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. 

There are those loose ends

Well, I hope Santa reached you and left some good cheer under that tree.  As for me, I am simply once again touched by the kindness of people at this time of year.  Family and friends from near and far have been most kind to me as have ones here with whom I am involved in my ministry.  All I can say is that people I know from Bangkok, Australia, wherever have been so kind to me and I think how good people are.  This is a good way to finish the year but this was not the way it was only last week. Then I felt much more tired, defeated or stretched in life. 

On my last day at the Caritas office on Christmas Eve, I went away thinking how much unfinished business I was leaving behind.  There were important tasks at hand but I could not finish them as they demanded the attention of more people than just me and in one way or another they were not there.   So as I approached finishing 2014 last week, my 'task oriented' mindset told me that I am finishing the year with many loose ends left undone.  Ho, hum! 

Then along came Christmas and I name it as my focus changed to my 'relationship oriented' mindset and my experience has been so much more positive.  So this week, I approach finishing the year with a healthy appreciation of humanity.  People have been good to me over these past few days and they have left their mark on me for the better.  My overwhelming sense is that I no longer feel tired, defeated or stretched. 

I wonder how to put these two mindsets or experiences of my life together.  I don't believe in compartmentalising life.  I also don't see that one mindset can be ignored while the other becomes dominant and rules the day.  The two I am sure speak to each other and go hand in hand.  There are the loose ends in my life but that does not take away from the fact that people are basically good and life has so much to offer. 

Maybe these two roads in my life come together through reflecting on another experience in my Bangkok.  It is Christmas - New Year and people flock here from the Australias of our world because they have found their bit of paradise, escape or just place of fun.  For them, here can be their El Dorado for now.  For me, this is home.  It can be anything but fun and my internal response to encountering these people can be a simple internal yell - Please!!!

Here is my place of work and daily struggle, it is my place of daily achievement and striving, the place where I meet people and friends on a daily basis.  As I reflect on life from this approach, I think good Pope Francis has something to offer me.  I need to have more fun and exercise that sense of humour.  I must not overemphasize the task focus in life at the expense of the relationship focus.  Life may have become too serious and in the process I just don't stop enough and enjoy the goodness of people around me.  As they say, I need to smell the flowers more. 

Yes, there are the loose ends but they don't really matter.  They are a part of life and the task will always remain undone.  What really matters is life itself and to savour and enjoy it, to savour and enjoy the people around me.  What matters is balance in life.  The task focus in life cannot take over from the relationship focus.  Both are important and have their place.  What, I would say, has primary place is relationships.  Never let the task lose sight of the people, never let the negative overcome the positive, never let the world's woes hide the world's joys and possibilities for goodness and greatness.  Good Pope Francis is right.  A healthy sense of humour is essential in life. 

I wonder if Santa has any loose ends at the completion of his annual tour of duty.  Well, loose ends or not, he knows that Christmas has to keep rolling on. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!  Happy New Year!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

Christmas recital at Holy Rosary church. 

Holy Rosary church is a lovely, old Catholic church in Bangkok near Chinatown and on the river.  It was built some 200 years ago as the church for the then Portugese community in the then Siam.  The Portugese were some of the Europeans living here in the kingdom's history for the sake of trade, diplomacy and business. 

I was at Holy Rosary Monday evening for a Christmas recital by the Bangkok Voices.  It was an uplifting experience, listening to the Christmas songs while looking around at the inside of the church with its many statues and symbols and wonderful sky or heavenly like ceiling.   

It was a good way to enter into Christmas week.  Their last song was particularly moving.  It was "The Prayer".  Celine Dion does a version as does Andrea Bocelli, or they sing it together.  I heard the words and felt they had a real message and here it is: 
"Let this be our prayer.  When shadows fill our day, lead us to a place, guide us with your grace. give us faith so that we'll be safe. 
..............
It's the faith you light in us.  I feel it will save us."

Merry Christmas!!!

What's the hurry?

On Sunday, I met with a great friend who is a Filipina and working here as a Director of an NGO.  When talking about being a boss here, I was amazed to hear her use the same line I use in dealing with Thai staff.  She simply said how they show no sense of urgency.  She sees all their work just building up, with so much being left undone until the very end. 

How true!  Nothing here is done quickly.  Many things are ongoing and just left unfinished.  Then the classic experience is seen when Thais want something done immediately in their time frame after leaving the same task go unattended for so long.  There is then a great rush and a demand for immediate action. 

Here there is no great sense of urgency amongst the general population and life just goes on and on and on.  I am reminded of this approach to life by the picture of last week of the two girls sleeping at the bus stop.  That is such a typical scene.  I am coming on the bus to work this morning and there are two school girls sitting together and both are sound asleep.  You wonder if they will ever wake up for their stop. 

It is a week before Christmas and this time of year has its own sense of urgency to get things done and be ready for the big day.  It is all go!  None of that here.  Life goes on at its own pace.  Nothing will move the people unless they want to be moved.  There is a general complacency, a certain laissez-faire among the population but there is much more to them than that.  This is not the whole story for you don't want to disturb them or disagree with them without expecting a backlash.  Like everything here, it highlights how complex the culture and the people are.  Nothing can ever be dealt with by a short essay.  Rather any understanding demands at least a chapter of a major thesis.

For someone like me, it keeps me ever awake and ever thinking on what is really happening and how best to approach life issues. 

Merry Christmas!