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Repaso: Advent, lost books, screen-printing, journalistic ethics, Bruce Cockburn, LEGOs, theology & culture

December 16, 2011 — Leave a comment

1. Advent reflections from Paul Burkhart
Paul Burkhart, a friend of mine in Philadelphia, has a series of thoughtful posts on his blog for Advent. Here’s an excerpt from his most recent one:

In his Advent, Jesus does lots of miracles, but his miracles are particular in nature and function. None of his miracles are weird. You have no lasers coming out of people’s eyes, no shape-shifting, no invisibility, etc. What you have is a God that comes and ushers in the future world to come and brings it into the present. In other words, all of his miracles are restoring things to the way they will be and are intended to be; they are acts of justice. People were not meant to be blind, or die, or go hungry, or be handicapped, or be sick. And so he ushers in this future reality into the present by healing these things. The future world begins with a wedding feast with much wine, and so his messianic mission begins with turning water to wine at a wedding feast.

2. Ariel Dorfman’s lost library
NPR has an interview with novelist and activist Ariel Dorfman, who was forced to flee his home in Chile after the overthrow of President Allende in 1973. Going into exile he lost a lot, but here he reflects on the impact of losing his personal library.

3. Big Planet Apparel on The Lancast
My good friend Chris Newcomer is the guest on the latest episode of The Lancast, a podcast focused on interesting people in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Chris is an entrepreneur and here he talks about how his company, Big Planet Apparel, came to be. You’re not likely to hear more laughter in a 34 minute interview anywhere else, and hopefully you’ll now know where to turn when you need to make t-shirts.

4. Misrepresenting “Africa” and “the poor”
In this TED Talk, reporter and researcher Leslie Dodson urges those who engage in storytelling about the poor (researchers, journalists, NGOs, etc) to do so ethically, not misrepresenting them through simplistic depictions or by robbing them of their dignity in the process (Thanks to Jennifer Rohde Williams for passing this along).

5. Photographs of homelessness around the world
Okay, here’s a chance to think critically about the ethics of photographing the homeless, based on what Leslie Dodson had to say in the video above. In this photo essay, I was struck by the prevailing “namelessness” of the poor. There were a handful of those in the US whose names were given, as well as the name of the recently deceased homeless man (not pictured) whose funeral two unnamed (but pictured) homeless women attended. What do you think of this namelessness in photos of the poor and homeless?

6. “Kicking at the Darkness”
Byron Borger has some brief comments on Kicking at the Darkness: Bruce Cockburn and the Christian Imagination, a new book by Brian J. Walsh that I’m eager to read. Here’s the blurb Byron wrote for the back cover of the book:

I’ve been listening to Cockburn for three decades and reading Walsh almost that long, and I can hardly imagine surviving these times, let alone believing that joy will find a way, without the artistry and insight of both. This is an extraordinarily ambitious project, years in the making, and there is profound insight on every page. Whether you are a seasoned Cockburn fan or not, this is a rewarding, provocative, experiment in criticism. I recommend it with great enthusiasm and with immense gratitude.

7. The Year in LEGO
A cool collection of LEGO reenactments of key events of the past year, apparently submitted to The Guardian by various Flickr users (HT Chris Blattman and Gideon Strauss).

8. Coming together on theology and culture?
Tim Keller writes that a convergence may be happening within evangelicalism on a “third way” of considering the relationship between Christ and culture, beyond the “Two Kingdoms” and the “Transformationist” views. Here’s a great snippet on an important aspect of this third way:

While the mission of the institutional church is to preach the Word and produce disciples, the church must disciple Christians in such a way that they live justly and integrate their faith with their work. So the church doesn’t directly change culture, but it disciples and supports people who do.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: Clint McMahon via The Guardian]

Poverty, riches and unexpected happiness

July 7, 2011 — 1 Comment

Here’s a head-scratcher for you. Yesterday I came across two fascinating comparisons of the economies of Chile and Venezuela, each making seemingly opposite (and perhaps both accurate) points.

First, a Christian blog I visited for the first time, which proudly seeks to counter “ignorant and fashionable sentimentalism, pacifism, and mushy-minded seeker-church sappiness.” It includes a video showing the positive correlation between economic freedom and economic wealth. As the video demonstrates, Chile and Venezuela, despite their geographical proximity, are on opposite ends of the spectrum, both in terms of economic freedom and economic wealth. Here’s the short video:

Moments after watching that video, I saw a tweet with this headline (seriously, I can’t make this up): “Chile among South America’s least happy nations; Venezuela top of the list.” The story, from The Santiago Times (via MercoPress), cites a study conducted in several South American nations to determine who was happiest and why. The study found that equal distribution of wealth was a key indicator, among these others:

Along with climate, family and finances, researchers found that happiness was influenced by a person satisfaction with his or her love life, health, job and physical appearance. The importance of these factors varied between countries. For Chileans, personal finances were the most important; for Bolivians job satisfaction ranked the highest; and for Colombians and Peruvians love and relationships had the biggest impact. “Even though we share the same language and may have similar histories, we are not the same,” González said of the results. There is no one indicator of happiness, he said. Instead, it seems, “every country has its own way of looking at life.”

For those prone to absolutizing economics, this should give us pause. There’s wisdom in the proverb that asks for neither poverty nor riches, I think. It’s not that we shouldn’t strive for economies — on both the micro and the macro scale — that make sense for the world’s poor and lead to the outcomes trumpeted in the video. It’s just a reminder that happiness (not to mention holiness) doesn’t always rise and fall with the GDP.

In Culture chile, economics, economy, equality, free market, happiness, poverty, riches, South America, Venezuela, wealth

Obama’s visit to El Salvador

March 21, 2011 — 2 Comments

As many of you are probably aware, President Obama is currently in the middle of a rare five-day trip to Latin America with stops in Brazil, Chile and El Salvador. There’s been a great deal of discussion about why Obama chose these three countries, while excluding others, like Argentina.

El Salvador, for its part, is an interesting itinerary choice. It’s the smallest of the three countries comprising the troubled “Northern Triangle” of Central America, along with Guatemala and Honduras. What the three nations have in common, beyond geographical proximity, is rampant violence, much of it connected to the drug trade. But with Guatemala’s upcoming election, Obama wouldn’t want to be seen as a meddler, and with Honduras’ recent coup, the perceived message of a visit there would be messy as well.

So El Salvador it is, a tiny country not far away that many of us know very little about. But an estimated 700 Salvadorans flee their country every day, many of them winding up in the U.S. Now is as good a time as any to plug my friend Jamie Moffett‘s documentary, Return to El Salvador. It’s narrated by Martin Sheen (a decidedly less crazy Sheen) and has been endorsed by Nobel Peace Prize-winning Archbishop Desmond Tutu, among others. The documentary takes a look at the history of El Salvador, and particularly its civil war, and how these events are shaping modern realities in El Salvador and in our own backyard.

I interviewed Jamie about the project last summer, and today he called to let me know the film is currently screening in El Salvador (were President Obama to squeeze a screening into his schedule, I’m sure he’d get a better understanding of the country). But luckily for the rest of us, the film has also been added to Hulu and is now among the top ten documentaries featured there. I encourage you to check it out, but to whet your appetite, the trailer is below.

In Culture Brazil, Central America, chile, civil war, Desmond Tutu, el salvador, Jamie Moffett, Martin Sheen, Northern Triangle, Obama, President, Return to El Salvador

Another look at South America’s Arab ties

February 19, 2011 — Leave a comment

A few weeks ago I wrote about the significance of ties between the Middle East and Latin America. At that time, the third Summit of South American and Arab Countries was scheduled for mid-February. That, of course, was before the people of the Middle East took to the streets en masse, demanding democracy and human rights, among other things.

The summit has since been postponed; it could be rescheduled for as soon as late April, but that depends, I suppose, on whether Middle Eastern leaders decide it is reasonable to expect to still have their jobs upon their return.

Meanwhile, the Miami Herald takes a look at the surprisingly large populations of Arabs and people of Middle Eastern descent who live, and in some cases have lived for quite some time, in South America. Apparently there is even a resurgence in second and third generation immigrants in the region rediscovering their Muslim roots. With these strong minority populations factored in, the Arab-Latin summit makes great sense. But the main impetus for the summit, I suspect, is simply that South America is on the rise and is seeking more prominence on the global stage. Brazil may be leading the way, making global economic inroads and having recently landed both the 2016 Olympics and the 2014 World Cup, but its neighbors are similarly ambitious.

Many Latin Americans feel neglected or taken for granted (or, at times, both) by their conspicuous neighbor to the north, and find in the Middle Eastern nations a chance of being taken seriously. The nations of the Middle East may view their ties with Latin America the same way. The reception awaiting President Obama when he travels to Brazil, Chile and El Salvador next month may provide some important clues as to the future of our hemisphere — and our world.

In Culture Arab, Brazil, chile, el salvador, Latin America, Obama, South America, Summit of South American and Arab Countries

What do Latin American & Middle Eastern ties mean for the world?

January 29, 2011 — 2 Comments

Over the past few years Iâ€™ve watched with interest as Latin America and the Middle East have become more and more connected. Most famously, perhaps, is the relationship between Venezuela’s Hugo ChÃ¡vez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran. These two heads of state would seemingly have little in common, but it appears that their shared distaste for the United States (and â€œthe Westâ€? more generally) Â is plenty for them to build on. Obviously understanding the power of provocative political theater, for a few years now the two nations have been connected by a Caracas-Tehran flight, which seems far more political than practical.

But these inter-continental connections donâ€™t stop with Venezuela and Iran. Over the past couple of months and seemingly out of nowhere, a wave of Latin American countries have begun to publicly recognize Palestine as a sovereign state: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guyana, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela have all issued a statement in one form or another. Colombia stands out for its decision not to recognize a Palestinian state, perhaps to ensure that the sizable $465 in foreign assistance it is due to receive from the United States is not put in jeopardy.

Looking ahead, keep an eye on the third Summit of South American and Arab Countries, scheduled for February 12-16 in Lima, Peru. It is described as â€œa forum for policy coordination between countries in these two regions, and a mechanism for cooperation in the field of economy, culture, education, science and technology preservation of the environment, tourism and other topics relevant to the sustainable development of those countries and contribute to world peace.â€?

The lesson thatâ€™s clear in all of this, Iâ€™d suggest, is that Latin America cannot be minimized or ignored any longer on the world stage. Given the widespread protests throughout the Middle East over the past couple of weeks, it will be especially interesting to see what bearing these Middle Eastern-Latin American ties will have on the world once the the tear gas clouds have dissipated, the dust has settled, and perhaps, new governments have taken power.

[Photo credit: ISNA/Amir Pourmand]