I have read so many fantastic books 2008, old and new. Here are a few that are outstanding:

Fiction:

Midnights Children by Salman Rushdie

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostevsky

Nonfiction:

Let your life speak by Parker J. Palmer

The bookseller of Kabul by Åsne Seierstad

Biography:

a billion lives by Jan Egeland

Theology:

The CS lewis book on the bible by Schriftman,

Christian thought revisited by Gonzalez

Doxology by Geoffrey Wainwright

The new Christians by Tony Jones

The fingerprints of God by Robert Farrar Capon

What are your top books this year?икони

There’s something about the current economic crisis that is trying to tell us our way of life is insane and unsustainable. Too many experts want to “fix” the crisis without learning what it is trying to teach us. Thankfully, Bob Carlton is a blogger who is trying to learn by reflecting meaningfully on what’s going on, seeking to mine some wisdom from the mountain of insanity.

Here’s a post on greed.
A second on scapegoating.
And one on the crisis in general … which includes this quote from Devinder Sarma of STWR (Share The World’s Resources):

The one trillion dollar bailout package that President Bush is promising could have wiped out the last traces of poverty, hunger, malnutrition and squalor from the face of the Earth – if only our global leadership prioritised the poor with the same level of urgency as the financial crisis

Bob recommends this additional piece by Katrina Vanden Heuvel and Eric Schlosser, who suggest it’s time for a new new deal.

Ironically, what Osama Bin Laden failed to do on September 11, 2001, we may have done to ourselves in the seven years since: bring our system crashing down upon itself in an orgy of greed and action without forethought. If we’ve been waiting for another wake-up call, I think it’s arrived.

Life in Africa

A recent article in the Economist writes that matters might not be getting better in Africa, than claimed and hoped for. Here is one claim from the article.

“the regional figure for government effectiveness has deteriorated some 17%, as has regulatory quality and the control of corruption. Africa’s performance as regards rule of law has barely changed since 1996.”

I lived a number of years in Cape Town, South Africa. During this time I also visited many of the neighboring countries like Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Malawi to name a few.

Last year I went back to my former home, Cape town for a 6 month visit. I spent some of that stay, visiting some of the projects I formerly was a part of. The visit took me back to khayelitsha, the biggest township outside Cape Town. As always, the contrast between the luxury, a big part of Cape Town represents comes to life driving down the freeway from the Airport, and into the city center. This drive also reminded me of the contrasts between Khayelitsha, and Malawi. A contrast between two “inhuman ways to live life”.

A Norwegian in Malawi

The contrast between rich and poor, is apparent in a place like Cape Town. But the contrast is also apparent between the poor in Cape Town and the poor in Malawi. I remember stepping of the plane in Lilongwe, northern Malawi, seeing poverty, death, sickness all around. It was in stark contrast to how life should be; vibrant and alive.

The question I bear with me to this day is this, what can I actually do here? I am a rich white male, from one of the wealthiest countries in the world. I represent resources, and possibilities that certainly should inspire me to do something. Bringing Malawi with me home is certainly not an option. How could my friends in Malawi and myself share anything?

Hope?

I soon found out we had a lot in common, and there was lots to share. Hope is one such thing. Any human being, in or outside Malawi, or any other developing African nation, can contribute to change.

Several sources develop this idea well, the Boston globe is one example, they write,

“The number of democratically elected governments has risen sharply in the past decade, and the number of violent conflicts has dropped.”

Some ways that have helped me be involved in projects, or lives of specific people are the following.

Going there, visiting Malawi for instance, has been eyeopening for me. My travels have taught me what the gap looks like. It has taught me, this is not what life should look like. It has taught me that the world is a big “boarder free” landscape, given to all of us. Not to me in Norway, or Thabo in Malawi. We share humanity and should together pursue making this place a better place for us all.

Friendships and interactions with foreigners in Sweden and Norway have also been important in understanding this. It has given me contact and opportunities to interact and take part in projects and life in more than 70 nations.

I am still learning what it means to be a part of helping the world “one person at a time”, or like Obama recently said in a speach in England, “we can not solve the world problems on our own”. I don’t completely like the taste of the word “help” always, but I realize I often need the help myself. The sharing of life is not a utopia, despite people doing things we find strange, unlawful or unacceptable.

What are your thoughts, do I have any business whatsoever putting my feet in Malawi again? And how can we make Africa a better place?

Asylum seekers attacked yesterday

Fremskrittspartiet

It is alarming to see that “Fremskrittspartiet” has slowly become the biggest political party in Norway. more that 30 % of the Norwegian population would vote for them according to a recent poll.

“Fremskrittspartiet” or “the Progress Party” is a populist, liberalistic party committed to tax reduction, free market economics and deregulation of the economy, stricter limits on immigration, closer cooperation with NATO, the USA and also Israel in foreign policy.

What is so alarming?

“Fremskrittspartiet” or whatever party which first and foremost wants to build up walls towards immigrants, and put a hold on foreign aid, are parties I am careful to support.

Norway is taking giant leaps every day towards becoming the richest country on the planet. While Nations in Africa and Asia are taking giant leaps in the opposite direction, we decide to vote for a party that wants to escalate that progress? Or is recession the final outcome?

Money and resources towards refugee camps are not of high priority. The fact that we put our asylum seekers, and refugees in tents is a shameful act.

The result has been a sting of violence and inhuman living conditions in many of these centers. Yesterday Asylum seekers were attacked seemingly by other refugees in an asylum center in Norway.

are Norway and USA the same ?

Norwegians, like most Europeans have been strongly critical of how, and why “Christian America” voted for, and elected president Bush.

Bush and the Republicans won a lot of votes from the evangelical block because of the following thinking:

“If a candidate is right on issue A and issue B, support him without reservation,” which carried the tacit message, “These issues are so important –don’t worry what he says about issue C and issue D.”

Sadly the evangelical christian vote in Norway are doing the same thing. In the name of tax reductions, and lower fuel costs, the poor in the world will suffer more than they do today, in the name of “me first” another girl will sleep in a tent without her parents, in Oslo!

What is a Norwegian?

I thought being a Norwegian involved putting others first, being hospitable, sharing our resources and lives with the “least of these”, I thought we didn’t own our land, but were given it by God to share with the rest of our world?

Was i wrong?

What actually happened to Norway?

Time magazine named Jan Egeland one of the 100 “people who shape our world”. I recomend his newly released book ” a billion lives.”

You can read more about Jan Egeland here.