In case you did not notice, I'm posting another article by Michael Barnes SJ. The Jesuits in Britain have devoted each month of this year to a prominent Jesuit who is no longer with us.


http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/anthony-de-mello-sj

Twenty seven years after he died, Tony is still revered and talked about by scores of people.
The following article is very interesting:
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/anthony-de-mello-fire

I didn't watch Joe Hockey deliver his budget last night; but from what I am reading today, It appears it's going to hurt a lot of people.
Maybe someone who reads this blog could pass this post on to Hockey. It would show him millions of dollars of savings in Medicare. Instead of slugging people for a visit to the GP, Medicare could reap millions more if the guidelines on referrals were revised and adapted.
Recent health problems I have experience and the number of visits to my GP to obtain referrals to specialists, prompted me to think and share my concerns with a few people about this system which can and should be changed. Instead of targeting those who can least afford it( Pensioners, the unemployed, struggling families and a number of other Australians) I wonder if Hockey knows he is sitting on a gold mine. Do a bit of digging Joe. Who knows, you may discover a diamond mine as well!
Please do spend a bit of time to read and listen to the short clip on the link below:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-05-13/annual-specialist-referrals-wasting-millions-say-gps/5447822

Does Friendship replace Love?

It’s not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.

Friedrich Nietzsche.

I read this quote a few days ago and have since been thinking about the truth in this statement. Mr Nietzsche makes a good point; but I believe the same applies to families in general, not only married couples.

I have also read somewhere that friendship comes at a cost. But why does it have to? Suppose us humans left everyone free - to be themselves. Do you know what that would produce? It produces free people with no fear of reprisals and it produces another thing-Friendship.

Within a family, one tends to become possessive, even aggressive at times and to demand that the other comply with our views and likes and dislikes, thus taking away the freedom of thought, speech and action from another. I plead guilty to all of the above!  This attitude produces conflict and unhappiness.

I have thought long and hard about the wisdom in words written by my brother Anthony (Tony) deMello, in a posthumously published book titled, Call to Love. Gujarat Sahitya Prakash (booksgsp@gamil.com). The book contains 31 meditations on daily living-In Freedom! Nietzsche I think would agree with Tony. Particularly with the meditation I quote:

MEDITATION 6

CLINGING IS DYING

Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

M t. 8, 20

Here is a mistake that most people make in their relationships with others. They try to build a steady nesting place in the ever moving stream of life.

Think of someone whose love you desire. Do you want to be important to this person, to be especial and make a difference to his/her life?

Do you want this person to care for you and be concerned about you in a special way? If you do, open your eyes and see that you are foolishly inviting others to reserve you for themselves, to restrict your freedom for their benefit, to control your behaviour, your growth and development so that it will suit their interest.

It is as if the other person said to you, “If you want to be especial to me then you must meet my conditions. Because the moment you cease to live up to my expectations, you will cease to be especial.” You wanted to be especial to someone, didn’t you? So you must pay a price in lost freedom. You must dance to the other person’s tune just as you demand that other persons dance to yours if they want to be especial to you.

Pause now to ask yourself if it is worth paying so much for so little.

Imagine you say to this person whose special love you want, “Leave me free to be myself, to think my thoughts, to indulge my taste, to follow my inclination, to behave in ways that I decide are to my liking.”

The moment you say those words you will understand that you are asking for the impossible. To ask to be especial to someone means essentially to be bound to the task of making yourself pleasing to this person. And therefore to lose your freedom. Take all the time you need to realize this.

May be now you are ready to say, “I’d rather have my freedom than your love.” If you could either have company in prison or walk the earth in freedom all alone, which would you choose?

Now say to this person, “I leave you free to be yourself, to think your thoughts, to indulge your taste, follow your inclinations, and behave in any way that you decide is to your liking.”

The moment you say that you will observe one of two things:

Either your heart will resist those words and you will be exposed for the clinger and exploiter that you are (so now is the time to examine your false belief that without this person you cannot live or cannot be happy);

Or your heart will pronounce the words sincerely and in that very instant all control, manipulation, exploitation, possessiveness, jealousy will drop. “I leave you free to be yourself: to think your thoughts, indulge your tastes, follow your inclinations, and behave in ways that you decide are to your liking.”

And you will notice something else:

The person automatically ceases to be especial and important to you.

And he/she becomes important the way a sunset or a symphony is lovely in itself, the way a tree is especial in itself and not for the fruit or the shade that it can offer you. Your beloved will then belong not to you but to everyone or to no one like the sunrise and the tree.

Test it by saying those words again: “I leave you free to be yourself... “

In saying those words you have set yourself free. You are now ready to love. For when you cling, what you offer the other is not love but a chain by which both you and your beloved are bound. Love can only exist in freedom. The true lover seeks the good of his beloved which requires especially the liberation of the beloved from the lover.

Need I say more? 

I know...........I have been absent from this blog for ages. Health issues and other matters left me somewhat drained and uninterested.
But I'm back and I hope I can engage you to participate too. Here's a new post for 2014! Long live Liberty- of speech, or anything and of course(something no one can control-THOUGHT!

Onward Christian Soldier?

I don’t normally buy a national newspaper; I’m content to browse the pages of my ‘Free’ local paper, The Manly Daily. Yesterday, I happened to be the recipient of The Sydney Morning Herald, courtesy of our ex-neighbour. She has moved on to another home in the area and sent me a text message to say I was welcome to take possession of her copy of the Sydney Morning Herald, which I did. I then proceeded to ‘browse’ the pages of the publication.

For those who are unfamiliar with the political scene and goings on in Sydney Australia- A little over a week ago, Sydney siders were shocked to learn that our ‘squeaky clean’ ex-Premier Barrie O’Farrell had resigned from the premiership having been ‘caught out’ over a bottle of very expensive wine. Turns out, a lobbyist had ‘gifted’ him a bottle of Grange worth AUD 3000/- no doubt expecting favours in return. It so happened that Barrie did no such thing (good on him) and I am led to believe that the lobbyist then dobbed poor Barrie in to the ICAC. That’s Independent Commission against Corruption (for those who don’t know). When asked about it, he said he could not recall having ever received it. Mind you, the lobbyist paid attention to detail, in that the Grange in question was bottled on O’Farrell’s birthday- 1959 and on the exact day of Barrie’s birth-I forget now, which date that was but who cares anyway. It’s sad really; to lose a position of such importance and responsibility over a bottle of wine; no matter how expensive the drop.

Anyway, enter Mike Barid, the new Premier. He is my local(Manly) member of parliament and from all outward appearances, a nice enough fellow. I pass him by often when I am on my early morning walk along the sea front and he has on occasion, returned my smile and nod of G’day. I often saw Bruce Baird (Mike’s father) walking his dog along the said sea front, even after he had moved from NSW state politics to the Federal arena. The tradition it seems, continues in the family.

Back to the issue of the SMH 26^th April 2014 and page three with a picture of Mike Baird and the caption, “Onward Christian soldier- a premier’s faith”. The article goes on to describe Barid junior as a family man with religious Christian beliefs. In fact it reports that he even considered becoming an Anglican minister before entering politics.

For those interested, please access the article with the following link:

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/onward-christian-soldier-a-premiers-faith-20140425-379pp.html

No harm in this religious fervour. I sincerely hope though, that young Mike has considered that every religion believes “their God” created the Universe and controls all forms of life-and for that matter death and the afterlife too. So hopefully Mike Baird will be astute and compassionate enough as Premier, to recognise that we are human beings first and foremost-nothing else matters. I hope he is sincere when he says he will govern the state of New South Wales for everyone. That he will not personally discriminate or be influenced to by his team of reportedly fervent Christians, against people of other faiths and that includes people of NO religious faith too!

I read with interest, comments reportedly made by Mike’s chief of staff, Bay Warburton, ''I've served Jesus in a number of different jobs and now I'm serving Jesus as a chief of staff,'' Mr Warburton said. ''And Mike, who's the Treasurer - he believes he's serving Jesus as the Treasurer of the state. He believes that he has a great opportunity to help people by making responsible decisions about the money from this state.''

He said he prayed for guidance before taking a job to make ''wise choices''. ''And how do you do that? Well, you read your Bible … and you understand what God's plan for your life is and how he wants us to make choices and what sort of criteria we should use to make those choices.''

Mr Warburton told the students they were privileged to learn about ''the Lord of the universe who put stars in the sky, who created the world, who created every single part of what we live in, who created each and every one of us''.

I’d like to remind Mr Warburton, that people of other religious inclinations believe (as mentioned earlier) that “Their Lord, is the Lord of the Universe”. Try convincing them otherwise. I hope you are not going to impose ‘your Lord’ on all these people of other religious faiths, Mr Warburton. And what about those who simply don’t believe in any “Lord of the universe”?

Reverend Freddy Nile would be pleased by all this Christian spirit in the upper echelons of the NSW parliament. Consider what the article further reports:

Mr Warburton is not the only like-minded colleague in Mr Baird's inner circle. A notable addition to cabinet is his close friend Rob Stokes, the new environment minister, who holds a diploma in Bible studies. During Wednesday's swearing-in ceremony Mr Stokes omitted the words ''under God''.

He later said the decision was guided by Matthew's gospel in which Jesus frowned upon the swearing of oaths.

Jesus frowned on many things. Barrie learnt a bitter lesson when he misled ICAC on that very expensive bottle of Grange. And Jesus would have frowned on that no doubt! But unlike ICAC, Jesus would have also forgiven Barrie. The ICAC didn’t- that’s only human! J

The article reveals even more of what’s to come into the parliament of NSW:

New finance minister Dominic Perrottet - a former protégé of one-time ''religious right'' faction leader David Clarke - attended Redfield College in Dural, a school run by the conservative Catholic order Opus Dei.

Mr Clarke, whose wife Maria-Louise is an Opus Dei member, remains parliamentary secretary for justice.

Throw into the mix the deputy Premier and Nationals leader Andrew Stoner - who attends the evangelical C3 church - and the Baird/Stoner government is shaping as the most devout in living memory.

Mike, the good citizens of NSW don’t need devout leaders. What they need are honest men and women to act in the interests of ALL citizens no matter what their race, colour or religious persuasions; if any.

Let me be fair in also transcribing (from Sean Nicholls’ article) what Mike said about his (Mike Baird’s) religious convictions and faith:

But Mr Baird rejected the notion his government would be influenced by the strength of religious belief in his office or his cabinet. ''I'm not going to hide who I am and what's important to me, but I govern for everyone,'' he said.

He said faith ''is a matter for the individual''. ''My position has been clear in the Parliament,'' Mr Baird said.

''I don't go into Parliament and seek to legislate that. I'll respond on the basis of conscience.''

It’s nice to know this fact Mike. But is the next little tit bit true?

Mr Baird is on the record as opposing same sex marriage, embryonic stem cell research and same sex adoption. However, he committed to allowing Liberal MPs a free vote on such matters, as did Mr O'Farrell.

I wonder if Jesus would have frowned on Gays, Lesbians or same sex marriage. Jesus is reported to have said to a blood thirsty mob of self-righteous (so called) stalwarts of the law, “Let he who is free of sin, cast the first stone!

Mike, please consider our Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, gay, lesbian brothers, sisters and people of all walks of life, living in NSW and the world, when you make decisions concerning their welfare. You have been entrusted with a very important job. I sincerely hope your religious beliefs (Faith and belief are not the same thing, Mike) do not interfere with the general welfare of the people of NSW on religious grounds.  Religion and Politics don’t mix. Remember Mike, Jesus is also reported to have said, “Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God, what is God’s”!

Bless you J!

Both major political parties in Australia have invested so much energy and resources in the past, present and planning for the future to "TURN BACK THE BOATS" coming from Indonesia, with a human cargo of desperate people, fleeing their war torn or religiously bigoted countries, seeking refuge and safe haven on our shores. The following article suggests that instead of cold heartedly turning these ...desperate people away, we in Australia would be better served to welcome them and enrich ourselves in the bargain. Those in government as well as the others who strongly oppose the boats should consider that they are migrants as well. Most migrants came here by choice(self included)-the ancestors of some of our politicians came here in chains........on what? Convict BOATS! Please do read on:

UK without Immigrants for just 24 hours: What would happen?
Mehdi Hasan
I have a modest proposal for the likes of Ukip, MigrationWatch, the Home Secretary, David Goodhart, Paul Dacre and, of course, the BNP. Why not call for "A Day Without Immigrants?" Wouldn't that demonstrate, once and for all, that neither our economy nor our society needs migrants? That they are a burden, rather than a blessing?
"A Day Without Immigrants" was the name given to a rather innovative series of protests in the US in 2006, which brought more than a million Latinos on to the streets of 50 cities, from New York to Los Angeles. They boycotted shops, schools and their places of work to try to highlight the plight of undocumented migrant workers.
But here's how I'd implement a similar boycott here: anyone in the UK born abroad or with a parent born abroad would stay at home for 24 hours. Any business or organisation founded by an immigrant or the child of an immigrant would close for the day.
Britain would be transformed - but, regrettably for the immigration-bashers, in a wholly negative way. In fact, I suspect it would be a pretty awful 24 hours for most Britons, dark and dystopian, even. Think Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later - but without migrants, rather than with zombies.
Let's start with the trivial stuff. Who would serve you in restaurants or coffee shops? Who would make your sandwiches and wraps at lunchtime? What would be the point of going out to eat in the evening if there were no longer any Chinese, Thai, Malaysian, Indian, Japanese, Turkish, Lebanese, Persian, Italian, Spanish and, yes, French restaurants open?
How about your health? Who'd patch you up and prescribe your medicines? Ministers and their outriders in the right-wing press like to scaremonger about the spiralling costs of so-called health tourism (which amounts to a shocking 0.01% of the £109billion NHS budget) and exaggerate the numbers of migrant families that turn up expecting free treatment in our overstretched A&E departments. The reality, as the chair of the council of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Clare Gerada, has pointed out, is that "you are much more likely to have an immigrant caring for you than sitting up in front of the emergency department". About 30 per cent of the doctors and 40 per cent of the nurses working in the health service were born abroad. Put simply, the NHS could not survive 24 hours without its migrant workforce.
The same applies to the social-care sector. If you have a sick parent living in a care home, you might have to take the day off to look after them. In 2009 a fifth of all care assistants and home carers - 135,000 people in total - were foreign-born; in London, 60 per cent of care workers were migrants. Speaking of taking the day off, neither the Deputy Prime Minister nor the leader of the opposition would have to turn up to Westminster for PMQs - Nick Clegg is the son of a Dutch mother and half-Russian father; Ed Miliband is the child of Polish refugees.
Meanwhile, the Chancellor would have to go to the Commons to warn that "A Day Without Immigrants" would, if extended over a year, force him to introduce a further £7billion of spending cuts and/or tax rises. Why? Migrants boost the British economy by £7billion a year, according to an OECD study published in June. That's the equivalent of an extra 2p on the basic rate of income tax.
Sticking with the economy, we'd have to board up iconic British stores such as Marks & Spencer (co-founder: Michael Marks of Belarus), Selfridges (founder: the American Harry Gordon Selfridge) and Tesco (founder: Jacob Kohen, son of Avram, a Polish migrant). UK holidaymakers would have to cancel their cheap flights on easyJet (founder: the Greekborn Stelios Haji-Ioannou).
Our universities, a multibillion-pound export industry, would take a hit, too, if foreign students stayed away. One in ten students in British universities comes from outside the EU and the fees that students from other countries pay are a bigger source of income for most universities than research grants.
What about sport? Imagine going to watch a Premier League game midweek as a Liverpool fan. Luis Suárez wouldn't be playing. If you're a Man United fan, you'd miss out on the ball skills of Robin van Persie; if you're a Man City fan, it'd be Yaya Touré on strike. Chelsea fans? Say goodbye to Juan Mata and Eden Hazard.
Incidentally, if you were planning on using the Tube to go to watch Chelsea play, you'd find it in a pretty filthy state, the train platforms tagged with graffiti and strewn with rubbish: 95% of London Underground cleaning staff are foreign-born. It wouldn't just be the District Line that was dirty, it would also be your place of work: 89% of office cleaners in the capital are migrants.
But the countryside would be fine, right? Wrong. Imagine all those unpicked crops and the effect: the rise in food prices, supermarkets opting for (cheaper) foreign over domestic produce, fruit farmers on their knees. The truth is that "native" Brits have not been interested in fruit-picking for years and, as the Home Office's own Migration Advisory Committee warned in May, many of the UK's fruit-picking businesses could close without new migrant workers from outside the EU.
On immigration, we hear constantly that voters don't trust the official statistics or studies (a recent Ipsos MORI poll found that the public thinks that immigrants make up 31% of the population -when the official figure is 13%).
So this may be the only way to win hearts and minds. A great boycott. A one-day strike by immigrants and their children across the UK, coupled with a ban on the use of immigrant-founded businesses by the "indigenous" population.
For a mere 24 hours. Let's do it. And if it doesn't transform public opinion, well, at least I'll have had the day off work.

Mehdi Hasan is the political director of the Huffington Post UK and a contributing writer for the New Statesman.

TRUST

The Master would frequently assert that holiness was less a matter of what one did than of what one allowed to happen.

To a group of disciples who had difficulty understanding that, he told the following story:

There was once a one-legged dragon who said to the centipede. “How do you manage all those legs? It is all I can do to manage one.”

“To tell you the truth.” said the centipede. “I do not manage them at all.”  Anthony deMello-One Minute Wisdom.