Who am I?

My experience as an Australian is that we are ever conversing about identity, about who we are as Australians, about what it means to be an Australian.  It is like identity is the eternal Australian quest.

As Thursday this week is Australia Day, I see our eternal quest is back in the news.   I see the article - What does it mean to be an Australian?  Then another - Should we rethink Australia Day?

All this from Australia, while I live in a country where national and cultural identity is neither questioned or discussed.  It is presented as strictly defined and as such held by the people.  They talk of Thainess.  As a foreigner in Thailand, if there is a dispute during your day with a Thai, it can be firmly and easily resolved by the Thai when it is stated, "This is Thailand" or "I am Thai in Thailand".  This is what I call playing the Thai card.  To be Thai says something precise to Thais about the world and their place in it.  It is held up as a key defining factor in both their national and personal life. 

This same central life issue of cultural identity is handled very differently in my two countries.  Herein lies a key.  Can we easily define identity?  Why do we need to infallibly define it for all eternity? 

On purpose, there is no picture this week as any picture might give one a hint that here lies the answer.  As in life, what matters more is the questioning, not the answers, and questioning together so as to build up a better world for all with whom we share our life.  That is what culture is about, is it not?

Who is Zygmunt?

Only this past week did I discover Zygmunt Bauman whom sadly I never knew earlier.  Who is he? 

Well he died only this month and that is why I discovered him as Aljazeera was repeating an interview with him in his honour.  Zygmunt was a sociologist and philosopher.  He was a Polish Jew, born in 1925.  In his lifetime, he suffered two totalitarian regimes.  One he fought against.  The other of which he was a part persecuted him.

His life story is amazing as during World War II he went into Russia to fight with the USSR against the Nazis.  After the war, he returned home only to depart yet again in the late 1960s not for being Jewish but due to a political purge against academics and Polish Jews and others seen as a threat to the State.  He went to the UK and there worked at Leeds University. 

He knew what it was to lose everything including one's home and country.  So he could speak with conviction when he said -
"See the world through the eyes of society's weakest members and then tell anyone honestly that our societies are good, civilised, advanced, free."

What grabbed me on hearing Zygmunt speak in an interview made in mid-2016 was his take on the present refugee crisis facing Europe.  He explained it basically in terms of how those supposedly in control and with power, living their everyday lives in Europe, were being personally threatened in their very existence when faced with this flood of refugees.  Life is so fragile, so precarious.

So he named those being threatened in Europe as the precariat, coming from the French word meaning to be standing on vanishing sands.  It is, of course, the same root for the word in English - precarious.  The phenomenon we are seeing then is one of those who see themselves as being in control now living in fear for they feel threatened by what they see before them.  This tide of refugees represents for them all their fears as they see that they too could become like these desperate and vulnerable people, losing everything, losing control.  If it could happen to happy and successful Syrians, it could happen to the precariat as well.  The supposedly strong and in control are being faced with a reality they do not want to face - they too could become like these refugees trying to come into their homeland.   Those living a successful existence were actually living a precarious existence, being under threat of losing control.

As I so dearly hold, control does not work.  It just doesn't.   

Something is happening

Floods in the south

This past week has seen huge rains in the south causing flooding that has led to destruction with its loss of life and property and to the stranding of travellers. 

Such devastation can simply and easily be blamed on climate change which I do not doubt but what I am seeing is that climate change can become the excuse for our doing nothing.  It can just be said that devastating floods will and do occur due to climate change and leave it at that.  Nothing changes except maybe more destruction the next time.

The massive floods are caused by huge rain but the accompanying devastation is more man made due to poor planning, lack of preparedness and response and inadequate infrastructure. 

This coming Sunday is the World Day of Migrants and Refugees.  In his annual message, Pope Francis highlights that we can blame their level of poverty and ignorance, their lack of education for migrants and refugees becoming prey to evil in the world.  However, the most powerful force for their becoming victims of evil in our world is the powerful carrot of what perpetrators of evil can gain from such abuse. We need to place the blame rightfully where it belongs and not just blame the victim or the victim's environment for their plight. 
  
Something is happening.  Maybe the something is our lack of real concern and response for our neighbour.  Does the other matter?  Do we care for those outside our circle?  Are we engaged with the wider world?   

Something is happening but what? 

A Colourful 2017

This Nigerian family comes to mass every Sunday at the cathedral and every Sunday they present with a different outfit.  Each time, their dress is so colourful, reflecting their own happiness and love for life.  I can see it in their faces and not just in their dress.  

Well, they arrived this Sunday for mass on New Year's Day and I just thought - Stunning!  I so had to take a photo and share their colour and joie de vive.  So here it is. 

They make for me a loud, clear and positive statement about what I hope for 2017 and for all of us.  May it be a year of colour!  Not the year of gloom that I hear so many around me talk about.  

I think that in the midst of all that is going on in our world what is needed is colour.  This is not so as to escape harsh realities but rather to help us face our harsh realities within a healthy, life giving and joyful perspective so that we meet them head on as challenges for us to tackle for the sake of life.

May 2017 be a year of vibrant and life-giving colour!!

Christmas is full of surprises

I just love Christmas.  It is a wonderful time of year.  That is me and I am sticking to it despite all flack that I might receive from Christmas skeptics who tend to get it all wrong because they are stuck in the snares of capitalism of other -isms which I could name as materialism and individualism.  Their other mistake is to simply assume the reason why I love Christmas.  My love for Christmas is definitely not defined by the -isms prevailing in our society.  It is more defined by who we are or better put as who we could be in line with God's vision for us through creation.  It is about giving a chance to being the truly good people we are called to be by a God who believes in us.  

Never fail to be surprised at Christmas, I say.

As always, what has made my Christmas has not been the gifts or cheques that may have been received but rather the touching and special stories that have come to me from friends as they simply strive to get on with life, while trying to add a bit of extra cheer at this time of year.  

One friend is alone these days following a divorce.  She doesn't just stay alone but chooses to share her Christmas and her home with refugee families that she helps during the year, complete with a game of back yard cricket after lunch.

Another friend has me praying for his good friend who is very sick.  When I hear that this guy may not make it to Christmas, I send a simple message of assuring him of my prayers.  In return, I am sent a touching photo of the guy waving from his sick bed, being helped in a very caring way by his partner to sit up and wave at me.

These two stories have made my Christmas.  This is what Christmas is about.

Happy Christmas.  Ho! Ho! Ho!

What is missing?

This local scene looks so bare.  I feel so sad each day as I go past this spot just around the corner from where I live.  Why is this so?  What is happening?

You see, by this time of year, this building has placed in front of it a whole fabulous Christmas world with a huge tree, music, lights and much more.  It is full of colour and atmosphere and enjoyment.  Not so this year as there is nothing.  It is just bare space.  However, I understand and respect why.  It is because Thailand is mourning the loss of their beloved King and so no Christmas joy in the public sphere here this year.

Still, no matter what, Christmas does come.  Nothing can stop Christmas.  Well, at least on the inside. 

So my humble little tree with its decrations and lights has gone up as usual as Christmas will be celebrated no matter what - at least in the private sphere for me for this year in Thailand.  I even got a new set of lights which are so inexpensive but yet so wonderful with their colour and their flashing on and off in a varied routine.  Then there is is my Santa bag.  I love it.  It all transforms my apartment, adding a bit of extra colour and joy to my life and to those who come my way.   It is all so simple but so important for me as it adds to life and helps to bring forth a spirit of goodwill. 

I only ask - Why isn't it like this all year?  Why just Christmas?  This special time of Christmas has a message for the rest of the year.  Joy and good will to all. 

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Guess where I have been?

Pictures tell the story. 

What a great place and full of such friendly people.