Campbell Live

So I haven't posted anything in ages. Partly cause I have had a bit of blog-apathy, partly cause I have been busy wit study and partly cause I didn't care (or inversely, cared too much).

I watched this article that was put forward on Campbell Live the other night about a lady who got clamped in a disabled car park. [can watch it here]. Initially I was (sarcastically and cynically) like 'what the frak?' A week or so later and I'm still like 'what the frak?' I mean really, what is this story riding on and what is the point of the story? It is about a lady, who is disabled in some manner, legally parked in a disable carpark, and got unjustifiably clamped. [And just to clarify, she is a bit more than disabled, she has something wrong with her lungs, balance, and has cancer - at least these things]. So what? It only makes a story because she is disabled. If she wasn't disabled, if she had parked in an ordinary carpark it would not have made a story. Despite her sympathetic state of existence, the point of the story is that some stupid human went and clamped a car based on prejudice rather than justice - which I know of several occurances. But their story won't make it onto TV because they aren't in a sorry state of existence. Is using the unfortunates of someones life like this fair? Specially when it happens to others also.

To finish off this hardly proof read blog, the clamper was an idiot - and is the problem in this scenario. While I feel for the lady, they are riding on her disability to create a story which I think is also a bit stupid.

$43.5 million

Someone brought a block of land in the Auckland CBD yesterday for $43.5 million dollars! And we're supposed to be in a recession, if that was cheap I'd not like to see what it would sell for other days. Imagine what could be done with that much money....$40,000 could be given to Briar and I for instance and we could live off it for a year :P. Imagine how many people could be picked off the streets and be supplied with needs like proper nutrition, clothing, hygiene, shelter etc. Or how many family homes could do with some basic fix ups to improve warmth, leaks and other stuff in their houses. If only there was another $43.5 million to go around...

Rome and the T.V.

As I was driving to Blockhouse Bay last night I was thinking about the media and violence.  How long has the T.V. been around for? 1961 I think it was created, and then it would have been a few years before it was common in everyones house.  Now it is a given part of the furniture, like it comes with the wall.  I can't help but think about the naivete and stupidness of 'tough people' in films set in the 70's, 60's or earlier.  I mean, how tough were those T-Birds from Grease!  Compared to the senseless gang activity today they haven't got much of a show.  While it was definetely present back then, it feels like violence is always round the corner now.  I remember getting told off by some Islander mates one night after work for walking home in the dark.  So what's the difference between then and now?  Is there a difference? I think the media has had a large part to play in the perpetuation of action and violence. The T.V. is like the modern day Colloseum. Back in the day of the Greeks they ran the Colloseum.  At first watching two men kill each other was fun, but then the crowd got bored so the organizers had to up the ante.  Next thing you know they are chucking in Lions, Tigers, big armoured men, Chariots and anything else they can throw into the mix.  Consider the T.V. today, there used to be stuff like Get Smart, Cheers, Dad's Army, Freddy Kruger, Jason X, and IT.  The last three were frightening horrors back in the day.  Many young people today would find the first three boring and laugh throughout the last three.  Now the T.V. peeps are having the same problem the Colloseum organizers did back in the day, the crowd is getting bored with the same old, so up the ante.  Hence the large reception of the Saw movies!  A movie of a sadistic twisted genius and his disciples who conjure up ingenius killing contraptions.  Once the crowd get bored of this, what next?

These are just a few thoughts.  I watch movies alot, but perhaps the media is having a bigger impact than I'd care to admit.

Philip

NZ is almost number 1 in Gender Equality

Found this article this morning.  Out of 130 countries we hold to fifth place for the close gap between male and female.  I often wondered how we ranked against other western nations in term of women's rights - now we know.

"New Zealand has closed the entire gap in educational attainment which measures the literacy rate and enrolment of males and females in primary, secondary and tertiary education. It has closed over 97 per cent of the gap in health and survival measured by sex ratio at birth and healthy life expectancy. It has improved from 58 per cent of the gap, closing to more than 77 per cent in economic participation and opportunity which is measured by labour force participation; wage equality for similar work; income levels and numbers of managers, professional and technical workers and law and policy makers."

Australia has moved backwards to 21, the States has moved forward from 31 to 27. The only ones ahead of us are Norway, Finland, Sweden and Iceland.

Read the article here

More Election Results....Bill and Ben

Was just reading through some news and came across this. The Bill and Ben party actually received 11,000 votes!  Which is about 10,000 more than I thought they would receive.  Quoted as saying:

"Honesty is the best policy, and honestly we don't have any policies."

I hope that either people stop voting for them and/or they start doing something a little more productive.  I find this quite amusing and on some levels their relaxed 'party-like' attitude is a fresh breath in the serious stale air of parliament.  On other levels I don't think I'd want them making decisions for the country.

Read the article here and watch the video here.

Destiny City? Not to be confused with City of God.

Well I have to say I'm a little disappointed with Bishop Tamaki now. He has pulled a few stunts in the past, I disagree with them on a few points but I've never really had a problem with Destiny church. Alot of people I've talked to don't really like Destiny, and it doesn't help they had so much media attention either. But now I have to say that 'Destiny City' is a step way too far.

Plans for the city include a 5000-seat church, maraes, medical centres and schools - eliminating the need for residents to ever leave.

"Every child of every member of this church will never go to a state school again," Mr Tamaki said.

Honestly I think this is going against what Jesus did on earth. He sat with sinners, talked with women both Jew, Samarian and Gentile. Not to mention he became human in the first place, he entered into our chaotic human world of deceit, violence, corruption, and un-holiness to reach us all. I mean why go through the process of being human to save us? Cause he loves us! He came and spent time with the underdogs, he did not pull away and create a Holy huddle. A crisis within the Church at the moment across the West is it's seperation from culture, Destiny City represents such a movement away from the world. By not engaging the world how are we to spread the Kingdom of God and show people the path to Christ?

Here's an article by Stuff NZ on Destiny City where the above quotes came from.

This is an interesting blog that I think in some form represents what non-believers think of this move. Their talk about creating their own religion, 'biontology,' was a funny read.

Name Change

Hey

Well we (Briar and I) decided on a name change finally.  Same Stuff Different Day was just a temp name inspired by the movie Dreamcatcher.  It is Kiwi's lowdown cause 1) we're Kiwi's 2) this is where we update on what we're getting up to (this is opposed to updating Facebook status every five minutes which sometimes seems a bit silly) 3) Kiwi-land (New Zealand) is pretty geographically low in the world.  In fact I think we should set Stewart Island up for attractive flights and cruises to the antarctic - which may include glass bottom boats to watch the underwater antarctican wildlife. 4) Also it seems that alot of theological discussion and influence comes from other areas of the world e.g. Germany, Switzerland,England, France, America.  I'm not saying there is none from the NZ, but that most of my reading around current ideas come from offshore people.  If only I had $500,000 to study overseas....

On other news, (as I'm relatively new to the blog scene I am discovering alot of stuff still) I have found a good blog by C Michael Patton on 'Will The Real Emerger Please Stand-Up?' Warning, it is quite lengthy, but it is quite informative on topic of emerging church.  It explains a (the?) relationship between fundamentalism, orthodoxy, evangelicism, emerging and emergent.  Perhaps the most useful for me was how he distinguished the difference between emerging and emergent.  There are other blogs on there bout emerging church, but I haven't had enough time to read them yet. I'm sure they're good.

Chairs

Jimmy