Who Will Help Us Cross The Desert?

 (I belong to the Quebec Group on Contextual Theology. Over the past year we have focused on the economic crisis and have now published two reflections. This is the first. )


(2009)The current crisis has global dimensions: people without work, a food and environmental crisis, deterioration of public health in numerous countries, destabilization of the middle class, the dumping of millions of human beings into abject poverty. These catastrophes reveal the weakness of the colossus with feet of clay, the emptiness of an empire that pretends it is invincible, definitive like the “end of history.” Its collapse puts up for question not only the way our economic and financial systems function, but also its cultural and moral basis. We can speak of a crisis of civilization.

This empire has no doubt not completely given up the ghost. We search to set it free, to loosen the bonds of our more or less conscious collaboration. What liberation can we expect? By what paths? Who will help us cross the desert?

The crisis we are speaking of

Every day, the headlines carry news of a catastrophic economy. Here are a few examples. Black January for American employment: almost 600,000 positions have been eliminated and it continues. GM demands 30 billion dollars to avoid bankruptcy… The OEDC foresees an unemployment approaching double digits for all the member countries except Japan between now and the end of 2010. Since January, indirectly through various financial “tools” of the Feds, or directly by the Treasury, the American State has loaned 3,000 billion to the private sector in addition to offering a guarantee of 5,700 billion in certain investments. By comparison, the 700 billion agreed on for saving the AIG and others look like… confetti! In Quebec, there are 2,561 consumers who declared bankruptcy in January. In its turn, the Quebec Deposit and Investment Bank has ended the financial year 2008 with a loss of 40 billion dollars, that is to say, a negative return of more than 25%... In Japan the electronic industry loses billions, the stars in the sector were forced to let millions of employees go… The economy is in a shambles…. Is it possible for ordinary folk to understand something?

Ukraine Has Talent: War and Peace

This is an amazing piece of art done with fingers on a table of luminous sand:
Kseniya Simonova What can I say?

Diversity

Last September (2009) I gave a talk at the Canadian Ecumenical Centre in which I tried to touch on an aspect of the themes I addressed in my book, Dealing with Diversity. I am particularly concerned by the shift to integralism in the Catholic Church.

We are faced today with the most profound crisis since the rise of civilization 7,000 years ago. The planet, our shared home, is being ravaged by human presence to the extent that the result may be the near extinction of humanity. In addition, the race to get control of natural resources is driving humanity more and more toward extensive economic, cultural and social exclusions often through the use of violence.
The underlying source of the destruction lies in attitudes that have shaped public policy and economic activity. Thus the question of values and of motivation is crucial to any solution.

The World of the Andean Peoples

This is something I wrote a few years back for a little publication with an international focus.

The original peoples who inhabit the Andean Region of South America, like every culture, have their stories of how the world is and how it came to be. Many of these beliefs pre-date the arrival of Europeans in the 16th century but have evolved as a result of their contact with missionaries.


The Aymara people believe their origins lie in a liaison between the Sun and the Pachamama (Mother Earth) on an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. They believe this gave origin to the “first humanity.” However that humanity, semi-gods, displeased the Sun who destroyed them. A second attempt was more fruitful and the contemporary humans are the result.