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Archive for September, 2006



23
Sep

Is Helen Clark the worst Prime minister we have ever had?

I have to make a confession.

Years ago, when Jenny Shipley was leading the National party, and was also our prime minister, I voted Labour.

I remember telling people that I thought Helen Clark was a strong leader and that this was just what New Zealand needed right now, and that whether you loved her or hated her at least you “knew where you stood with Helen Clark”.

I was also very young and naive and as a result had embraced the serious error of thinking that socialism is a morally acceptable political system.

Isn’t it funny how things can change with a few years and a bit of learning!

As far as I am concerned, we now have the worst prime minister and government that we have ever had in New Zealand (and yes; I am including the bad old days of the Muldoon era in that statement!)

Just think about it for a second.

Under Helen Clark’s leadership we have witnessed the introduction of the most immoral and anti-family legislation ever thought up.

Thanks to the red army, we have legalised homosexual marriage (under the lame guise of civil unions), we have decriminalised prostitution – which is effectively legal prostitution.

A child can now get an abortion without their parent’s consent, yet that same child couldn’t get a Panadol at school without written parental permission.

The Labour party has investigated introducing hate speech laws, and members of her party have made no secret of the fact that they would like to see legalised euthanasia.

On the economic front, most economic experts (one of which I certainly don’t profess to be) are suggesting that Labour has simply spent its time in power reshuffling the chairs on the deck of the financial Titanic.

And who could forget the election spending, or should that be bribery, targeted at increasing the Labour voter pool by offering financial incentives to vote red.

Then there are the dishonesty charges that have constantly dogged Helen Clark and the Labour Party.

There was the painting that Helen Clark signed and then had Steve Maharey destroy rather speedily once it came to light that she hadn’t actually painted it as initially implied.

There was the motorcade incident, where Helen Clark denied giving the order to speed, and vehemently denied being aware that she was in the back of an average sized car travelling at speeds of over 140kph – yeah right!

And of course there was the granddaddy of all dishonest behaviours – the pledge card spending which Labour was warned about, chose to do nothing about and then, after they got busted for it, proffered the idea that they should be able to introduce retrospective legislation to change the law so that they can keep the money they stole from the taxpayers.

Come on Helen – what kind of banana republic totalitarian regime are you running in this country?

But it’s not just Helen who has a problem with honesty – remember the dodgy dealings of Annette King, Ruth Dyson and David Benson Pope?

Then something quite surreal happened earlier this week – Helen Clark told the country that she was sick of all the parliamentary mud-slinging and personal attacks and that it had to stop.

But it seems that she doesn’t include herself in that little speech, because just moments later she was ranting and raving in no uncertain terms about how Don Brash was “cancerous”.

It seems this was one of those do as I say, not as I do situations (which is very typical of socialist dictators).

Come on Helen, enough is enough.

I’m sick of hearing you respond to legitimate questions about serious concerns relating to you and your party’s dodgy dealings by talking about the Exclusive Brethren, and “secret big-business funding” of National.

Let it go already!

The Exclusive Brethren funded their own anti-Green leaflet drop, which they are entitled to do by law in a free country like New Zealand, and it happened at the last election for Pete’s sake!

Do I think the Brethren are hypocrites for getting involved with electioneering and not voting themselves? Hell yes, but that doesn’t change the fact that they didn’t break the law, they didn’t do anything unethical and they paid for the campaign with their own money.

And as for this claptrap about trying to change the law to force people who donate money anonymously to political parties to reveal their identities; oh please girlfriend!

Labour has been funded by union money since Adam was a boy – so what?!

In a free country that’s how things work; you support the party that suits your beliefs about life and governance.

And if a business owner wants to anonymously donate money to a party that will support legislation that he believes is good for him and the country, without politicising his business or placing his staff in the awkward position of feeling that they have to hold the same political affiliations as the boss, then so be it!

After all; isn’t that the whole point of a democracy?!

No matter what your political affiliations are, you’d have to be blinded by ideology, or not the full packet of biscuits, to claim that Helen Clark is a great leader.

She has personally engaged in dishonesty and dubious dealings, and her government has specialised in instituting immoral legislation by employing dodgy methods to achieve an outcome favourable to their agenda.

Ultimately, she must take responsibility for this because she is the one charged with steering the ship – and that means that she either supports the law changes her government has enacted and proposed, or she doesn’t care enough to stop them happening.

Either way she is failing New Zealand and it appears that the chickens are finally beginning to come home to roost.


Helen Clark with one of her chief advisors

22
Sep

E.T.

Well after a week of good, and sometimes heated, discussion about all sorts of topics, I thought I’d end the week with a nice non-confrontational blog. Who needs stress on Friday after all.

So. Aliens. I don’t know about you, but I used to wonder if there were aliens out there. With all the billions of stars in the universe, ours surely can’t be the only star with a habitable planet?

And if there were aliens out there, does that mean that God created them too?

Is there a Church stance on the possibility of life out there? On aliens? I had a look in the Catechism under “aliens”, “extraterrestrials”, and “Cantabrians” but couldn’t find anything.

On a different note, I like to think sometimes of where I am in life. My current situation, all the people I know, etc. And then I think of all the choices that all these people would have taken throughout their lives so that we would all be at this place in time and for all of us to be in each others lives. Deep stuff.

Coincidence? Good luck? Do these things exist? I think these are other ways of saying God’s will is being done.

Anyway, have a good weekend everyone!

21
Sep

Rants and tantrums

I’m struggling with being a Catholic this week. I’m mad at the situation in the world at the moment. I’m sick of hearing about Muslims and Catholics. I’m sick of not seeing Catholics shine through.

What are we doing wrong? I don’t care what anyone says: Catholics have a serious PR problem and as far as I can see, this isn’t changing.

Something the Pope said upset me last week – and no, I’m not talking about that illegible speech he gave to a bunch of academics (and if you want to see an online tantrum, I just dare you to bring that done-to-death topic up). He was talking about faith and our role in developing countries and one comment in particular, quite literally, upped my stress levels instantly.

“Evangelisation itself should be foremost,” he said, when talking about the aid and development we give.

Well I’m sorry, but I completely disagree. We need to ensure God’s children have enough food before we talk at them about Him, we need to stop the daily horror of rape and the degredation of extreme poverty before we lecture on the Catechism. We need to help women whose choice is between unprotected sex with HIV-infected men or starving to death; we need to get them out of a situation where the difference between using a condom or not is literally life and death – for them and their children.
I’m not interested in going over the philosophy behind the church’s teaching on this; I’m not interested in being told I’m melodramatic – I’ve looked into the eyes of the women who live this life (or “hell on Earth” is perhaps more apt); I’ve held children – God’s children – dying from a disease they should NEVER have been exposed to. I refuse to believe our Lord looks down on us and is proud with the little we do to help our brothers and sisters suffering to the degree they are.

What ever happened to faith by action? What ever happened to being a living example of God’s love and teachings?

Unless he meant evangelisation in the broadest possible sense (and I mean BROAD), I’ve got a bone to pick with Pope Benedict XVI.

20
Sep

A breath of fresh air

I’m not sure how much is the time of year, and how much is my own life, but it’s been a really hectic few weeks.

It’s amazing how often, in the midst of such a week, a moment of prayer can really help. While I know the ideal is to make every breath and action in itself a prayer, it never hurts to take some time out for more explicit reflection.

Today is a particularly good example. After the headlines of the day, and some weighty forums to read through, I turned to the daily readings.*

It never fails to amaze me, how often the liturgical seasons speak directly to our own experience, and offer a refreshing dose of perspective.

*NAB translation, sorry people – we’re working on it!

19
Sep

Thankyou for proving my point…

By now everybody should know about the Pope’s words that haveViva Il Papa infuriated Muslims around the world.

Does anyone else see the great irony here?

(1) Pope preaches that reason has to be involved in the pursuit of the truth
(2) He says that ‘Faith and Reason’ aren’t mutually exclusive
(3) Violence should not be used as a means to spread any ‘Faith’
(4) Violence is contrary to the nature of God.

Quoting the 14th-century Byzantine emperor, Manuel II Paleologosfamous, Pope Benedict’s point was that Islam’s historical and verified use of violence is against reason and against God.

In reaction to this, many Muslims irrationally rise up, act violently, murder a nun, attack Churches, emotionally talk about violent punishment, threaten the Vatican, burn flags, and destroy effigies of the Pope.

Violent Muslim reaction 

Al Qaeda is directly threatening the Pope with violence now.

Maybe these words would be more apt to address this issue:

“Dear Muslim brothers and sisters, thank you for proving my point.”

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How far will this go? If the Pope preaches that Jesus Christ is the only Lord and Saviour, the Only One sent by God, and the Muslims don’t like it due to Mohammud, and rise up threatening violence, will the Pope have to withdraw and apologise for that too?

Are we all going to cower under the threat of ignorant barbaric Muslim violence? Where is the line between religious sensitivity and freedom to preach the truth?

Don’t be fooled.

A friend of mine was recently given a ride in France by some Muslim men (he was hitch hiking). When they found out he was Catholic, they lamented about how the media misrepresents them. They went on to tell him how the Europeans were asleep; they weren’t having any children due to contraception, and that soon Islam would be big enough take over Europe. 

They said that they couldn’t wait for the day when they could slit Frenchmen’s throats. Both these men had been back to Tunisia to learn how to make bombs and shoot machine guns. They said that they were now just waiting for the call; and that they were not alone – many thousands of others had done the same. Holy Rosary

In the 15th century the invading Muslims were defeated by Our Lady and the Rosary. Let us take up this Holy Arm and pray for their conversion to the truth!

Let us pray for all Christians to have the courage to proclaim their faith from the hilltops; to stand up for Christ like the Pope, even if it costs us our lives; and not be intimidated by these threats

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Just heard on the radio that the Vatican has steeped its security in response to threats… gosh… it must be those Buddhists or the Mormons or may be the Krishna’s who are threatening because the Muslims would never do such a thing as threaten violence would they? Not that peaceful religion… surely not!

Yeah right!

18
Sep

What do you mean?

I don’t really know where to start with this one, but it’s been on my mind for a while so I’ll just start and we’ll see how it comes out.  No real reason for bringing it up this week….except that some of the commentary on Pope Benedict’s speech over the weekend brought it back to the forefront of my mind.
It’s just over three weeks to the day that New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig was released with his journalist partner Steve Centanni from the capture of the Holy Jihad Brigade, who had held them for just under three weeks. They were released after huge political pressure pointing out that being Palestinian and then kidnapping people who were helping the cause of the Palestinian people by telling their story was not the smartest idea in the world.

They were also released after filming a “conversion video” where they both “converted” to Islam.

Afterwards, they both confirmed what I’m sure everyone already thought – that they were doing so at gunpoint and in fear for their lives. Since that point, all sorts of discussion has started around the web as to the impact of the video and their actions. Some have said that it was survival tactics, that they were just doing what they had to survive and that none of us have any right to judge or comment. Others have lambasted their decision saying that it is tantamount to denying Christ and the West, and that the video will help the militant Islamic cause.

For those who think they can see where this is leading, I’m not going to ask who is right and wrong in this case, as not a single one of us reading this can honestly speak from any point that is not theoretical – unless there is someone out there that has been put in exactly the same situation.  What I’d like to ask you all is what do you think the value of such a conversion is? I mean, it’s obvious that they didn’t mean it. It’s obvious that it wasn’t a conversion of the heart – and this is what I’m trying to get into.

At what point does a conversion really mean something?  And I suppose the related question is at what point does a denial really mean something?  Peter denied Christ when put under pressure by those around him, but he is now the rock on which the Church is built.  Do you really think that Christ denied him before His Father?
It’s just an interesting topic for me.  Words are so cheap these days.  Sunday’s Second Reading from the book of my namesake points out that saying “go in peace, keep warm and eat your fill” to someone who is naked and has no food is pretty stupid (I’m paraphrasing).  The action is so much harder, but that’s when the words mean something.

So what do you all think?  Are words the binding contract, or is the intentions of the heart?

17
Sep

Your thoughts?

Last night I went to see two documentaries at the New Zealand Documentary Film Festival.  I would like to encourage you to see some of these films (although in Auckland your last chance is today!)  I saw two short documentaries scheduled together.  These films offered an amazing insight into the reality of the lives of the people in them; their cultures, their suffering, and their spirit.  

The first “So Far Yet So Close” tracked a New Zealand man who went to a school for the blind in China to do music therapy with the children there.  At the end I discovered the central character in the film was sitting just behind us, which was something I’ve never experienced before!  The second was “The Blood of Yingzhou District”, and followed the lives of children orphaned by AIDS, and stigmatized and rejected by their communities.  Thousands contracted AIDS from selling their blood.  It is hard to do justice to these films in writing, suffice to say good on the film makers, often funded by charities, for giving us a window into these people’s lives, so that we might be more aware of what others in our world face.

On a completely different note, there has been much talk of Pope Benedict’s comments about Islam and Mohammed.  Father Lombardi commented that Pope Benedict’s speech was “a warning, addressed to Western culture, to avoid ‘the contempt for God and the cynicism that considers mockery of the sacred to be an exercise of freedom.’” 

Terrorism and violence fueled by religion is one of the most significant, if not the most significant, challenge to the world today.  The violence which stems from extremists who fight and kill in the name of their God breeds in people the attitude that religion is ‘to blame’ for violence, so people should steer clear of God altogether.  Maybe there is a need for strong statements where they are needed in a politically correct world that pussy foots around offending anyone?  However, I’m sure the intention of Pope Benedict wasn’t to denigrate all people of the Islamic faith.  Thoughts?