my new blog

If you subscribe to this blog, you will find more from me these days on geoffwestlake.com.  It is more my work site. It’s also a wordpress blog, so subscribe to that as well. 

 This site will become more for my darker, harder, edgier comments.

Cheers.
g

The problem’s with the model

Believe me, I know this sounds arrogant. But this is so important, I have to say it. Most of the problems that professional church starters & leaders face – we don’t have those problems in Cheers! Conclusion: these problems are inherrent in the model they’re using, not the mission itself. The problem is with the model! 

I was in a ‘church planters conference recently. — Well, yes, we are ’sort of’ planting a church – well, at least if you bend the definition of church a bit: it’s not a building, not an institution, not a church service. But it is certainly an ecclesia – which is the word often translated as church. In the conference, they asked us to write a definition of church.  

Definition of ecclesia:

A Christian gathering to encourage core beliefs* and practices,* to transform their local community* (according to the “Kingdom of God.”)*

*- beliefs: God, Bible, Sin, Incarnation, Cross, Resurrection, Holy Spirit, Obey KofG teachings
*- practices: God-stuff, Pray. Learn, Love, Serve, Explain, (in the world)
*- Kingdom of God (all Christ’s teachings, eg. Sermon on Mt, Great Commandment, Great Commission.)
*- local community – further afield: see traveling bands (below)

PS. There are also Apostolic bands: sent by ecclesias, to go further afield, to spark, plant &/or develop new ecclesias. Note: Apostolic bands should be used especially by church plants!

Anyway, back to the conference.

They were talking about planting a church – as in train your leaders, get a venue, market yourselves, practice your service,  start a service, draw-a-wage, “church.” 

And they were saying – “let’s list the challenges we face in church planting.” Here’s the list:

X finances (wage & overheads, viability)
X time away from the family
Y different visions 
X children losing church friends 
X boundaries – to keep church people from overwhelming you / your family
X use of the family home (good to keep a church room separate from the home)
X you have to fill all the gaps: admin, ushering, speaker, leader, carer 
Y Spiritual warfare
X isolation
X pressure on family (goldfish bowl – the professional Christian’s family)
Y Blindspots (I added this one.)

The ones marked “Y” are the only ones we really face. The rest are really only problems faced by those using that kind of model. 

So you have to ask: why keep doing that model???

Seven Deadly Sins: “me and my shadow”

We all have blind spots, where we find ourselves in destructive patterns before we know it… I’ve noticed that by the time I do eventually recognize what’s happening and start to get cleaned up in one area, another sin is already in my blindspot!

So I started thinking through the seven deadly sins to see what might be next!

 The sins: Listed in the same order used by both Pope Gregory the Great in the 6th century, and later by Dante Alighieri in his epic poem The Divine Comedy, the seven deadly sins are as follows: luxuria (extravagance, later lust), gula (gluttony), avaritia (greed), acedia (sloth), ira (wrath), invidia (envy), and superbia (pride). Each of the seven deadly sins has an opposite among the corresponding seven holy virtues (sometimes also referred to as the contrary virtues). In parallel order to the sins they oppose, the seven holy virtues are chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness, and humility.  - (Wikipedia)

The Seven Deadly Sins: “me and my shadow”

When I was a young man, I assumed everyone suffered with lust as the un-beatable sin. Then I heard an older man say, “not everyone,” and I began to imagine what it might be like to live without enslavement to lust. I started using www.xxxchurch.com. And in “Blue Like Jazz,” Don Miller describes the naked female as a sight beyond any vista he’d ever seen, and likewise I began to imagine what it might be like to behold feminine beauty without sinning. As years went by, and I married & take in the vista, lust became less of a problem to me.

With some thoughtfulness, Sal & I bought a house. I work for a Christian agency on ‘staff support’ – meaning people donate to my salary – so it’s not much. After a few years and blessings we had a few investments. We chose to do that so we could make some money for Opportunity International Trust Banks (which generate micro-finance in poverty stricken areas) and to other workers and global needs. If we had not made those investments we’d have nothing to give – we’d still be simply living hand to mouth. But one day I turned around and saw greed, right there in the mirror! Well we made sure we figured out when enough was enough, and cashed out when the investments had fruited enough! Plus we had a bushfire in 2002 – we could see the flames towering over the trees next to the house as we drove away with everything that mattered in the car – the rest could burn. It was a very liberating experience to feel and know that we were detached from all that ‘stuff’.

Meanwhile, we had some kids, and they needed bathing and daddy time, and so footy training was impractical for me. No more footy. This sacrifice of my health was a conscious decision on my part for the sake of the needs of my kids. But as the years went by energy level decreased, and some nights it was all I could do to keep my eyes open in front of the TV. I run a neighbors’ network called Cheers. It runs on being intentional about getting off our butts and meeting the neighbors, and getting involved. And yet I began to realize sloth was in me too. I still have relaxing nights, but I make sure I go to the meetings I’ve organized, and ring mates to catch up, and make myself do the things I said I’d do. I put it in my diary. And I’ve also started to exercise again, even if it is only for 7 minutes a day… and the energy is returning.

Meanwhile, I have always enjoyed flavours – I’ve often joked that if I had to lose all but one of the five senses, then I’d choose to retain “taste.” Particularly the big aromatic flavours – olives, anchovies, pepperoni, shiraz, guiness – my coffee has to be strong black with a dark brown crème. I savour flavours, like the mouse in the movie Ratatouille. But in 2007/8 I started to catch myself going for seconds of the really tastiest stuff. And then thirds. One time I took a whole bowl of leftovers which I suddenly realized was supposed to be a side-dish for many. Could this be gluttony? While I was thinking about this, I turned 40, and noticed a little middle-age spread. Maybe it could be justified, but I visited the doctor in Nov 2008, and he said my cholesterol was too high at 6.4. And I learned that fat around my organs was stressing them. So I started the Every Other Day Diet, and 7 Minute Muscle programs.

So what’s next?

I already have an ongoing struggle with pride. I work hard at what I’m doing, and do what I do because I think it’s the right thing to do – integrity is a big deal to me, living an integrated / wholistic life, that is right under God, heart, mind, soul and strength. And so the down side is that I think I’m right – which means I can appear arrogant, as if I have ‘the’ right way. Of course I know there’s not one single right way to think about things, but the way I’m thinking about it at any given point is the right-est I can do for now, and so I can do no other than live that way. But it means I can be slow to realize when someone else has a better way, or is more right than me. And that looks a lot like pride! Add to that, that some people react to the alpha-male traits I have, as if that’s arrogant anyway. Add to that, that I am in a job that requires me to ‘tell’ people some things they may not know, things that I think are right. Add to that, that sometimes I have offended people by an insensitive comment or gesture, and you’ve got a cocktail of arrogance there. (Sorry if you’ve been on the receiving end.) So I do try to listen and learn from everyone. My father-in-law is my great model for me. He seems to assume that because he is “just a lowly farmer” that he must not know that much, and everyone else must have more insight than he. So he listens carefully to everyone, and asks for their wisdom on everything. And over the years that enquiry and reflection has made him a very wise man indeed – if only he would trust that a bit more.

I also have my battles with wrath: I suffer from an inherited form of depression, that made my granddad a mean drunk when he tried to self-medicate back in his day. Thankfully effexor is available now, but I know what it is to be enraged. Plus, I don’t take it very well when people in power treat me like an imbecile. try to write off what I’m saying with lame one-liners that really make no sense, or caricature what I’m saying as silly. It’s disrespectful, it treats me like an idiot, and I see red – the blood rushes to my brain so fast it makes my eyes rattle. The sense of shaming is the worst thing for me. (I’m sure a psyc with a little knowledge could have a field day with that.)

That only leaves envy. I suppose I don’t think in envious terms because I feel I’ve been blessed with so much – I have a meaningful job, a great wife who is truly my partner, 4 beautiful kids, more ‘stuff’ than we need, a fulfilling relationship with God, a very rich education (formally and informally), varied life experiences. And I’m very grateful for it all, knowing there’s no reason I was blessed with it, and aware that to whom much is given much is expected. So – maybe envy is my blind spot! Envy is “wanting to see someone else suffer so that I can have what they have.” I can’t see that exactly – at Cheers we work hard for others to be empowered, so when they take over something we once did, we’re grateful! Not envious. We think its great that they can do it now, because we can get on with something else. But then at work, sometimes I see a group get to do a job we should do, & I think, “my organization are sidelined when I know we could do it a lot better.” That’d be envy…  

Even more troubling is this: I’m concerned at the size of my ecological footprint, and the system I’m attached to and complicit in, because I know it means that someone suffers so that I gain. I want to do something about it, but we need to do that together, so how? I am looking for answers as we speak. Bring back the electric car, bring on the air car, bring on green power, bring back trees everywhere and a renewed discovery of the pharmacy that is the native bush. Bring on the word ‘enough’ in economies and politics. End slavery and exploitation, stop oil-dependency, start new industries that are sustainable, bring on ocean reserves, give some land or land-rights away, let the UN do its job to broker equity in a pluralist world… and so I struggle with someone else having to suffer for my gain.

Classically the antidotes are as follows:
chastity, beats lust;
temperance, beats gluttony,
charity, beats greed,
diligence, beats sloth,
humility, beats pride.
patience, beats wrath, (and asking “why am I angry: am I sad, scared, or shamed?”).
And kindness, beats envy.

But here is what I have learned so far:
- Life is better without the vices!!!
- We all have blind spots, and that’s where the vices sneak in.
- A man’s got to know his limitations (Know thyself.) Be vigilant on myself.
- Christ’s in-spir-ation helps me beat the vices.
- Everyone battles with something, so cut us some slack.

Geoff

Geoff’s diet & exercise

I now diet every other day, and exercise for just 7 minutes.

Don’t laugh – I lost 10kg in the first month, and now continue to lose fat and gain muscle. Of course you have to do it the right way...  

Lots of my friends are interested, so here’s the summary FYI.

Nov 2008: Age – 42. Cholesterol too high (6.4), too much gut fat. So I researched (didn’t want to waste my time.) 
Dec 2008: Start diet and exercise – lost 10kg. 
Feb 2009: weight stable, but continue to lose fat and gain muscle. Feel fitter. Visible difference.

Thanks to www.JonBenson.com  The detail is online at  www.EODD.com,  www.7mm.com, – you pay for the ebook, but it contains the research & recipes etc. (He’s a good Christian guy, used to be a youth minister, is 40-something – we’d be mates in other circumstances.) 

Every Other Day Diet

Jon calls them Feed days and Burn days.

Feed days - Eat normally – yes pizza, burgers, whatever. (But don’t binge!) Keeps your metabolic rate high!

Burn days – every other day, rabbit food (see SNAPP below). Because your metabolism is still up at the rate for handling Feed days, you will burn fat on the Burn days. 

If you only have rabbit food all the time, your metabolism will eventually adjust down to preserve fat reserves. No further fat is burned. Then when you get sick of the diet, you Feed, and because of the low metabolic rate, you will gain lots of fat quickly. So keep general metabolic rate up, but burn fat via burn days. That’s the key.

 On “Feed” days: keeping your metabolism up: 
- high level of calories
- coffee & exercise in the morning (I often go without breaky to keep burning fat till I eat at lunch)
- eat what you want 

On “Burn” days: high metabolism + low intake = fat burning
- low level of calories: the SNAPP food.

SNAPP

S – Shake: (I eat just an egg & coffee) start the day with protein & exercise to rev up the metabolism

N – Nuts: first snack (eg. peanuts). Nut oils are healthy. Pumpkin seeds are esp good for men’s health. (BTW, a good intake of omega 3 oils means you need much less animal fats, which are bad for cholesterol.) 

A – Apples: Jon says, “Pectin slows the digestion of sugar and also creates a feeling of fullness. Obviously apples are healthy. Everyone knows the old saying about keeping the doctor away. The pectin in apples, along with the wonderful phytonutrients, both go a long way to keeping the doctors at bay.” Use as a lunch replacement, altho some days I have lettuce mix, with can of salmon, olive oil, olives, pepper, etc = tastey rabbit food. 

P – Protein: at dinner time. A little lean meat – lots of green veg – not starch or carbs.

P – Produce: – also any non-carb veges, esp. raw green veges.
And if you snack before bed, only raw green veg, or nothing (better to go to bed slightly hungry: “It’s the time the body is either told by the brain to store fat or to burn it during your sleep.”  

So on Burn days – no fat, carbs, sugar (including sweet fruits – except Apples). 

Drink water – half the time you feel like a snack, you’re actually just thirsty. Keep water handy. It also helps organ and cell function.

 

7MM – 7 Minute Muscle

To make the most of the diet, add 7 minutes exercise a day! Exercising (the right way) will release fat-burning hormones, keep metabolic rate up, and add muscle (which also burns fat.) And yes this is key for women too – adding muscle does not mean bulk, but rather it reduces and shapes in all the right places. 

 The trick here is to work the muscles close to fatigue, as soon as you can, yet still being able to maintain exercise for 7 minutes — long enough for the hormones to be released. Sure you can exercise for longer, but by getting the reaction going, you’ve already achieved the goal. (It’s the 80:20 rule – the first 80% of benefit takes 20% of the effort, the last 20% takes the next 80% of effort. The extra 20% benefit is necessary for elite or competitive athletes to get ‘the edge,’ but not for those of us who just want to be generally healthy.) 

Working larger muscle groups that affect most of the body is a great idea, as it ‘wakes up’ more muscle that need the chemical reactions. Vince Delmonte says, “I focused on compound exercises that positioned me to lift the heaviest weights possible and maximize the most muscle in the shortest period of time.  The list for this is short – bench presses, bent over rows, over head presses, deadlifts, squats, dips, chin ups and hanging leg raises.  Those were the core 8 exercises and each workout I would do a slight variation on those movements for variety.” 

I recently bought a “Total Gym 1000″ from the Quokka – for $25. A sneakily painful machine! 

 In the first 5 minutes, you want to lift as much total weight as possible – mix up the weight, repetitions, and rest period, to find the way to lift the most in the time available.

Clue: start with 80% of your maximum single lift. do reps of 5, with a 15 second gap between reps. Record it. You should start to really feel it in your third minute. If it’s too much, next time reduce the weight or reps, or increase the rest between reps. If its too easy, increase the weight or reps, or decrease the rest. Your muscles should just about be worn out by end of 5 mins. 

In the 2 minutes remaining, reduce the weight, and keep doing the exercise. You’re prolonging the benefit of the exercise by keeping the muscle close to fatigue for longer. And now you’re releasing a different fat-burning hormone. The last few lifts should be really hard for you – the money lifts! And adjust next time as you need to , to keep the exercise near redline. 

Keep a record of your lifting, so you can accurately compare how you’re going, and make the necessary adjustments. Also you’ll see how you gain over the weeks. 

And that’s it!

Really! It’s called “interval resistence training.” You should be puffing a bit by the end. Your heart rate should be up. This could be all you need cardio-vascularwise (although this has not been fully proven yet). If you don’t think you’ve had enough cardio, do another 7 minutes on another muscle group, and you will certainly have had enough for your heart. Or you can do a 30 minute walk. Or a high-rate burst of skipping or jogging or boxing.

But just the 7MM worked for me. 

Note: if after a while you feel flat / burned out, just take 2 days off, and let your nervous system recover. Then do the next day or 2 at 50% to ease back in. Then after that you’ll see your numbers increase again. 

Remember: For fat-burning
Diet is King! 
Exercise is second 
- esp. Interval, resistence /anabolic exercise (achieves some cardio any way) 
Cardio is last (but still of benefit)

This is a sustainable lifestyle for me. I started this because my cholesterol was high, and I had too much gut-fat around my internal organs. I’m visibly better now. There’s no real reason I can’t just keep on doing it. I intend to, so next time you see me, ask me if I am. 

Cheers
Geoff

 

 

Support Hope (AVAAZ commercial)

Support Hope – AVAAZ

I like this commercial - https://secure.avaaz.org/en/obama_hope_over_fear/?cl=175356403&v=2743

UNICEF report fails children

 

Angelina Jolie’s UNICEF work rocks. She’s such a mum, and UNICEF is the UN’s agency for children. But this UNICEF report (“The State of the World’s Children 2009″) is not even about children, or protecting them. It maneuvers for women’s rights at the expense of children. It puts access to abortion at the top of its recommendations, despite the fact that abortion has least to do with maternal mortality. Real causes get lower mention! How can this be produced by UNICEF, of all groups? Read this summary – (emphasis mine.) 

 

Report Ignores Child Survival

By Susan Yoshihara

   (NEW YORK – C-FAM)  The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, launched its annual report this week claiming that, “Having a child remains one of the biggest health risks for women worldwide,” and dedicated the 168-page flagship publication to the issue of maternal mortality, virtually ignoring the agency’s mandate of child survival. The report recommends increased global financing of UN initiatives aimed at “family planning” and “reproductive health services” as the primary way to reduce maternal deaths, but also provides extensive evidence that there is no reliable data to substantiate its claims.  
     Entitled, “The State of the World’s Children 2009: Maternal and Newborn Health,” the study addresses the problem of 536,000 maternal and 4.7 million newborn annual deaths worldwide focusing on Africa, Asia and Latin America.  Yet, the report undercuts at length the validity of its own statistics, stating that a “high degree of uncertainty for maternal mortality ratios indicates that all data points should be interpreted cautiously,” and saying “The [UN’s] 2005 maternal mortality estimates are far from perfect,” merely reflecting “a strong commitment on the part of the international community to continually strive for greater accuracy and precision.” And while it argues that “more than 99 per cent” of maternal deaths “occurred in developing countries,” it goes on to call “commonplace” the absence of data to make such a claim.  

     In fact, the report admits that only 35 percent of the data used to create the 536,000 number in 2005 was based upon “complete/good” data. A full 35 percent of the 171 countries surveyed to create the number had “no data.” Another 20 percent of the total maternal mortality figure was from “estimates” and “uncertain/poor data.” 

     Another contradiction in the report is its discussion of abortion. According to the report, abortion complications are the smallest contributor to maternal death in every one of the three developing regions studied. By contrast, hemorrhaging is the cause of nearly 30 percent of maternal deaths in all three regions, followed by hypertension and sepsis. Undefined “other causes” account for nearly a third of deaths in Africa and one fifth of the deaths in Asia and Latin America.

     Contradicting this evidence, the report calls for a “continuum of care” that promotes “reproductive health services,” a term used by some UN officials to include abortion. It then puts at the top of its eleven recommended interventions for reducing maternal deaths “promoting access to family planning services, based on individual country policies,” with skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care mentioned as lower priorities.  

     The report also claims that in 2005, heads of state created “a specific target on reproductive health: Millennium Goal 5, Target B,” which seeks to “Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health” and includes “contraceptive prevalence rate,” and “unmet need for family planning,” as indicators of attaining the target. The UN Population Fund, contradictorily, claims that such a target was created in 2008.  In fact, the heads of state rejected the target in 2005, and have never voted on or adopted such a target. 

     This is the second consecutive UNICEF annual report devoted to women’s rights rather than child survival. Experts attribute the organization’s transformation from a service-delivery organization to a rights-activist agency to its adopting a “rights-based approach” some two decades ago. The adoption of the approach was a bureaucratic decision that includes the active promotion of both the Women’s Convention (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Megaphone WEA & MPAC

Muslim and Christian representative organizations are both calling for a regular pluralist forum, to work together on the difficult questions plaguing our times. Can we please give it to them!

And then hold a megaphone to what they are coming up with!

The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) is an organisation run and funded solely by American Muslims, and which believes that Muslims in America can have a positive and reformist voice in national and international discourse. In the interest of promoting greater dialogue and better understanding, MPAC believes that all Americans – from different political, religious and racial backgrounds – urgently require an all-inclusive national platform from which they can listen to and speak with each other.

Readers of my blog will know that for some time now, the World Evangelical Alliance has been calling for this same pluralist round-table. And that such a pluralist think-tank can contribute real-world wisdom to public policy – much more than a secular paradigm can.  

Can anyone tell me, why don’t we hear from these forums – because they don’t yet exist, or because they don’t get a megaphone?

“Al-Qaeda is no more representative of Islam than the Ku Klux Klan is of Christianity.” – Rick Warren

You know Christians are clearly against KKK, so if Rick is right, then where are the Mulsim voices speaking out against the outrages of Al-Qaeda, and the jihad-spruiking elements of Islam? 

Well those voices exist (MPAC).

Therefore, why don’t we hear more from them? (Is it the conscious editorial bias of media magnates, or just that they’re not yet aware?)

And why aren’t such groups from all religions given the pluralist table, and the task of working on public policy, to find consensus where secularist policy is clearly deficient!

Gaza – waaaay overkill

Israel has a problem: It has spent so long powerless and oppressed, that it knows no other way to hold power than to oppress! it has spent so long being the stranger, that it no longer knows how to welcome strangers into their land. So long living in fear, that it cannot trust.

As “people of God,” they must press back into God and rediscover the way to break the cycle of violence. How to show hospitality to strangers, how to become a light once again to the nations.

But until they rediscover this, they remain “in the wrong!”

They have broken lawful Palestinian lands literally into fragments, and impose impossible border controls dessimating the fabric of Palestinian society & infrastructure. They are occupying far more land (90%) than the UN sanctioned. They have imposed poverty upon their neighbors.

Shrinking Palestine (in green)

And now, when frustrated Palestinians sent a few missiles over the fence, which landed harmlessly, Israel responded like this:

Over the past twenty four hours Israeli F-16’s and helicopter gunships have dropped more than a hundred bombs on targets inside Gaza, including a factory, a television station and several civilian police stations.  Some of the bombs were dropped at a time when thousands of Gazan schoolchildren were walking home from school.  Al Jazeera has broadcast footage of children’s corpses.  Palestinian medics on the ground are reporting a death toll of more than 280.  600 people have been injured.  These atrocities come at a time of already unspeakable hardships being endured by the people of Gaza. - Friends of Palestine

This seems to be the insane act of maniacal oppressors.

What can be done? Well for updates, at least contact Friends of Palestine.

And have your say on the ever-more noticed AVAAZ. It gets to the political process. Here’s what they had to say:

As we watch the Gaza bloodshed with horror, appalled at how the crisis is spiraling further out of control, one thing is clear — this violence will only lead to further civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict.

There must be another way. Over 280 are dead and hundreds more injured — rockets are striking Ashdod deep inside Israel for the very first time, and the sides are mobilising for invasion. A global response has begun, but it’ll take more than words — the immediate violence won’t end, nor will wider peace be secured, without firm action from the international community.

Today, we’re launching an emergency campaign which will be delivered to the UN Security Council and key world powers, urging them to act to ensure an immediate ceasefire, address the growing humanitarian crisis, and take steps to build real and lasting peace.1 Follow this link now to sign the emergency petition and send it to everyone you know:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/97.php?cl_tf_sign=1

After eight or more years of ineffective US and global diplomacy — and now Gaza’s bloodiest day in recent memory — we must issue a global outcry demanding that world leaders do more than make statements if they’re to bring peace to this region. The UN, the European Union, the Arab League and the USA should now act together to ensure a ceasefire – which includes an end to rocket attacks into Israel and opening the checkpoints for fuel, food, medicine and other humanitarian aid deliveries.

With a new US President taking office in less than a month, a real opportunity exists to breathe new life into peace efforts. These latest hostilities require not only an immediate ceasefire but a commitment from Obama and other world leaders that resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the very top of their agendas. As the whole world is impacted by this ongoing conflict – we should demand nothing less.

In 2006 we mobilised for a ceasefire in Lebanon. For years we’ve worked to encourage a just and lasting peace, taking out billboards and ads across Israel and Palestine. Now as we head into 2009, we need to come together again to demand a peaceful and lasting resolution, instead of a further escalation of violence. Follow this link to put your name forward for peace:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/97.php?cl_tf_sign=1

All sides to the conflict will continue to act as they have in the past if they believe that the world will stand by and allow them to do so. 2009 is a year that things can be different. As we face this crisis, and the possibilities of a new year, it’s time for us to demand a ceasefire and work together to finally put an end to this cycle of violence.

With hope and determination,

Brett, Ricken, Alice, Ben, Pascal, Paul, Graziela, Paula, Luis, Iain and the whole Avaaz team

ABOUT AVAAZ
Avaaz.org is an independent, not-for-profit global campaigning organization that works to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform global decision-making. (Avaaz means “voice” in many languages.) Avaaz receives no money from governments or corporations, and is staffed by a global team based in Ottawa, London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Buenos Aires, and Geneva. Call us at: +1 888 922 8229 or +55 21 2509 0368

Click here to learn more about our largest campaigns.

Dolphins and babies :-)

Lachlan Dunjey’s Reflections from Monkey Mia Dec 8, 2008.

A return visit after 29 years to Monkey Mia, famous for some 40 yrs for its daily dolphin visitation.  Dolphins are not the only attraction of the Shark Bay area of Western Australia, there is also pristine wilderness beauty, the wonder of Shell Beach and the intrigue of stromatolytes.  And for us, grandchildren with an unspoilt interest in living creatures finding hermit crabs in profusion.

Dolphins appeal to everyone with their gracefulness, intelligence, ability to communicate, and apparent sense of family and community.  It also seems that they have a natural desire to please, an instinctive trust and, it would seem from the stories that are told, a desire to protect.

Thus it is, in return, that we trust, and want to protect.  This is good.  There seems to be a natural affinity for our mammalian aquatic creatures.

How tragic it is then when that trust is betrayed.

It seems a strange coincidence that on the day of our leaving for this trip the West Weekend Magazine (6 December) carried the article The Killing Cove in which Gary Adshead writes of the slaughter of dolphins at Taiji in Japan. There, as part of an annual kill between September and April and as part of a 400yr old tradition, 2300 dolphins are herded into a bay and a barrier is then raised across the entrance.  The word pictures are enough to convey the gruesome detail: From our eyrie, we could clearly hear the dolphin’s piercing screams. The green sea turned crimson red… the thrashing tails quietened as the mammals lost their fight for life.

The Japanese go to great lengths to hide the slaughter from prying eyes as this article shows. But it may be that once again, despite deceit and opposition, the truth will win out with pictures as it did with the napalm girl and countless other atrocities.

Yes, there are risks in the getting of the story and pictures and sometimes risks of retribution.  There are also risks of misplaced censorship – not just in the country that is trying to protect its traditional industry and its autonomy – but also in the country that does not want to offend its neighbour or trading partner, and sometimes news censorship because the facts are considered too gruesome.

So the drama is played out: broken trust; intrigue; deceit; anything but the truth; danger and condemnation for its revealing; opposition from industry; the risk of being misunderstood and dividing friends and family and community. At least here we survived the whaling ban.  It seems like a bad memory now.  It is true that one generation’s original thought or change in attitude becomes the next generation’s truism.  Even attitudes to smoking have changed.  Education.  Let’s tell the truth.

Except for abortion that is.

How can it be that telling the truth about abortion is considered by many to be a greater felony than the actual killing?  Killing by powerful suction or dismemberment or in-utero murder by lethal injection of potassium or puncturing the skull and sucking out the brain. No anaesthetic is provided even in late pregnancy.  We can go into greater detail but we take the risk of alienating our friends and dividing the community as in Taiji.  But this detail is nothing compared with some of the actual photos of dismemberment.

How can it be that we defend this in the name of autonomy and choice?  Not just 2,300 times annually but 80-100,000 times [in Australia alone].

How can it be that we betray the most helpless of humans?  Our animal activist friends get really upset when they see a dolphin or whale foetus cut from its mother and rightly so.  Yet these are frequently intact and have not been shredded or pulled apart.  How can it be that our society is so schizophrenic that we get upset about dolphin slaughter yet rabidly defend our right to kill our unborn babies?  How can this be justified by autonomy and choice?

It may be that this battle too may be won with word pictures and photos and a new generation will thank us and wonder why the truth was withheld for so long.

Lachlan Dunjey.

Magi Mullets?

Did the Magi wear mullets?

Andrew Jones makes this a worthwhile study!

Cheers