Quote[s] of the week ...

It felt like a harbinger of a long winter of discontent, and perhaps a much longer sojourn in the wilderness - a prospect made all the worse by the sense that the world was somehow, bizarrely, disconcertingly, out of joint.

It was actually happening. The nerd was kissing the homecoming queen. Paper was beating scissors; scissors were beating rock. Charlie Brown was kicking the football. The Red Sox were beating the Yankees for the American League pennant.
[The NYT reflects on Boston's 4-3 series win over the Yankees].

Curse of the Bambino??

Legend has it, after the Red Sox manager sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, [Picture the fist record label executive turning down The Beatles], a curse was placed on the Red Sox. Perhaps history bears it out - since 1918, the Yankees have won 26 Major League Baseball Titles, and the Red Sox none, and they had lost some from seemingly invincible positions.

The Red Sox are perennial bridesmaids, and it was probably only the team itself who believed after the Yankees won the first three games of their seven game series they could even make the Final Series.

But make it they did... becoming the first team to erase a three game lead to win a series. Now they lead the [World] Series against the St. Louis Cardinals 3-0.

This afternoon an 86 year hoodoo was broken.

Soundtrack for a time

Thought I'd share the tunes that are running through my head at the moment. For one reason or another [either the words, the tune, or both] these songs are stuck in my head.

The Ground Beneath Her Feet - U2
How to Dissappear Completely - Radiohead
I Hope You Dance - Lee Ann Womack
The Metre - Powderfinger
Miserere - Andrea Bocelli and Zucchero, [and there's also a beaut version by Pavorotti and Bono]
World on Fire - Sarah McLachlan

Other notable songs are I Wanted to Be Wrong [R.E.M.], Clocks [Coldplay] and Only Hope [Switchfoot].

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Should add that I'm intermittent about blogging at the moment as our my flatmates and I are re-thinking our ISP. I'll post more about each of the above songs, once we get a connection back at the flat. :) Also please welcome Guan to my blogroll (who also attends Unichurch with me :))

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Also want to say ~ it was great to go to the Wollongong Univeristy Christian Union's Supporters dinner [see Elsie's post]. Great to hear the Campus ministry is thriving. Though the names and faces of the MTS Trainees and staff change, what does not is that the hand of God is will active, more people are being discipled, and encouraged, as God opens their eyes and causes them to grow and bear fruit - and that is beautiful.

Soccer, and some jazz ...

Busy week. Saw the Socceroos Confederation Cup match with the Solomon Islands on Tuesday night which was fun. Well - it took the first 20 minutes to actually get into the ground. But once we got in there, we saw a dominant if not brilliant performance by the Socceroos.

Down to Wollongong last night, I was told that Elixir were playing a gig at my former local - The Heritage Hotel in Bulli. Which is a beautiful building, rich in history.

The concert was great. Katie, has a voice to die for, such an expressive range and added to by the hauntingly beautiful sax, and guitar. Wonderful night. The band performed mostly new material and also included two covers Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, and What's Going On.

Am heading back down to Wollongong tonight, for a friend's 25th Birthday, then on to the Wollongong Univeristy Evangelical Christian Union Supporters Dinner. Should be a fun weekend :)

>>> Dismantling the Election, part 2.

Seeing as I posted an entry speaking on voting, I thought I’d stay on the political theme for another moment or two.

So, John Howard has won a fourth term. Regardless of what I feel of his policies that is a remarkable achievement. I acknowledge that the Australian people voted him in, and have clearly stated their support for him. This however does not remove my feeling that we lost the moment to say what we as a nation value, and who we as a nation are.

Why did Latham lose? Well it’s not simply because of the interest rate scare, although that message did get through.

The result of the election is down to as much Howard’s experience, as Latham’s inexperience. Beazley suggested on ABC’s coverage that the result was not as bad as it could have been, and that’s probably true. An election late last year, may well have given the Coalition a greater majority than ’96.

I wonder about a few things in relation to Latham’s campaign. Firstly – I don’t agree that his campaign was totally positive, although I do think that his advertising emphasised policy areas of concern while the Government emphasised the character of Latham. I don’t think that he sold his policies well. I think that he was out-foxed with respect to the Forest Policy. And perhaps the preference deal with the Greens did more harm than good; as Ben mentioned while the ALP aligns itself with the Greens it potentially alienates a large number of its traditional supporters.

I think it is under pretty exceptional circumstances that citizens elect to change government; generally under good economic conditions an Opposition is up against it. Personally, I’ve realised through working in a political environment the majority are silent, until polling day. But its wrong to suggest that all of those who voted the Coalition in agree with the war, or agree with their refugee policy, rather these are not seen as reasons to vote out Howard’s Government.

Moving on, it will be worth watching the mark Family First leave on the Australian Political landscape. Are they likely to be a balancing act to the government, and hold the government accountable? Today's Australian runs a piece on the party. And there's also another Opinion piece talking about Christianity as the new political force.

Though two articles from Monday caught my attention – Hugh Mackay wrote a piece talking arguing that it wasn't about the campaign. Another piece by Clive Hamilton who wrote "the Coalition victory reflects the unhealthy preoccupation with self that characterises modern Australia".

Before I leave the sphere of politics, my commitment now is to remain engaged – congratulate this government when it is 'right', and to continue to register disapproval when appropriate.

>>> How to Dismantle an Election

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I want to be careful, I really hesitated before posting this, because I don’t want to put stumbling blocks in front of people. I don’t want to turn people of the Gospel because of my political opinion. At the same time, I want to explore the issues surrounding what impacts the way we vote as Christians. And I may be wrong.

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I’ve been watching a little bit of television over the past few weeks. I found Insight during the last few weeks to be fascinating. Insight is a forum program, and last week they were talking to young –first time voters. The program didn’t get close to covering all the detail. But the gist of the young people’s comments was that neither party communicates with young people, and seeks to label issues as youth issues. You could see a breakdown in communication all night. As the two politicians spoke, faces went blank, eyes rolled, and the message was not received, and the following week the lesson was people feel taken for granted as two years of inaction is followed by a flurry of promises and further inaction. The economic issues, of security and the like, get a run ahead of values. The general mood is that happiness is defined in terms of dollars and cents, or a good career [Clive Hamilton is one of many researchers who has been talking about the relationship between money and happiness].

One of the things that has been running around my head particularly over the last week or so, since I went to the CASE Election Forum, was how Christians thought in general about voting, who they should vote for, and what impacts their question. During the CASE seminar four people outlined the reasons the voted in a particular manner [the parties were Liberal, Labour, Christian Democrats and the Greens]. We spoke about issues of conservative family values we spoke about issues of truth in Government, the Iraq War, Refugees-asylum seekers, and other issues of Social Inequality. And it seems to me, that Christian’s by-enlarge will use the former to make their decision. Yes it is true to say that conservative family values is not the sum total of Christian belief, it seems to largely be the determining one.

After watching the Cutting Edge documentary on the faith of George W. Bush, I was left with little doubt that Bush has a strong Evangelical faith. One of the striking claims was that Bush, in the 2000 election, won 84 per cent of the Evangelical vote. From the US polls, and casual conversations I’ve had with a few American friends, it seems that this will be repeated. I find this staggering, I just keep saying where are the Christians who oppose Bush, who has misled the nation, dragging them off to a war, for which there was no plan. It seems that Iraq is less stable than before Bush went in, and we’ve created a fertile soil for growing more terrorists, and that is without mentioning any domestic issues. Bush will have their vote; seemingly on issues of conservative values – stem cell research, pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, and faith-based action.

Speaking personally, I have been thinking through the issues of who to vote for in the upcoming election. I was not happy when I saw the Labour Party nominate Peter Garrett as the candidate for the seat in which I live. I believe that candidates should be pre-selected by the membership of the party, not imposed by the party leadership.

Though, as the campaign has continued, while I have seen and heard very little of Garrett [to my disappointment], I have been growing in my respect for Latham, and how he has run the campaign. Yes I think there is a lot about Latham that is not desirable. But I am not willing to let this government, that has created a strong economy at a social cost; this government that has been loose with the truth in relation to Children Overboard and the war in Iraq; this government that has sullied Australia’s reputation in the Global community by wilfully ignoring international treaties to which we are signatories, off the hook.

I have to admit that the two biggest messages that have got through over the course of the campaign. (1) Interest rates will go up under Latham (or its the Economy stupid, and (2) you can’t trust an inexperienced politician to run the country. And I think both of these are wrong. Sometimes I think we devalue freshness. By enlarge we are a cautious bunch. In my judgement with our caution we are doing damage, and this damage is more extensive than the damage of electing a Latham government. And perhaps not surprisingly no public economist is on the record saying interest rates will be higher under Latham.

I’m interested to hear from readers why you are intending to vote in that manner you will. I am desperately keen and interested to hear from American Christians how they will vote in the US Election. I should note that I am more interested in how you decide to vote, than whom you vote for.

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A run through today's editorials - the SMH comes down asserting its independence, acknowledging of course, "the policy may not hold forever. A truly awful government of any colour, for example, would bring reappraisal"., while The Age, The Courier Mail and The Australian suggest on the balance we should return the Coalition. While The Sun Herald last Sunday suggested Latham needs another three years as Opposition leader.

We Won !!!!

Yep. That's right, the netball team that I am part of won our first game tonight, 23-19. I played Wing Defense this week, a bit more running, and I'm getting used to playing in varied roles on court which is quite cool. Playing Netball has been a great way to get to know people in church better, and get a little bit more exercise each week :)

World Teacher's Day

I was looking at the Leunig Calendar that came with our Sydney Morning Herald earlier in the year. I looked at todays date and found that today is World Teacher's Day. Having spent time on both sides of the desk I recognise the role the teachers play.

What I want to use this entry for today is to thank my teachers for their work with me. I value these hours they spent trying to teach me. I am, who I am, in part because of their efforts. Let's continue to pray for those who are in, and seek to enter the teaching profession.

What’s been happening

::Went to a CASE Seminar on the Election, and will post my reflections during the course of this week.

:: Played Netball as usual on Thursday, I played Centre, now that was a lot of work, and very tiring. I’m sure it would have been quite hilarious watching me [attempt to] play Centre.

:: On Saturday night went to Tim Freedman [of The Whitlims] for a friends Birthday. Have to admit that I am not that familiar with Tim’s music. It was quite a depressing gig. The lyrics were far more bleak than I remembered, and the band has also had a pretty sad time of it, two of the members committed suicide. The music itself was interesting, having an up-tempo song with a bright sound full of such distressing memories. I need to say it was great going to a pub, and not inhaling any lungfuls of Cigarette smoke.

:: I’m going to try my hand at a CD review. I bought R.E.M.’s Around the Sun, and Evermore’s Dreams. I’ll post a review of Around the Sun here soon. I was quite happy to hear that R.E.M. will be touring here in March next year. Along with U2 and Radiohead, R.E.M. is one band I’m heaps interested in seeing live.

:: Went to my old church again this weekend. Good to catch up with the gang, but am looking forward to being back at my Sydney church next weekend.

:: Next weekend, having an all-day-brekky with friends from Unichurch. Then going to a post-election party with workmates.