Look at what neglect can do

A typical Yangon street

I was in Yangon this week for a meeting.  I was only there for two days.  So I am no expert on the place but still my first impressions were strong and quite positive. 

Coming from Bangkok, a huge city full of bitumen and concrete, what struck me was that here is a city with trees, parks and lakes.   As the country opens up and the city faces needed development, I only hope that progress does not destroy its greenness as it is such a gift of nature and so refeshing to experience.  It is actually life-giving.  I also saw the grand, old buildings from colonial days.  They now stand in disrepair, being testaments to what was.   

Present day Yangon, standing like the old colonial buildings in somewhat disrepair and in need of a good spring clean,  has such potential to be both a great and beautiful, world city.  It has obviously paid the price of neglect, suffering under over 50 years of military rule where no one paid any loving attention to it.  The basics of city services and infrastructure, let alone city beautification, were just ignored as money was used to build up the military and the wealth of its generals.

As I left Yangon last night, I reflected on what neglect can do not only to a city but to us.  Neglect leads to decay, to growing old and death before it is really due to take place.  I saw that in the streets and buildings of Yangon with its dirty, narrow, crowded streets, traffic, old cars and buses, rubbish just lying around.   

As it faces needed development, the question remains what is the answer for a fruitful future.  It is not just rampant development, pulling down and building up.  It is about much more.  You want to save what is good and enhance the beauty of its people whom I found to be warm, open and friendly, even in the midst of such public neglect and decay. 

This is about much more than a city.  It is about its people.  The lesson of a Yangon is a lesson for humanity.  Neglect destroys and leads to no life-giving future.  Here a city is teaching us about life. 

This visit is really for me. I'm learning

During his just completed visit to the Philippines, Pope Francis gave this line to Cardinal Tagle of Manila when asked by the cardinal how he was doing after being to Tacloban, the site of devastation following Super Typhoon Yolanda, and experiencing for himself while there his first typhoon.  That one line hit me and stays with me.  This visit is for him and he is learning from it.  Such honesty, such transparency of a human being, such humility.  Wow! 

What also stays with me is how he naturally responded to the overwhelming suffering of the people.  He didn't preach at them or try to give answers or tell them what to do but just was with them in their suffering, sharing tears and showing compassion.  He then spoke of how important it is to be able to cry with a suffering people and of a God with them in the midst of their suffering.  He is naming how human suffering touches us in an authenically human way and how our response as pastors of each other is to make ourselves vulnerable for the sake of others. 

This is a truly great man, a man who naturally shares his humanity, a man of compassion.  I see him as our teacher, showing us the way to be decent human beings and to be pastors who spread the good news. 

He keeps making these incredible statements.  He said while in the Philippines that if you take away the poor you have no gospel. 

I feel the need to say little this week but just share so that I can savour the message of Pope Francis for us.  The key is not just what he does nor talking about how great a man he is.  Rather even more deeply, it is about how he shows us the way to be Christians of integrity and compassion.  We can't just leave it all to him.  He doesn't want that either.  We need to do our bit where we are.  This is not just about having a great pope but more importantly about having a pope who reminds us who we be to be church, to be authenically human in a suffering world. 

Today has been a good day

I am following my philosophy for this year to take more time out.  With an old friend in town on his way back to Australia after being in Rome for a conference for priests, I had a perfect opportunity to take a day off and relax and unwnd.   So out I went to the airport hotel, where he was for the day, to have lunch with my friend.  It was such good fun to catch up with someone whom I had not seen for over 10 years. 

It was a much appreciated time after facing two huge days of trying to be a manager in a Thai workplace.   Refreshing even!

Now, what were these two days?  In the midst of much work activity, I was involved in or observing the Thai process in my office for making a decision on staff salary increases for 2015.  What I saw I judged to be quite bizarre.  I would think it to be a delicate matter.  I would think that it could be dealt with by looking up pay scales but there is no such thing.  Then I would think one would proceed in a specifically chosen and planned way that respects the important and delicate nature of the task.  There was none of this.

What transpired was that the Thai employer, the bishop, entrusted senior Thai staff to run their process of assessing staff salaries and report to him.  They were part of the decision making that concerned both their peers and themselves.  I thought this a grossly unfair burden for them but one they took on with great gusto.  But then this was happening in a culture so strongly based on patronage, seniority and hierarchy where ones just accept, at least outwardly, what is presented to them by therir superiors.  So they were expected to act but for two reasons.  One because they were asked by the bishop.  The other was because they were senior in the workplace and so they themselves expected to act on this group task and as well they were expected by the group to act for them.   

So the 'gang of three' came up with their agreed recommendations which they presented to the bishop who guess what?  He did not approve, saying their increases were far too high.  He then took their list and declared his own acceptable level of pay for staff.  The three took the list back, agreed to the boss' recommendations of the now reduced increases and presented his list back to him for his approval. 

I would say then that it was a process that was not a process.  It was about the boss having control all the time under the guise of teamwork.  I believe this to be more than just a bizarre practice but to be unprofessional and questionable as it takes an integral and valued, employer responsibility of upholding justice for all staff and uses it to remind the staff who is in control.  All along, the boss set the agenda and was making the decision.  The boss' agenda was to give pay increases to staff but it was much more than that.  It was even about more than just work hard and getting paid for that.     

It was a strange experience for me as I tried to understand what was happening and assert as best I could all along my one principle to see that all staff were treated fairly and justly.  It was an experience of being here where you are included but you are not and where you see how the culture of position and status acts in its own way to protect its own interests.     

I was exhausted at the end of all this.  So my day off was a needed day, a day to take time away and out and be in a different place in life. 

I have a new girlfriend

Guess what?  Over New Year I finally got out of Bangkok for a couple of days.  I just don't get away enough and I know that is not goos for me. 

I went with my good Thai friend, Om, to his home in Buriram Province up in the northeast of Thailand which is called Isan.  His family home is in a simple village and there I met a new girlfriend.  She has a great smile and loves to dance.  She just happens to be 77 and Om's grandmother.

New Year and not Christmas is the real holiday in Thailand.  It is when they all go home to be with their family.  So off I went out of Bangkok up country, along with millions of others.  It was a short adventure, enjoyable and different.  I discovered that this was what I needed in my life - get out of Bangkok and do something different.  It was so refreshing. 

It all started with New Year's dinner which was a family dinner at their father's house, sitting on the floor, sharing the food before us.  There was a simple exchange of gifts.  Then everyone went home or onto Buriram football stadium for New Year's Eve countdown.  Buriram has the best football team in the country. 

You could hear and see home fireworks at midnight but no great display.  Then it was New Year's Day.  This is the big day in the provinces.  The centre of life and celebration for the day was the temple.  During the day, they had a fair where there were simple rides and games.  You could do bingo and darts, or there was a little merry-go-round for the children.  Families went to make merit during the day for the New Year with the monks.  Then the big event was the Isan concert.  Once again this was at the temple and up to 10,000 people came.  Amazing!

"Simple" was the descriptive word that keeps coming to me as I describe my short time away.  It was simple, nothing outlandish, but it was also enjoyable being shared with people who were friendly and gracious.  I returned to Bangkok with a clearer mind and feeling good about life.  I was no longer feeling that end of the year tiredness.  My "task oriented" mindset was left behind and I was refreshed by just getting away and being with people.  I had given a greater focus to relationships and let them do their work on me. 

Once again, people's kindness did its good work.  It is not complicated.  It is just the way it is when I open myself up to others and give time to getting out of my work routine, my "task oriented" mindset.  It is simple and it is refreshing and it does give life.  I just have to do it more often.