomination in South Africa is the Zionist church. It took the gospel from missionaries who came from Zion, Michigan (not Israel!) and like Francis in his era, it re-invented the church. Not only has Africa been Christianized, but Christianity has been Africanized. It sounds like these "emerging churches" are something of a rebuke to the institutional church as well.
But how can you translate scripture, preach (especially in the expensive media), heal, raise the dead, treat dreaded epidemics (especially when anti-retroviral drugs are so expensive) and drive out demons when you have no currency or commodity reserves? You can't even take a guitar case with your guitar – so bunking for money at the subway stations is ruled out! There goes the self-reliance factor of the monasteries.
Jesus has a plain explanation: “Workers should be given what they need.” Ya, but by whom? Government? Philanthropic foundations? Churches? Generous people? The beneficiaries?
In today's world, "riches in heaven" is a bit of a pie-in-the-sky-by-and-by. So does fundraising come across as a kind of mendicancy? To beg for resources, you no longer have to take an oath of poverty - the emphasis has shifted to tax deductibility. This certifies two things – that you are a bona fide nonprofit, but also that the donors themselves can benefit from being generous. It gets confusing. I just hope that the emergents can get a handle on it!
Thursday, 29 January 2015
Thursday, 15 January 2015
Disaster Watch
My first disaster-related assignment was in 1985 with World Vision. The Horn of Africa drought of 1983-1984 was so severe, it eclipsed what had happened in Mozambique. A combination of drought and detrimental government policies brought that communist country to its knees, and I suddenly found myself deployed in a huge Relief and Rehab operation, the biggest that WV had at the time. We handled a lot of food and other commodities. I was introduced to Logistics as a way of supporting peace, not war. We worked in conditions that were dangerous and uncertain.
One thing really impressed me during those years, before I moved on to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and started working the other end of it - in A Christian Response to Hunger. People's needs - when disaster strikes - are so basic, that Survival needs take over higher levels of need like Security and Socialization (vis Maslow's hierarchy of needs). As a result, one rarely even has time to talk to beneficiaries or comfort them – simply due to the tyranny of the urgent.
So I have been a disaster watcher ever since, and enjoyed some years of mentoring by Dr Ian Davis of the Oxford Centre for Disaster Studies. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it was a case of “Physician, heal thyself” because no country delivers more aid to other countries than the USA. And yet, it stumbled a bit, and learned a lot about managing major disasters at home instead of abroad.
Of course, in a natural calamity like a hurricane, even those charged with disaster response can't escape. Communication lines go down and emergency response teams can end up cut off and working somewhat autonomously, even though disaster management functions in theory like the military - in a fairly centralized, orchestrated way. (Logistics didn't – and did - find its way into disaster management by accident!) One such response team in New Orleans was stranded in a stadium for some days during that hurricane, and just kept on operating – with distinction – until their heroism was later discovered.
Last week I watched a CNN weatherman point out on the map a huge storm at sea that was headed in the direction of Burma. Then it hit the peninsula... Yesterday I heard that a school collapsed in China and killed 900 children. I suspected that there was more to this than the first reports... Today I watched the news at lunch time and they reported bombs exploding in Jaipur. Seven deaths were reported. But by supper time, this was up to dozens.
It really hit me – how the numbers keep rising in disasters. People are bereaved, bewildered and in a state of shock. But survival needs are paramount – medical care, drinking water and food. Perhaps out of sight some people in distress may receiving counseling or prayer, but the main focus is always to find more survivors and to get water and sanitation services working again.
The first plug I am going to make here is for you to give generously through those who are positioned to intervene. I see that World Vision was already working in Burma. I have also heard that EMAS (Evangelical Medical Aid Society) has representation in Hong Kong. God knows that they have been working in China for many years. Take your pick; don't miss your cue.
Slow Onset Disasters
In China, children went off to school yesterday morning routinely. By the end of the day, they were no more. Fast-onset disasters are a terrible thing, burying children in the rubble of a school.
Whereas the famine in Mozambique that was my doorway into disaster management took some time to cause loss of life. (Although in the end, over 100,000 lives were lost in Tete province alone.) This is different from an earthquake or cyclone. For one thing, you have some lead time and the opportunity to mitigate the effects of disasters. But there is a dark side to this – they can go unnoticed. They lack the shock-value that fast-onset disasters have. In this sense, they are even more cruel.
Without meaning to diminish what millions of people in Asia are trying to cope with this week, let me remind you that 60,000 people are dying every week in Africa of HIV/AIDS - 6,000 of these in South Africa alone. The loss of life every week in Africa is roughly equivalent to the combined cyclone and earthquake in the past week in Asia.
This has been going on for several years, and is likely to keep rising for another decade or more. It is not a case of school children failing to return home one day. It is manifested in other ways, like drops in life expectancy. In Swaziland, this has sunk to 28 years of age - hidden away in bedrooms in the shadows of a stigma.
I have wondered about the ethics of even writing this bulletin. I could be accused of insensitivity. Forgive me if you find it offensive. That is not where I am coming from. But those who can remember the media images of the Great Famine in Ethiopia know how deadly slow-onset disasters can also become.
One key aspect of dealing with the slow-onset disaster of HIV/AIDS is that there is no shortage of time for counseling. Blessed are the comforters, for they shall be comforted. It starts with giving advice to people to be tested voluntarily. It includes counseling those who are sero-positive in terms of their lifestyle and treatment options. Then there is comforting for those who are assailed by opportunistic infections, or who reach full-blown AIDS. It doesn't end there, either, there is care for the bereaved, especially when they are orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). They basically need therapy and huge doses of TLC.
Typically of disasters, the emphasis in response to HIV/AIDS is on things you can count. Condoms instead of sacks. Numbers treated with ARVs instead of number of tents distributed in a refugee camp. Morbidity and mortality rates.
The field of psycho-social support is relatively uncharted terrain. As such, it is not as high on the priority list as it is on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
OVC care is sometimes seen as the last vestige of the disaster, at the end of the line. In fact, it can also be seen as the first steps of reconstruction and disaster mitigation. For disaster is cyclical, not linear. Put another way, orphans need protection and conditions of safety more than they need institutions or adoption.
I know that mega-resources are needed urgently for Burma and China and I pray that the commodities needed can reach people in real time. Since I remember that detrimental government policies were one of the causes of famine in Mozambique, it does not surprise me that Burma's military dictators seem to be more part of the problem than part of the solution. The failings of government in South Africa, especially its delays in rolling out ARVs, are legendary, and continue to complicate getting access to adequate resources.
This month is Asia's month. Give to survival needs in Burma and China. But don't forget Africa next month, and don't ever forget the psycho-social needs of orphans and vulnerable children. These will keep rising for at least another decade. The scale is unprecedented, so much so that even the media and technology of today can't manage to convey it. The terrain is uncharted, so there is still danger and uncertainty. That is just a reminder that AIDS is a disaster, not just another STD.
One thing really impressed me during those years, before I moved on to the Canadian Foodgrains Bank and started working the other end of it - in A Christian Response to Hunger. People's needs - when disaster strikes - are so basic, that Survival needs take over higher levels of need like Security and Socialization (vis Maslow's hierarchy of needs). As a result, one rarely even has time to talk to beneficiaries or comfort them – simply due to the tyranny of the urgent.
So I have been a disaster watcher ever since, and enjoyed some years of mentoring by Dr Ian Davis of the Oxford Centre for Disaster Studies. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, it was a case of “Physician, heal thyself” because no country delivers more aid to other countries than the USA. And yet, it stumbled a bit, and learned a lot about managing major disasters at home instead of abroad.
Of course, in a natural calamity like a hurricane, even those charged with disaster response can't escape. Communication lines go down and emergency response teams can end up cut off and working somewhat autonomously, even though disaster management functions in theory like the military - in a fairly centralized, orchestrated way. (Logistics didn't – and did - find its way into disaster management by accident!) One such response team in New Orleans was stranded in a stadium for some days during that hurricane, and just kept on operating – with distinction – until their heroism was later discovered.
Last week I watched a CNN weatherman point out on the map a huge storm at sea that was headed in the direction of Burma. Then it hit the peninsula... Yesterday I heard that a school collapsed in China and killed 900 children. I suspected that there was more to this than the first reports... Today I watched the news at lunch time and they reported bombs exploding in Jaipur. Seven deaths were reported. But by supper time, this was up to dozens.
It really hit me – how the numbers keep rising in disasters. People are bereaved, bewildered and in a state of shock. But survival needs are paramount – medical care, drinking water and food. Perhaps out of sight some people in distress may receiving counseling or prayer, but the main focus is always to find more survivors and to get water and sanitation services working again.
The first plug I am going to make here is for you to give generously through those who are positioned to intervene. I see that World Vision was already working in Burma. I have also heard that EMAS (Evangelical Medical Aid Society) has representation in Hong Kong. God knows that they have been working in China for many years. Take your pick; don't miss your cue.
Slow Onset Disasters
In China, children went off to school yesterday morning routinely. By the end of the day, they were no more. Fast-onset disasters are a terrible thing, burying children in the rubble of a school.
Whereas the famine in Mozambique that was my doorway into disaster management took some time to cause loss of life. (Although in the end, over 100,000 lives were lost in Tete province alone.) This is different from an earthquake or cyclone. For one thing, you have some lead time and the opportunity to mitigate the effects of disasters. But there is a dark side to this – they can go unnoticed. They lack the shock-value that fast-onset disasters have. In this sense, they are even more cruel.
Without meaning to diminish what millions of people in Asia are trying to cope with this week, let me remind you that 60,000 people are dying every week in Africa of HIV/AIDS - 6,000 of these in South Africa alone. The loss of life every week in Africa is roughly equivalent to the combined cyclone and earthquake in the past week in Asia.
This has been going on for several years, and is likely to keep rising for another decade or more. It is not a case of school children failing to return home one day. It is manifested in other ways, like drops in life expectancy. In Swaziland, this has sunk to 28 years of age - hidden away in bedrooms in the shadows of a stigma.
I have wondered about the ethics of even writing this bulletin. I could be accused of insensitivity. Forgive me if you find it offensive. That is not where I am coming from. But those who can remember the media images of the Great Famine in Ethiopia know how deadly slow-onset disasters can also become.
One key aspect of dealing with the slow-onset disaster of HIV/AIDS is that there is no shortage of time for counseling. Blessed are the comforters, for they shall be comforted. It starts with giving advice to people to be tested voluntarily. It includes counseling those who are sero-positive in terms of their lifestyle and treatment options. Then there is comforting for those who are assailed by opportunistic infections, or who reach full-blown AIDS. It doesn't end there, either, there is care for the bereaved, especially when they are orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). They basically need therapy and huge doses of TLC.
Typically of disasters, the emphasis in response to HIV/AIDS is on things you can count. Condoms instead of sacks. Numbers treated with ARVs instead of number of tents distributed in a refugee camp. Morbidity and mortality rates.
The field of psycho-social support is relatively uncharted terrain. As such, it is not as high on the priority list as it is on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
OVC care is sometimes seen as the last vestige of the disaster, at the end of the line. In fact, it can also be seen as the first steps of reconstruction and disaster mitigation. For disaster is cyclical, not linear. Put another way, orphans need protection and conditions of safety more than they need institutions or adoption.
I know that mega-resources are needed urgently for Burma and China and I pray that the commodities needed can reach people in real time. Since I remember that detrimental government policies were one of the causes of famine in Mozambique, it does not surprise me that Burma's military dictators seem to be more part of the problem than part of the solution. The failings of government in South Africa, especially its delays in rolling out ARVs, are legendary, and continue to complicate getting access to adequate resources.
This month is Asia's month. Give to survival needs in Burma and China. But don't forget Africa next month, and don't ever forget the psycho-social needs of orphans and vulnerable children. These will keep rising for at least another decade. The scale is unprecedented, so much so that even the media and technology of today can't manage to convey it. The terrain is uncharted, so there is still danger and uncertainty. That is just a reminder that AIDS is a disaster, not just another STD.
Monday, 15 December 2014
We are the world! We are the children!
These memorable lyrics emerged from musicians in response to the Great Famine of Ethiopia in the early 1980s. Then came Live Aid, and with it the infamy of Bob Geldorf and the notoriety of Bono. The message was that people do care... These two fellows carried the torch for a long way. By the time of the Gleneagles summit, forgiving Third World Debt had become a rallying cry. Some significant gains were made by that Jubilee summit, and pledges that aid to Africa would double by 2010.
We have spent much of the time since trying to tap resources mainly for HIV/AIDS projects, and we see no evidence of such a scaling up. So it was a catharsis to hear Geldorf spouting off, after the recent G8 meetings in Germany. “A farce,” he called it, “just a big farce.” I second the emotion.
The rhetoric of assuring access to ARVs for all those who are infected by the HIV virus world-wide was a step in the right direction, but promises, promises ad nauseum...
It was encouraging to read recently in the letter to the Hebrews, that we should “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” (chapter 10, verse 24) This is mentioned between two other injunctions – one to “hold fast” (v 23) and another to attend worship regularly (v 25).
There is a connection among these three points. For it is holding fast to our human values and Christian convictions that anchors us. Awareness of the need to intervene arises from a clash between our cherished ideals and existing realities. That is what stimulates good deeds. But this can overwhelm you – so you need to connect with God regularly and there is no substitute for the assembly when you want to draw near to Him.
Leadership comes into it when that clash between values and unacceptable realities gets people stimulated. Intervention usually starts, of one form or another, as people make a start. Henry David Thoreau said: “You see things as they are, and you ask, Why?” I see things that never were, and I ask, Why not?” This is called envisioning. Leaders are sometimes called visionaries.
What He closes, no one can open
Why have the results of our envisioning been so disappointing?
Maybe “the Ask” is uncool?
Constant badgering to contribute to ministries of love and good deeds has not harmed Bono's reputation. Or Geldorf. Or Gates...
Maybe it's an excuse?
Are the target group really getting help? Or is too much going to the middle men, and women?
Maybe it's perceived as self serving?
Volunteers give a lot without monetary return. South Africa has recently introduced a minimum stipend for volunteers, to avoid exploitation. This reflects how many are needed, and is a reminder of a legacy that may be forgiven but is not forgotten.
Maybe it's too much about money and not enough about God?
We have always tried to root and express communiques in a God-fearing way. Last year's Childermas appeal was one of my favorites – blending leadership, children and church history in a unique way.
Maybe it's not our problem?
Whether you take a humanitarian set of core values or faith, any coherent set of convictions is going to make you realize that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The shift in the North, from a culture of consumption to a culture of contentment, is going slowly.
What he opens, no one can close
On a personal note, we have found it way more encouraging to deal with individuals, families and churches, than to deal with foundations or institutions. Especially if they are governmental. The politically correct approach these days is called sector-wide approaches (SWAps). It means that all actors in any given sector should pool the resources, and then allocate them in a sensible way. But this just concentrates resources at the centre. Well resourced agencies end up getting most of the new resources, proportionally. Smaller groups get sidelined. It locks up into a new caste system.
Worse yet, you have what the media in South Africa calls “race quotas”. Headline news last week in South Africa noted the effect of BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) policies on public hospitals. They can't staff up because white nationals with impeccable credentials are not hired lest the required racial balances are offended. So people needing surgery, for example, wait in long queues or go to India where they can get health care rapidly.
The combined effect of these two factors, together with the proliferation of “grantseekers” has hit C4L hard. For example, none of the 3 psycho-social support camps scheduled for next week have been funded by a donor. One was supposed to have been, but the pledge has been caught up in the public service strike this month. So we are only able to run two of the three camps programmed, and these are fully funded by individuals, families and churches. Most of these are in Canada, but not all. A team of volunteers is arriving today from Canada as well. This is the “vanguard” in terms of resourcing C4L's capacity building. We are being buoyed up by this response to our “stimulating people to love and good deeds”.
We are thankful to the families and churches that have expressed their love by contributing to these camps. Hillside Baptist in Vancouver, Christchurch in Campbellford and St George's in White River deserve special mention. We are glad to see some young people getting off Easy Street, and coming all this way to assist with psycho-social support for orphans and vulnerable children.
We recently watched a video series about the Apollo mission to land men on the moon. It was launched by John Kennedy in a speech where he said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and other things... not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” C4L's task is not easy, either. From planning to fundraising to service delivery, it is difficult and uncharted. But the results have put so many people “over the moon” that we are holding fast.
Newsflash
I drafted this letter on the eve of winter solstice. It is bleak midwinter here... frosty wind made moan. On the shortest day of the year, yesterday, the tectonic plates shifted. First the HIV/AIDS desk officer of our provincial government called to report that her HOD had just signed an approval for funding our OVC project, for a year. Within a couple of hours, an email arrived from Kellogg Foundation to announce the approval of multi-year funding for our core business – leadership and management development. C4L will be going on-line with this over the next two years, at long last, and this was the green light to move ahead with our own Apollo mission.
The fact that these both arrived within hours, the very same afternoon, is not insignificant, because both the core business of C4L and the OVC project get strong endorsements from these decisions.
“Choose to go to the moon, and other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
We have spent much of the time since trying to tap resources mainly for HIV/AIDS projects, and we see no evidence of such a scaling up. So it was a catharsis to hear Geldorf spouting off, after the recent G8 meetings in Germany. “A farce,” he called it, “just a big farce.” I second the emotion.
The rhetoric of assuring access to ARVs for all those who are infected by the HIV virus world-wide was a step in the right direction, but promises, promises ad nauseum...
It was encouraging to read recently in the letter to the Hebrews, that we should “consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.” (chapter 10, verse 24) This is mentioned between two other injunctions – one to “hold fast” (v 23) and another to attend worship regularly (v 25).
There is a connection among these three points. For it is holding fast to our human values and Christian convictions that anchors us. Awareness of the need to intervene arises from a clash between our cherished ideals and existing realities. That is what stimulates good deeds. But this can overwhelm you – so you need to connect with God regularly and there is no substitute for the assembly when you want to draw near to Him.
Leadership comes into it when that clash between values and unacceptable realities gets people stimulated. Intervention usually starts, of one form or another, as people make a start. Henry David Thoreau said: “You see things as they are, and you ask, Why?” I see things that never were, and I ask, Why not?” This is called envisioning. Leaders are sometimes called visionaries.
What He closes, no one can open
Why have the results of our envisioning been so disappointing?
Maybe “the Ask” is uncool?
Constant badgering to contribute to ministries of love and good deeds has not harmed Bono's reputation. Or Geldorf. Or Gates...
Maybe it's an excuse?
Are the target group really getting help? Or is too much going to the middle men, and women?
Maybe it's perceived as self serving?
Volunteers give a lot without monetary return. South Africa has recently introduced a minimum stipend for volunteers, to avoid exploitation. This reflects how many are needed, and is a reminder of a legacy that may be forgiven but is not forgotten.
Maybe it's too much about money and not enough about God?
We have always tried to root and express communiques in a God-fearing way. Last year's Childermas appeal was one of my favorites – blending leadership, children and church history in a unique way.
Maybe it's not our problem?
Whether you take a humanitarian set of core values or faith, any coherent set of convictions is going to make you realize that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The shift in the North, from a culture of consumption to a culture of contentment, is going slowly.
What he opens, no one can close
On a personal note, we have found it way more encouraging to deal with individuals, families and churches, than to deal with foundations or institutions. Especially if they are governmental. The politically correct approach these days is called sector-wide approaches (SWAps). It means that all actors in any given sector should pool the resources, and then allocate them in a sensible way. But this just concentrates resources at the centre. Well resourced agencies end up getting most of the new resources, proportionally. Smaller groups get sidelined. It locks up into a new caste system.
Worse yet, you have what the media in South Africa calls “race quotas”. Headline news last week in South Africa noted the effect of BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) policies on public hospitals. They can't staff up because white nationals with impeccable credentials are not hired lest the required racial balances are offended. So people needing surgery, for example, wait in long queues or go to India where they can get health care rapidly.
The combined effect of these two factors, together with the proliferation of “grantseekers” has hit C4L hard. For example, none of the 3 psycho-social support camps scheduled for next week have been funded by a donor. One was supposed to have been, but the pledge has been caught up in the public service strike this month. So we are only able to run two of the three camps programmed, and these are fully funded by individuals, families and churches. Most of these are in Canada, but not all. A team of volunteers is arriving today from Canada as well. This is the “vanguard” in terms of resourcing C4L's capacity building. We are being buoyed up by this response to our “stimulating people to love and good deeds”.
We are thankful to the families and churches that have expressed their love by contributing to these camps. Hillside Baptist in Vancouver, Christchurch in Campbellford and St George's in White River deserve special mention. We are glad to see some young people getting off Easy Street, and coming all this way to assist with psycho-social support for orphans and vulnerable children.
We recently watched a video series about the Apollo mission to land men on the moon. It was launched by John Kennedy in a speech where he said: “We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and other things... not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” C4L's task is not easy, either. From planning to fundraising to service delivery, it is difficult and uncharted. But the results have put so many people “over the moon” that we are holding fast.
Newsflash
I drafted this letter on the eve of winter solstice. It is bleak midwinter here... frosty wind made moan. On the shortest day of the year, yesterday, the tectonic plates shifted. First the HIV/AIDS desk officer of our provincial government called to report that her HOD had just signed an approval for funding our OVC project, for a year. Within a couple of hours, an email arrived from Kellogg Foundation to announce the approval of multi-year funding for our core business – leadership and management development. C4L will be going on-line with this over the next two years, at long last, and this was the green light to move ahead with our own Apollo mission.
The fact that these both arrived within hours, the very same afternoon, is not insignificant, because both the core business of C4L and the OVC project get strong endorsements from these decisions.
“Choose to go to the moon, and other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”
Saturday, 29 November 2014
Kind, blameless, pure, astute
With the kind Thou dost show Thyself kind
With the blameless Thou dost show Thyself blameless
With the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure
With the crooked Thy dost show Thyself astute
- Psalm 18: 25 & 26
Kindness is becoming ever more prevalent, although cruelty is far from extinguished. When the richest men in the world like Bill Gates, the most popular like Bono and the most influential like Bill Clinton personify “going from strength to strength” by moving beyond wealth, acclaim and power to philanthropy and altruism – kindness is winning.
The blameless are hard to find. Even Jesus was blamed – for our transgressions. He took the rap, leaving us blameless. If we – like him – are not part of the solution, then we are still part of the problem. What in the world are we doing, for Christ's sake?!
The pure are outnumbered. The greatest of human achievements – the Internet – is crowded with smut and filth. Space exploration has left litter floating precariously above us. Pollution has reached ozone proportions. But there are still a few who have proven incorruptible – Theresa, Tutu, Romero and Stott. Not to mention volunteers who push beached whales back into the deep.
Corruption is rampant. Who would have thought that this points the psalmist to One who would be divinely astute? But there would be no crooked if there were no plumb line. Performance to standards means that there has to be a criteria – and a Judge. Bono says in a recent essay in TIME magazine that the West's greatness depends on how it deals with Africa....
Allow me to paraphrase the psalmist for our generation:
With wonder drugs Thou didst show Thy mighty hand
I am not suggesting that donors are crooked. But they certainly are fickle! Our recent experience has made us realize that we should depend totally on our Provider, even for our breath of life. He is totally dependable. But sometimes we lose sight of this and start relying too much on ourselves and our skills and techniques, until we see - in the unexpected -what He is like.
No doubt the greatest problem in Africa today is the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We began to get involved in training adult practitioners in this respect several years ago, and have enjoyed several consecutive grants from government donors in both South Africa and Canada. To take what we are doing with some success to scale, we decided to ramp it up and approached the two largest windows of AIDS funding in today's world...
First, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the agency handling George Bush's $15 billion pledge. It has been well run, and I attended a workshop in Denver last May, to become eligible to apply under its New Partners Initiative (NPI). We did not make the first cut, but were encouraged to re-apply, which we did on November 15th. Then suddenly the Republican majority in U.S. Congress was replaced by Democrats who imposed spending limits. We were due to receive a reply from NPI by January 15th, but it has yet to materialize. The reason is that the Democrats introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) which has complicated matters and slowed down the speed-of-spend. We are still waiting for an answer...
Second, the Global Fund in Geneva was set up after the international AIDS conference in Bankok seven years ago, on a multi-lateral basis. This year it has reached its Round 7. I recently attended a briefing in Pretoria hosted by the South Africa National AIDS Council (SANAC) giving NGOs the guidelines to apply. They mentioned that money approved last September for NGOs at the Round 6 meeting in Geneva has yet to reach South Africa. They told us to assume that Round 7 funding will not be available until after June next year! This is just more evidence of my on-going contention that AIDS is not being treated as an Emergency, certainly not by the U.N. which has included it among the Millennium Development Goals. We have worked hard to prepare a submission, in spite of several bottlenecks in our province, but meanwhile donor funding has dried up.
So we have been thrown back on total dependence on God's provision. We do have a baseline of revenue generated by the conference facility, but that just keeps the wheels turning, it does not finance programme or expansion. For example, it will not cover running psycho-social support camps for orphans and vulnerable children in June. The two agencies that we had hoped might contribute (Rotary International and Stephen Lewis Foundation) have indicated that funds will not be available in time for this. I get frustrated as I see needs increasing and resources shrinking. What happened to the G8 pledge at Gleneagles in 2005 to double foreign aid in five years?!
At the end of his autobiography, Nelson Mandela reflected that he had gone to prison because he had come to realize that gaining his own personal freedom was not enough - he had to help his people gain their freedom too. But while in prison he also realized that the oppressors, not just the oppressed, had been robbed of their dignity by apartheid, and that they too needed liberation. He wrote that his mission, when he finished that long walk to freedom out of prison, was to free both the oppressed and the oppressors.
Similarly, I have come to see the mission of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership as more than just adult education in Africa for human service practitioners. There is also a dimension of educating “informed learners” in North America and Europe. In the age of globalization, while they may not be oppressors – is there any dignity on either side when the disparities are so glaring?
We need to challenge the “haves” to share the wealth with the “have nots”. So this is an appeal for contributions to the psycho-social support camps in late June and July for orphans and vulnerable children. C4L-Canada is sending another team of volunteers and has secured funding for one camp. We need to stretch that to two, or even three camps. It costs about $320 Canadian per camper. C4L is running on empty at this stage and cannot host 150 campers without additional resources. We will only ask once, there will be no further appeals. But the need is acute. One more paraphrase of the psalm pertains: With the generous Thou dost show Thyself generous.
With the blameless Thou dost show Thyself blameless
With the pure Thou dost show Thyself pure
With the crooked Thy dost show Thyself astute
- Psalm 18: 25 & 26
Kindness is becoming ever more prevalent, although cruelty is far from extinguished. When the richest men in the world like Bill Gates, the most popular like Bono and the most influential like Bill Clinton personify “going from strength to strength” by moving beyond wealth, acclaim and power to philanthropy and altruism – kindness is winning.
The blameless are hard to find. Even Jesus was blamed – for our transgressions. He took the rap, leaving us blameless. If we – like him – are not part of the solution, then we are still part of the problem. What in the world are we doing, for Christ's sake?!
The pure are outnumbered. The greatest of human achievements – the Internet – is crowded with smut and filth. Space exploration has left litter floating precariously above us. Pollution has reached ozone proportions. But there are still a few who have proven incorruptible – Theresa, Tutu, Romero and Stott. Not to mention volunteers who push beached whales back into the deep.
Corruption is rampant. Who would have thought that this points the psalmist to One who would be divinely astute? But there would be no crooked if there were no plumb line. Performance to standards means that there has to be a criteria – and a Judge. Bono says in a recent essay in TIME magazine that the West's greatness depends on how it deals with Africa....
Allow me to paraphrase the psalmist for our generation:
With wonder drugs Thou didst show Thy mighty hand
- radiology
- vaccines
- antibiotics
- under communism (the Second World)
- under despots in the Third World
- under run-away affirmative action that borders on racism
- Martin Luther King, Jack & Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X, Diana
- Romero
- Steve Biko & the journalist recently killed in Zimbabwe after filming beaten up Tsvangurai
- They are the water, Thou art the well
I am not suggesting that donors are crooked. But they certainly are fickle! Our recent experience has made us realize that we should depend totally on our Provider, even for our breath of life. He is totally dependable. But sometimes we lose sight of this and start relying too much on ourselves and our skills and techniques, until we see - in the unexpected -what He is like.
No doubt the greatest problem in Africa today is the HIV/AIDS pandemic. We began to get involved in training adult practitioners in this respect several years ago, and have enjoyed several consecutive grants from government donors in both South Africa and Canada. To take what we are doing with some success to scale, we decided to ramp it up and approached the two largest windows of AIDS funding in today's world...
First, the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is the agency handling George Bush's $15 billion pledge. It has been well run, and I attended a workshop in Denver last May, to become eligible to apply under its New Partners Initiative (NPI). We did not make the first cut, but were encouraged to re-apply, which we did on November 15th. Then suddenly the Republican majority in U.S. Congress was replaced by Democrats who imposed spending limits. We were due to receive a reply from NPI by January 15th, but it has yet to materialize. The reason is that the Democrats introduced a Continuing Resolution (CR) which has complicated matters and slowed down the speed-of-spend. We are still waiting for an answer...
Second, the Global Fund in Geneva was set up after the international AIDS conference in Bankok seven years ago, on a multi-lateral basis. This year it has reached its Round 7. I recently attended a briefing in Pretoria hosted by the South Africa National AIDS Council (SANAC) giving NGOs the guidelines to apply. They mentioned that money approved last September for NGOs at the Round 6 meeting in Geneva has yet to reach South Africa. They told us to assume that Round 7 funding will not be available until after June next year! This is just more evidence of my on-going contention that AIDS is not being treated as an Emergency, certainly not by the U.N. which has included it among the Millennium Development Goals. We have worked hard to prepare a submission, in spite of several bottlenecks in our province, but meanwhile donor funding has dried up.
So we have been thrown back on total dependence on God's provision. We do have a baseline of revenue generated by the conference facility, but that just keeps the wheels turning, it does not finance programme or expansion. For example, it will not cover running psycho-social support camps for orphans and vulnerable children in June. The two agencies that we had hoped might contribute (Rotary International and Stephen Lewis Foundation) have indicated that funds will not be available in time for this. I get frustrated as I see needs increasing and resources shrinking. What happened to the G8 pledge at Gleneagles in 2005 to double foreign aid in five years?!
At the end of his autobiography, Nelson Mandela reflected that he had gone to prison because he had come to realize that gaining his own personal freedom was not enough - he had to help his people gain their freedom too. But while in prison he also realized that the oppressors, not just the oppressed, had been robbed of their dignity by apartheid, and that they too needed liberation. He wrote that his mission, when he finished that long walk to freedom out of prison, was to free both the oppressed and the oppressors.
Similarly, I have come to see the mission of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership as more than just adult education in Africa for human service practitioners. There is also a dimension of educating “informed learners” in North America and Europe. In the age of globalization, while they may not be oppressors – is there any dignity on either side when the disparities are so glaring?
We need to challenge the “haves” to share the wealth with the “have nots”. So this is an appeal for contributions to the psycho-social support camps in late June and July for orphans and vulnerable children. C4L-Canada is sending another team of volunteers and has secured funding for one camp. We need to stretch that to two, or even three camps. It costs about $320 Canadian per camper. C4L is running on empty at this stage and cannot host 150 campers without additional resources. We will only ask once, there will be no further appeals. But the need is acute. One more paraphrase of the psalm pertains: With the generous Thou dost show Thyself generous.
Saturday, 1 March 2014
Viva Philanthropy!
Generosity was a fact of life long before the industrial revolution -
there have been plenty of kind and altruistic people over the ages.
But philanthropy as we know it is a construct of capitalism. It is the
“feedback” loop that allowed great capitalists - better know by
posterity as great philanthropists – to give back a lot of what they
gained from economic success. Names like Carnegie and Ford come to mind
– the role models for today's foundations set up by the likes of Bill
Gates, Mark Shuttleworth and so forth.
In the years following the demise of communism (the Second World), philanthropy was viewed, in the words of one charity worker, as a “cynical act of capitalism”. The implication was that if it were not for capitalism, the inequities that underpin philanthropy would not exist. That attitude is really a socialist hang-over – a good example of sour grapes.
A term has emerged that is very familiar – corporate social investment or CSI. This is evidence that philanthropy is more than a personal inclination or agenda. It is a system. Corporates takes profits from society – so they plow back “social investments” through foundations set up for this purpose. This is more than personal, it is structural.
A good example of this is a South African Internet site called Greater Good. Visit it on <www.GGSA.co.za> It is a place where individuals or corporates can review various charities and contribute. GGSA has boiled it down to four ways of giving – money, goods, time (i.e. volunteering) or buyer-related spin-offs. For example, when you buy coffee at Starbucks, you help out small-scale coffee growers in targeted countries. By the way, C4L is now registered with Greater Good, so one can give (anonymously if preferred) to its work through this mechanism.
The point is that philanthropy is taking hold. This is good to see, because one way of stating the ambition of C4L would be: “A secure future for African philanthropy”. The mission of capacity building has always been to reach an end where the “third sector” (not government or commerce which are the other two sectors) is functioning as well as the other two. That is why it needs quality leaders and managers, after all.
That is why we rejoiced this week to see the establishment on Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday of a group of elders for the Global Village. Indeed! It was nice to see Jimmy Carter there, and Kofi Annan too. Also Richard Branson, an eminent philanthropist, and others representing the arts. This was more than another extravaganza for Africa's favorite son. The tectonic plates of African economics shifted. This was deeper than politics, this was like an upper house being formed. The African Union becomes a lower house of state representatives engaged in day-to-day affairs. It met recently to debate Gadaffi's idea of a United States of Africa with one president over all. That paled in significance to the global eldership of eminent persons. Mandela is now at senator level, no mere politician. He is still shaping Africa's future, and that is reassuring in the light of the endless slugging matches between mere politicians like Zuma and Mbeki.
Ever since the Second World secured its footholds in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Angola, the socialist model has been on the rise in Africa. Even with the collapse of communism elsewhere, Africa has not let go of its structures easily. The efforts to scrap socialism as a development model have been largely imposed. Even Stephen Lewis in his book Race Against Time lambastes the way that this was done through structural adjustment programmes and all.
So it is good to see capitalism emerging in a way that is fresh and upbeat. Philanthropy, let there be no doubt, comes with capitalism. It is part of that model. When you see an old ANC stalwart like Cyril Ramaphosa establishing the Shanduka Foundation you realize that while the ruling alliance may still include the SA Communist Party, it certainly has other strong elements in it as well. These support a more sensible approach – strong economic development with a “feedback loop” for social investments. So when you see philanthropy on the rise in the very same week that the SACP suggested that Mittal Steel and Sasol should both be nationalized, you realize that the ANC is trying its best to hold together some very diverse points of view. Its youth league in particular is seen as militant in terms of leaning to the left.
So the emergence of a good African tradition of village elders for the global village is wonderful. It challenges that cynical view of philanthropy that socialists espouse. It says no to socialist ideology and yes to a market-driven economy with a strong element of corporate responsibility and social investment.
Dave Thomas is the founder of Wendy's. His success led in due course to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Through its influence, it is estimated that in 2007 fully half of all employers in the USA provide benefits to employees that will adopt. Within a few years, it will be standard in America for an employer to offer such benefits to prospective employees – in part because Dave Thomas Foundation publishes a list of adoption-friendly workplaces. Africa should follow suit - not just because of its “deluge of orphans” but because it is this kind of deep social ethic that is contained in today's market economics.
This becomes a challenge to the so-called “black diamonds”. That is, to those emerging capitalists who are amassing fortunes in Africa. Tokyo Sexwale and Patrice Motsepe are among the South Africans at the forefront of this new philanthropy. People like them have the inequities of apartheid in such recent memory that their social conscience will not be dulled by wealth. Sexwale spent time on Robben Island with Madiba, after all. Success is just going to fuel his social conscience, as it has done for people like Bono, Gates and Warren Buffett.
So while it was nice to see Pele back on the football pitch on the occasion of Mandela's 89th birthday, the real prize was to see the gathering of elders or statesmen seeking peace and prosperity. Too often, African politicians are looking for how they can benefit from their positions of influence. That is the dynamic driving Africa's corruption levels... an all-too-familiar African proverb says: A goat eats where it is tethered. To complete the metaphor, a goat is eventually prepared to be a feast – to feed people. That is when it gives back, providing nutrition and satisfaction for the hungry.
It is nice to see African leaders who – in looking out for others - are no longer bogged down in socialist rhetoric and doctrine. Long live the elders of our global village, and happy birthday Nelson Mandela!
In the years following the demise of communism (the Second World), philanthropy was viewed, in the words of one charity worker, as a “cynical act of capitalism”. The implication was that if it were not for capitalism, the inequities that underpin philanthropy would not exist. That attitude is really a socialist hang-over – a good example of sour grapes.
A term has emerged that is very familiar – corporate social investment or CSI. This is evidence that philanthropy is more than a personal inclination or agenda. It is a system. Corporates takes profits from society – so they plow back “social investments” through foundations set up for this purpose. This is more than personal, it is structural.
A good example of this is a South African Internet site called Greater Good. Visit it on <www.GGSA.co.za> It is a place where individuals or corporates can review various charities and contribute. GGSA has boiled it down to four ways of giving – money, goods, time (i.e. volunteering) or buyer-related spin-offs. For example, when you buy coffee at Starbucks, you help out small-scale coffee growers in targeted countries. By the way, C4L is now registered with Greater Good, so one can give (anonymously if preferred) to its work through this mechanism.
The point is that philanthropy is taking hold. This is good to see, because one way of stating the ambition of C4L would be: “A secure future for African philanthropy”. The mission of capacity building has always been to reach an end where the “third sector” (not government or commerce which are the other two sectors) is functioning as well as the other two. That is why it needs quality leaders and managers, after all.
That is why we rejoiced this week to see the establishment on Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday of a group of elders for the Global Village. Indeed! It was nice to see Jimmy Carter there, and Kofi Annan too. Also Richard Branson, an eminent philanthropist, and others representing the arts. This was more than another extravaganza for Africa's favorite son. The tectonic plates of African economics shifted. This was deeper than politics, this was like an upper house being formed. The African Union becomes a lower house of state representatives engaged in day-to-day affairs. It met recently to debate Gadaffi's idea of a United States of Africa with one president over all. That paled in significance to the global eldership of eminent persons. Mandela is now at senator level, no mere politician. He is still shaping Africa's future, and that is reassuring in the light of the endless slugging matches between mere politicians like Zuma and Mbeki.
Ever since the Second World secured its footholds in Ethiopia, Mozambique and Angola, the socialist model has been on the rise in Africa. Even with the collapse of communism elsewhere, Africa has not let go of its structures easily. The efforts to scrap socialism as a development model have been largely imposed. Even Stephen Lewis in his book Race Against Time lambastes the way that this was done through structural adjustment programmes and all.
So it is good to see capitalism emerging in a way that is fresh and upbeat. Philanthropy, let there be no doubt, comes with capitalism. It is part of that model. When you see an old ANC stalwart like Cyril Ramaphosa establishing the Shanduka Foundation you realize that while the ruling alliance may still include the SA Communist Party, it certainly has other strong elements in it as well. These support a more sensible approach – strong economic development with a “feedback loop” for social investments. So when you see philanthropy on the rise in the very same week that the SACP suggested that Mittal Steel and Sasol should both be nationalized, you realize that the ANC is trying its best to hold together some very diverse points of view. Its youth league in particular is seen as militant in terms of leaning to the left.
So the emergence of a good African tradition of village elders for the global village is wonderful. It challenges that cynical view of philanthropy that socialists espouse. It says no to socialist ideology and yes to a market-driven economy with a strong element of corporate responsibility and social investment.
Dave Thomas is the founder of Wendy's. His success led in due course to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. Through its influence, it is estimated that in 2007 fully half of all employers in the USA provide benefits to employees that will adopt. Within a few years, it will be standard in America for an employer to offer such benefits to prospective employees – in part because Dave Thomas Foundation publishes a list of adoption-friendly workplaces. Africa should follow suit - not just because of its “deluge of orphans” but because it is this kind of deep social ethic that is contained in today's market economics.
This becomes a challenge to the so-called “black diamonds”. That is, to those emerging capitalists who are amassing fortunes in Africa. Tokyo Sexwale and Patrice Motsepe are among the South Africans at the forefront of this new philanthropy. People like them have the inequities of apartheid in such recent memory that their social conscience will not be dulled by wealth. Sexwale spent time on Robben Island with Madiba, after all. Success is just going to fuel his social conscience, as it has done for people like Bono, Gates and Warren Buffett.
So while it was nice to see Pele back on the football pitch on the occasion of Mandela's 89th birthday, the real prize was to see the gathering of elders or statesmen seeking peace and prosperity. Too often, African politicians are looking for how they can benefit from their positions of influence. That is the dynamic driving Africa's corruption levels... an all-too-familiar African proverb says: A goat eats where it is tethered. To complete the metaphor, a goat is eventually prepared to be a feast – to feed people. That is when it gives back, providing nutrition and satisfaction for the hungry.
It is nice to see African leaders who – in looking out for others - are no longer bogged down in socialist rhetoric and doctrine. Long live the elders of our global village, and happy birthday Nelson Mandela!
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