Post 55—Wasting Water: A Precious Resource

Spent part of yesterday at Derby Reach, a park on the Fraser River near Langley BC. There were many shrieking happy children voices as they ran around innocently playing their games without any thought of the potential effect or ramifications of their games. Well, of course not. Who would expect such concerns from happy playing children?

There was a water faucet nearby that was difficult to open, but once opened it spurted out water with great gusto, obviously under great pressure down below. There is probably only one activity that children playing in a river-side park like better than water faucets—throwing stones in the river’s water. We were not disappointed on either count. Many were the stones that ended up in the river and many were the gallons of water the children managed to squeeze out of that stubborn faucet and promptly dumped on the grass a few feet away—all evening. Perhaps we should have counted the gallons.  Water a precious resource as some claim? You’d never know from these children—or from their “supervising” parents who did nothing to stop the “innocent” play. 

It’s hard, if not harsh, to criticize children playing their innocent games.  I love watching them go through their antics.  So much fun; so much joy; so much innocence.  No, I won’t criticize them, but I will criticize their parents for allowing them to waste so much water. Today this group of families; tomorrow that group—but ongoing from day to day throughout the park season.  Gallons and gallons of it without let up.  

Water a precious resource? You’d never guess that to be the case either when you drive through North America’s suburbs with their spacious lawns in the summer time. Gallons upon gallons poured out daily to keep them green, only to be mowed every few days and that beautiful grass to be mulched on a weekly basis. An entire industry has grown up to serve that culture of beauty and—waste.  Yes, waste; pure waste of a precious and diminishing resource. Almost totally mindless.

It’s not only the people in Western countries who waste water mindlessly. I have lived in communities in an African country where women have for decades and even centuries had to daily haul water from distant places to cook and clean.  Usually on their heads; sometimes on shoulder or back. It was an unending and tormenting task without ever a break.  I have rejoiced with them when their government would install a water system for the community.  

You’d think that after life-long scarcity and hard work, they would be very careful in their use of the new easy supply of water, but that is often not the case. In contrast to the past where they rationed it carefully, they will often leave the faucets open and running when no one is around to catch the water. I’ve been amazed to see this. Just like the playing children and the law sprinklers above, they seem to think the supply is endless. They just let it run on and on and on….  Almost totally mindless. 

If you keep up with the news, you will know that in the US desert state of California, drought has set in with a vengeance, severely impacting the cost of food not only for the local people but throughout the US and even Canada. As we speak, I watch the price of food in Vancouver BC climb and climb and wonder when it will settle down. The question for all of us, not just Californians, is what can be done about it?  Where will it end?  Do we even have the gumption to address it?  Can a government that wants to address it seriously by restricting access in some way even survive?  

It’s a topic I plan to address off and on. I hope to occasionally describe various plans that are being offered to rescue the situation and the people’s reaction to them. What motivations might be needed for people to become more careful in their use of this precious resource?  Could financial incentives bring a change in behaviour? Perhaps water comes too cheap for us to bother?

As to myself, I have an in-built water restraint: my Christian faith.  I don’t need a financial incentive to reduce my water consumption. I am very conscious of the very first command in the Bible that instructs us to manage well the garden God has bequeathed us. This demands that as the supply diminishes, we devise more economical ways to use it. It demands an end to mindless or selfish wastage. And if nothing else, having experienced those African situations, every time I observe wastage, whether water or anything else, I get nervous.  That experience should be enough for anyone. 

So, this post is an example of  the previous post: the Biblical tradition of mixing religion with the “secular” things of this world. They cannot be separated, for your faith, whatever it is, will always influence your response to these situations. Check yourself. What would be at the bottom of any attempt of yours to convince you to change you wasteful habits?  You will find there is always some value system or belief that underlies your response. If you’re a Christian, the previous paragraph should be part of your motivation and that should be stronger than any financial considerations, though they also have a legitimate part in all of this.

Post 54--Mixing the Spiritual with the Mundane

Here I am again, only a day or two after the last post. I am trying hard to appease you for the long delay you have just suffered. No, no promise it will not happen again, but I will try my darnest. I am foreseeing a couple of trips in my intermediate future: to Atlanta (GA) and Mountain View (CA). We’ll see what comes out of those trips. As I say….

One of the characteristics of this my blog is that I often go back and forth between so-called “religious” and “worldly” or “secular” topics.  I don’t keep a straight line of separation between the two; I don’t compartmentalize them. I discuss all sorts of topics in random order—abortion, Aboriginals, transparency, taxes, politicians and in between appear all kinds of religious and philosophical issues.  Why is this? Is my sense of logic impaired?  Am I propriety challenged?

Actually, I “mix up” all these issues quite on purpose and by design. Some years ago I published a book of daily meditations with the title The Prophet Moses for Today.[1] There, too, I mixed up all these topics and defended this practice in Meditation 339 under the title “No Compartmentalized Christianity.”  Topics just previous to this one include “A Banker’s Responsibility” (332), seducing virgins (333), forced marriage (334), sorcery (336-337) and bestiality (338).  Topics right after Meditation 339 include murder (340), politics (341) and aliens (342).  What a strange hodge-podge!

The reason for this sequence was actually quite simple: I was following the sequence of these subjects as found in the Bible--in the Ten Commandments, to be more precise.  But, you may ask, why does the Bible write in this “hodge-podgy” way?  Does this not confirm the negative misgivings so many people have about it?  Why did its writers not organize topics more logically and systematically?

Meditation 339 puts it this way:

There you have it again. Mixing religion with “secular” affairs. We have just meditated on sorcery and bestiality, while the next few verses deal with aliens and widows. So, why have just one religious verse mixed in with all this “secular” stuff?  Especially moving from bestiality to religion is to move from the ridiculous to the sublime. Why can’t the Bible keep these things apart a little more neatly?

Sorry about that. …the Bible does not compartmentalize religion from so-called “secular” life. It is against the Christian religion to do so. Christians who so compartmentalize have given in to secularism, which is simply another system of belief or religion.  They live by two religions, the Christian and the secular.  These are two opposing religions or perspectives. People who adhere to both are weak both in the spiritual life as well as their life in the world. Christians will often compensate for their weakness and contradiction by screaming and yelling in their religious gatherings. Screaming supposedly covers up the powerlessness in their lives and gives them a fake sense of spiritual power. 

So, our text for today (Exodus 22:20) is a witness to and embodiment of the centrality of religion in human life—in everyone’s life.  Your entire life is influenced and, indeed, directed, by the force, ideal or idol or God to which you sacrifice or dedicate your life. I urge that this be the Jehovah God of the Bible, the One the churches around you preach about regularly.

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A  random word of wisdom:  “When you don’t talk about something, then something will talk about itself for you.” (from Alexander Smith:  The Handsome Man’s de Luxe Café.)

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[1]Jos, Nigeria: Institute of Church & Society, 1995. You can access it free of charge on my website 

< www.SocialTheology.com/boeriana >.

Post 53--A Travelogue of Sorts

Welcome to “Summer 15” for all of us northerners. As to you southerners, may you enjoy your skating and skiing this July.

Once again, I fell into a trap that has often beclouded the blogs I have operated over the years. If you were with me then, you will know what I am referring to.  A long silence due to lengthy travel, something I had intended to avoid—the silence, not the travel! Even when away, I had decided, I would write a few posts. Nothing came of it. Sorry.

In the meantime, my wife and I had a wonderful time in Grand Rapids (GR), MI, where she grew up and where I did my college and seminary. It is also the location of the mission board of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) under which I served for 30 years in Nigeria. I spent some fifteen years in that city off and on.  Many of my in-laws live there as well as numerous friends. So, we had a great time, but in the meantime, I left you in the lurch.  Remember this business of promises not kept many posts ago? Well, this is another instance, private/personal intentions not kept even. When will I learn my own lessons?

I actually had another topic picked out for this post, but it will have to await Post 53. The above was meant to be kind of an aside before I got to the real subject, but it occurred to me that I would be doing you a favour by introducing that GRcommunity to you. It is a mid-size mid-western city with a population of some 180,000 in the city proper and about one million in its metro area.  You may not be aware of this city simply because of its average size, but, according to Wikipedia, in 2014, GR was named the No. 1 U.S. travel destination by Lonely Planet. Now that should tell you something—it’s not just your average city.

But it has had its ups and downs, almost simultaneously, it seems.  A January 21, 2011 Newsweek article listed Grand Rapids as a "dying city."  But in 2010 the city was named the "most sustainable midsize city in the U.S." by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Go figure!

It is known for several distinctives and includes an impressive array of “firsts” in the area of culture and the arts. The longest-standing major reputation is that of “Furniture City.” It remains a major furniture city, but it is rapidly becoming known better as the country’s “Beer City,” something that is likely to surprise people familiar with its history and traditions. 

Not many people realize that the place is probably best known internationally as a center of Christian publishing. It is home to Zondervan, Baker Books, Eerdmans, and a number of smaller publishers, including Kregel and Our Daily Bread Ministries, as well as Family Christian Stores, a Christian bookstore chain. The three majors supply the entire world with very substantial Christian literature.  They have a major impact and influence throughout the world, especially Eerdmans with its scholarly emphasis that by far overshadows the furniture and beer components in influence if not in economics. Of course, in our secular world, those who describe cities tend to either ignore or downplay such religious contributions—which is the major reason I have deviated from the original intent of this post. I want you to be aware of that unusual and substantial contribution GR makes to the world.

Of course, GR is also home to the usual run of Christian denominations, but it differs from many northern cities in the number of church congregations. It has more Catholics than any other brand of Christians, but its distinctive is the presence of numerous Dutch Calvinist denominations. The original is the Reformed Church of America, the oldest Protestant denomination in the country. In GR it is overshadowed by the break-away (over 150 years ago) CRC of which I am a member. It is that church that has provided me with the worldview, theology and philosophy underlying this blog.

The CRC is a mixed bag as far as its membership goes. It comprises a wide range of folk ranging from fundamentalists to classic conservatives and progressive social activists with the latter two deeply influenced by my role model, Abraham Kuyper.  I am embarrassed by the presence of the first two and consider myself among the third. The reason I belong to this denomination is partially the “accident” of birth, but I might have absconded if it were not for the underlying “worldview, theology and philosophy” of the previous paragraph. That’s where this church is unique, potentially powerful and that’s where I am at home. That’s what you’re getting from me in this blog and that’s what keeping me in the denomination. Probably no denomination in North America, apart from the Catholic Church, has produced as many prominent philosophers as has the CRC, certainly not per capita. And if you think that is not very important, you should realize that it is the leading philosophers who this century create the common sense of the next.  These are consciously Christian philosophers. I am grateful for and proud of them.

So, now you know more about GR, but, more important, more about where I get my bearings that you read about in this blog. Calvin College and Calvin Theological Seminary are the GR tertiaries I attended and both belong to the CRC and are located in GR.  You can find out all about them from the internet. No need to repeat what’s already accessible to you.  And if you’ve become curious about the city itself, there’s a good Wikipedia article on it.

As to other parts of my life, I refer you to my website <  www.SocialTheology.com  >.

Post 52--Pentecost

In post 50 I reproduced a meditation written by my hero Abraham Kuyper on the Ascension of Christ. I complained that this event has slipped into oblivion in the Church as well as in the life of believers. 

Ten days after the Ascension another momentous event took place that we refer to as Pentecost.  Another older name for the same celebration is “Whitsunday.”  “Pentecost” itself is from the Latin meaning “50^th day,” that is, the 50^th day after Christ’s resurrection. The term “pentecostal” refers to a family of churches that place the work of the Holy Spirit central in their Christian life. It is the fastest growing family of churches in the world at the moment. It is so dominant today that in some countries it has become the major tradition, dwarfing such giants as the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches.

Let me give you an example from a country in which I have lived 30 years,  Nigeria. It has a population of some 170 million, half of whom are Christian, representing all the Christian traditions you read about in North America, but the biggest of them all is the Pentecostal family—and still growing. It is a political tradition in the country—and, no, I am not changing the subject!—that a Christian president will always choose a Muslim vice president and vice versa. Recently, new elections were held and a Muslim president was elected. His vice is a Pentecostal pastor, a natural political choice in the context of a majority of Pentecostal Christians. Thus the event celebrated on Pentecost has boiled over into the world of politics; it is that real and that significant.

In the second paragraph I mentioned the Holy Spirit. That is what Pentecost is all about. Christmas is about the coming of Christ into the world, but that was a temporary place for him. 40 days after His resurrection, He ascended back into Heaven. On Penteost we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit into the world, His was to be a permanent presence in the world.  He is with us even today. 

I invited you to celebrate Ascension with the words of Kuyper. Today I invite you to celebrate Pentecost also with Kuyper, though this time in shorter compass. He wrote:

Among all the Christian celebrations there is none of which the average Christian understands so little, feels so little emotion and enjoys so little as Pentecost, the high feast of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  It is all so spiritual and offers so little to the imagination.

In contrast, at Christmas there is so much movement and so many things to talk about with your children: the manger, that Child, the shepherds and their lambs, the angel choir, the murder of the children by King Herod’s men, the temple visit, the flight to Egypt and so much more.

Similarly, on Easter you can imagine the weeping women on their way to the tomb, the lonely wandering Mary Magdalene, the descent of the angels, the rolling stone from the grave, the two men walking the road of Emmaus, that evening meeting and then Thomas with his finger in Jesus’ wounds.

All of the above is concrete and subject to everyone’s imagination. There’s stuff for conversation. These stories can be sketched or painted. There is movement and variety; there’s a wealth of human actors.  Because everything is concrete to the eye, it all lives in the congregation’s consciousness.

But how different it all is with Pentecost. There’s little more there than an upper room with people in and outside. Then there are miraculous sounds and mysterious bright lights. What is said confuses people outside and sounds foreign to those inside. It all ends up with a sermon to God’s glory.

Naturally, such a dull scene cannot possibly inflame your imagination. It does not conjure up any surprising images in your imagination; your children cannot enter this kind of world; it does not offer any stuff for a brilliant sermon.  Every picture, every drawing, every painting of Pentecost ever produced falls flat.

I must quickly add that they had to fall flat, not because Pentecost has less value than do Christmas or Easter, but because it appeals to a level of imagination and conception too high for the average person and is too spiritual. Pentecost is the noblest of the three feasts, but only for those who have tasted the noblest.  Only those who themselves have received the “first fruits of the Spirit” can truly celebrate this Feast of the Spirit!

End of Kuyper

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I end today with two items, the first one a question; the second, a correction of Kuyper. 

The question for you is whether you can or do celebrate "this Feast of the Spirit" in Kuyper's terms. In other words, whether you have "tasted  the noblest."

The correction:

I cannot restrain myself; I must correct one assertion in the above that is simply not true.  I refer to the allegation that every visual representation of Pentecost falls “flat.” I am a distributor of the Mafa series of African Gospel Art that includes a very lively and colourful reproduction of the Pentecost scene that cannot by any stretch of the imagination be interpreted as “flat.”  Go either to my website  < SocialTheology.com > the “African Gospel Art” page or  to <  www.jesusmafa.com  >, the publisher’s  website based in Versailles, France.  There you will find info about a very exciting artful series depicting all the Gospel stories, over 60 of them. Go there. You will thank me for it. You will enjoy, admire and celebrate them for their beauty and liveliness as I do every day, surrounded by them as I am in my house.

Post 51--Ascension: Celebration of Christ Returning to Heaven

 La

This past week, the Christian Church celebrated the event we know as “Ascension.”  Well, celebrated? Traditionally it did, but in modern times it has slowly faded into a kind of oblivion so that the Church no longer makes a big deal of it. In many churches there are no special services for it anymore. They used to be held traditionally on Thursdays.  Now, if it is mentioned at all, it has been reduced to a special Bible reading on a Sunday morning and then the service goes on to other concerns.

What happened on the original Ascension Day? Jesus, the Risen Lord, went back to Heaven, back to His Father.  From almost any modern perspective, this event seems to exotic, that, probably out of embarrassment, the Church has slowly pushed it into the shadows. And if it was not for embarrassment, it may have been for lack of real faith in the event. It just does not seem to fit into our modern perspective.

Today’s post celebrates this Ascension boldly and, I hope, somewhat clearly--clearly at least to those who are somewhat familiar with the Bible. To those who are not so familiar with the Bible, this post may be a bit obscure.  Please allow me to help brothers and sisters celebrate the event. If you don’t understand, please do listen in. This meditation deals with its meaning, its significance, more than the way it actually happened. For that you need to go to Acts 1 in the New Testament, but even there it is told in a very sketchy manner.

I am not the author of the material below. It was written by a hero of mine, Abraham Kuyper, whom you will meet time and again in these posts. Today’s material is the first chapter or meditation of a book in the Dutch language written by Kuyper that I translated.

Meditation 1 

Lift Them Up, You Ancient Doors!

Lift up your heads, you gates;
    lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
Who is He, this King of glory?
    The Lord Almighty—
    He is the King of glory.

(Psalm 24:9-10)

In the depth of his soul, King David had a hankering that he himself be allowed to build the temple for the Ark of God. But a prophet came with message from God that it was not he but “one of your own sons…he is the one who will build a house for Me,” the son referring to David’s successor King Solomon (I Chronicles 17:11-12; II Samuel 7:12-13).  Once David was convinced, he did not complain or try to force the issue but surrendered his heart’s deepest desire and comforted his spirit in what his son was to fulfill instead of he himself.

Ah, what a blessed, glorious day it would be when the Ark of God would be ushered into the completed Temple!  In Psalm 24, David was so taken up by that vision as if that day had already arrived for him!  He envisioned it all as if it were really happening right in front of his eyes.  Those magnificent pinnacles, those stately and dignified walls. And then the ascent of the Ark of God as it signified His majestic presence in the Holy of Holies. It was as if David looked beyond the Ark and the Temple, right into the heart of that other David, for whom his ancestors had prayed so fervently and of whom both Ark and Temple were nothing but a shadow and symbol.

David envisions the Ark of God ascending the slope of holy Mount Zion till the delegation runs dead into its fortress wall. That wall is punctuated by gateways, each of which has doors. For the ark to gain entry, it has to go through one of these doors, but they are too low, too diminutive, too stifling for Him, for whom the ascent of the Ark is a mere symbol of His real ascent into glory. But listen! Now in the Spirit, David sings a psalm summoning the gateway to arise, to open up, to raise its doorposts and broaden its entryway!  Oh, ancient doors, expand, befit yourself for royalty, unlock yourself! For look, the King of Glory is about to enter, the Lord of the heavenly hosts, He who revives and delights my soul.

Psalm 24 does thus certainly point directly to the narrow gateway in Zion’s wall. Imagine the scene: Here’s Jerusalem  with the Temple high above it and between these two that

fortress wall with its formidable gateway and its ancient doors.  That’s why, with the Ark as carrier of God’s majesty approaching, David sings this psalm in holy ecstasy:

Be lifted up, you ancient doors,
    Lift up your heads, you gates;
       that the King of glory may come in.
    Who is this King of glory?
    The Lord strong and mighty,
       the Lord mighty in battle.

And then once more:

Lift up your heads, you gates;
    lift them up, you ancient doors,
    that the King of glory may come in.
 Who is He, this King of glory?
The Lord Almighty—
    He is the King of glory.

However, all this, glorious as it is, is not the really essential thing, because the earthly Zion was not the essence of it.  The earthly Jerusalem was only a shadow, as were the Temple and the Ark itself. Similarly, Zion’s fortress wall that separated Jerusalem from the Temple was also a shadow. All of that was nothing but graphic teaching, a symbolic representation of the real, pointing and alluding to the future permanent, the real, the eternal.

The “wise” do not understand all of this, but the Church of God and the beloved ones He has chosen do understand it. And that is the reason that throughout the ages the Church of God consciously, aggressively, and with determination declared loud and clear that David, while singing about the Ark in symbolic language, was actually referring to the actual Ascension of Jesus!

In the earthly Jerusalem people thirst after the living God, but He lives on Mount Zion. There are that impenetrable wall and those ancient unforgiving doors. Always that separation!  To see the Temple; to know the Ark is there; to know there, there is the presence of the Lord and then those impenetrable walls, those narrow gateways and those ancient doors!  Ach!

But, arise, oh, arise my soul; arise, oh, languishing Jerusalem!  At the real ascension, those barriers burst open. There flows forth salvation. There comes the King of glory!  Now those impossible walls yield; those narrow gateways lift themselves up.  Now, rise, rise you ancient doors for Him to enter, He the Lord of the heavenly powers and hosts, while you, who were thirsting after your God, sing and jubilate in victory!

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What then are those “ancient doors?”  They represent everything that separates Jerusalem from the Ark. They are symbolic of everything that constitutes a wall between the languishing heart of the wretched and the holy glory of their God.

A door invites you to enter, but it is bolted and prevents you from entering. It is an ancient door that prevents you from entering.  No matter how hard you knock and kick, it remains impenetrable, so that you conclude that it will never open. They seem like eternal doors that will keep you outside for ever!

But now comes the Messiah. God has compassion for the wretched and sends you a Saviour. But what will happen?  Will those doors, those ancient doors, also resist Him?

It is precisely to this question that David prophecies in the Spirit. For Him, that Messiah, those ancient doors will fly open, will open up wide and rise on high to allow Him, the King of Glory, to enter His Kingdom.  

Note well: time and again it is a door, a barrier.  First, there is that ancient door of the flesh that holds you in bondage and won’t allow you to enter, that flesh that suffocates you.  But Christ bursts through all of this and comes to you in that flesh Himself through that ancient door of the flesh.  And so He is near you already, one with you, become like your brother.

But you have still not arrived. The Word, another name in the Bible for the Messiah, becomes flesh with you, but in such a way that the Messiah and you are both in a position of wretchedness, locked out of Zion, banned from the desired glory with that wall and its ancient door still preventing you.

Therefore, it is imperative that out of and with that flesh further steps need to be taken. Ascend that mountain, from the level earth to heaven on high. That’s where the glory is, not here on earth. He is here in weakness, but once He has reached that place He will become mighty, great in majesty and empowered to rescue you and bring you salvation.  

That is the why of the Ascension.

To Heaven! That is, to the place where weakness is glorified, where there is strength and power.  That is where your flesh goes, your Messiah in your flesh, in the same flesh and blood that hung on the cross of disgrace on Golgotha.

It is now finally that those ancient doors widen themselves and rise high. Now the King of glory enters in. Your King, oh Church of God, who alone has the wherewithal to bring you

salvation, to justify and sanctify you for full salvation. Now, finally, by having entered those ancient doors into the better Tabernacle not made with hands, your King dispenses salvation and blessing. His power exudes from Him and satan slinks away, because the godless are being justified.

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But even now we have not yet reached the end of the road. There still is one more ancient door, that is, the door to your own heart, the door to your soul that satan bolted shut and sealed.  Oh, how many thousands of times have you banged your head against that ancient door to your heart. It was too stuffy; in your anxious heart you could no longer stand it. You had to get out and you banged against that door and shouted, “Open up! Open up! Have mercy and don’t let me suffocate in this stuffy place.”  It didn’t help; No one heard you. That door to your heart turned out to be permanent as well.

Until…. Until He came, He the King of glory! When He sent His Word from His majestic throne and hammered His envoys with it, it became clear to you that where the Word of the King is present, there is power. For at that moment the locks snapped and the bolts cracked; the doors opened, rose up and He entered, the Lord strong and mighty.  Halleluiah!

Post 50--One Building--Two Social Classes

A new high rise residential building is being planned for 1171 Jervis Street in Vancouver’s West End, the neighbourhood where I live. That address is two blocks from mine.  It will have an unusual feature—unusual, not unique—namely that the one side of the building will be reserved for social housing, that is, for subsidized housing for the poor, while the other side will consist of condos at market prices.  The two classes will be separated by having different doors, with the one for social housing facing the busy Davie street, while the condo side will have its main door on the more quiet Jervis Street. The two sides will be further hermetically sealed from each other. The subsidized side is owned “by the city or its designate;” the other, by a condo strata council.  “The two are completely separate legal entities,” explained Brian Jackson, Vancouver’s Director of Planning.

The physical segregation goes even farther. According to an article in the Vancouver Sun by Jeff Lee, there will also be “separate elevators, mechanical systems and amenities” (May 6, 2015).

Why such arrangements? The city is desperate for social housing; it has far too many residents who cannot afford market rentals, many of whom end up on the street, often finding a bed provided by various charities. The city cannot afford to build enough social housing to keep up with that growing population segment and thus is providing private developers with incentives to include a social segment in what would otherwise be exclusively market housing. What’s wrong with that? 

Randy Helton of City Hall Watch, a West End activist, objects to separate entrances based on “economic capacity.”  The one side will be regarded as the poor cousin of the other, a notion that appears unacceptable to Helton  and others. My guess is that the arrangement is too blatant a display of social disparity for them.

If I were in the market for a private condo, would I buy one that is mixed with social housing? Social housing, it should be understood, often includes a high percentage of folk involved in the drug addiction culture, the extreme version of which is represented by Vancouver’s East Side Down Town (ESDT), the poorest postal code area in the entire country. Would I pay a million or more bucks for such a condo to live among such neighbours?  Absolutely not! Having lived for years in Africa, my tolerance for “lower” conditions is much greater than that of most Canadians, but even I would draw the line here. 

I might experiment with renting in such an environment, for I have observed that the down-and-outers tend to be much more friendly and sociable. I have patronized coffee shops and restaurants in ESDT and generally find my fellow consumers very pleasant and easy to approach for conversation, something that I enjoy tremendously. But, assuming I have it,  I would definitely not invest a million bucks in such an environment.

There is need for realism, says Michael Geller, a Vancouver builder. The city cannot afford to build enough and the private sector needs incentive to get involved in such projects.  This arrangement is one that is working in other cities and is already operative in Vancouver’s famed Woodward Building in the ESDT. If you support the notion of social housing, then you have to accept that social disparity openly, like it or not. Helten and his ilk may sound supportive, but in reality they retard the needed supply.

It was only yesterday I spoke to an elderly lady living in BC-owned subsidized housing, who complains about the high proportion of addicted neighbours. She would like to move out, but cannot afford any other place.  Like it or not, that’s what happens in subsidized housing, more than in other configurations, something that has to be acknowledged and dealt with realistically if you want more subsidized housing. 

Actually, assuming I had the money, I’m quite sure I would never buy in such a complex, for can even the best builder prevent the migration of cockroaches and bedbugs from the one side to the other? Or are they so distant from each other that this movement would amount to an immigration? These creatures are not known to respect walls, doors or any other obstacles. To them these entities are about as porous as the Canada border services or the Vancouver port.

I am a writer of the Gospel of Christ. It is difficult to pursue that mission in a drug and bug infested chaos, if not impossible, another reason I would not buy into such a complex. I don’t need to live in luxury and, in fact, don’t.  However, I do need some level of order to be productive. Drugs, bugs and addicted neighbours would divert my attention too much.  The Heltens of this world need to get real, support these kinds of structures and move over from obstruction to encouragement to achieve their own goals—more subsidized housing.

Post 49 - Nigerian Politicians Fleece Their Constituency

 

I don't often publish posts in such quick succession; too busy with other things. But today my heart is bleeding at the way the Nigerian populace is being fleeced, not this time by western governments, banks or corporations, but by their own politicians. The main part of this post is an article in the Nigerian daily Premium Times.

You may be wondering why I publish a post about Nigeria. Well, in case you don't know, I spent most of 30 years in Nigeria and consider it one of my homelands, whose people I love and among whom I still have many friends. I knew how much they were taken for a ride by their politicians then and sought to equip the people within my large orbit to resist it. Alas, it is still going on full force. My heart bleeds for them.  By thus sharing this sad information with my readers, I bring darkness into the light, one of the recognized means of opposing and overcoming it--at least to some degree. 

It is possible that I have some enlightened readers who object to this disclosure, arguing that similar corruption and fleecing occurs in our own Canada or USA. Yes and no. It is there, as the current Duffy scandal is making all too clear. Indeed, but nothing to the degree it is happening in Nigeria. It does considerable damage in our western countries, but it brings Nigeria to near collapse.

Here, then, the article. To understand it you need to know that $1 (US) is worth N220, the "N" standing for "Naira," the Nigerian currency.Thus, if you want the dollar equivalent to the Naira amounts in the article below, divide them by 220.

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         Nigerian Senators, Reps cornered N600bn in 4 years

                             but passed only 106 bills

                       (May 12, 2015Chinenye Ugonna, Richard Akinwumi and Joshua Olufemi)

Nigerian lawmakers managed to approve only 106 new laws out of 1,063 brought before them in the last four years, despite spending more than half a trillion naira within the period, earning the notorious title as the world’s highest paid legislators.

The figures mean for the National Assembly, with a combined annual budget of N150 billion since 2011, returned 10 per cent in efficiency and averaged about two bills each month.

Each year, the Senate, House of Representatives and allied institutions, compete for government funding with projects designed to provide jobs, healthcare, education and roads to the citizens.

While the Goodluck Jonathan administration has shown its preparedness to cut financing to those vital services to Nigerians in the face of dwindling revenues, the government has helped the lawmakers retain their super N150 billion budget per year in the last four years.

Not even the present oil crisis has been enough to force the government to minimize the lawmakers’ comfort, by redirecting funds to critical areas badly starved of resources.

A typical example is the 2015 budget, affected massively by sliding oil price. The dwindling revenue forced the government to slash spending for roads – Ministry of Works – from about N160 billion to N11 billion for the entire nation. But the federal lawmakers refused to allow even a dime to be sliced off their N150 billion annual budget.

While the National Assembly budget also covers legislative aides, the National Assembly Commission and the Legislative Institute in Abuja, the biggest chunk of the appropriation goes to the 109 Senators and 360 members of the House of Representatives, each year.

But while the lawmakers take so much, their work rate has been dismally poor, PREMIUM TIMES analysis shows. The miserable worth of Nigerian legislators’ output is amplified when compared with their American counterparts, for instance.  While the legislature, under the leadership of David Mark and Aminu Tambuwal at the Senate and House of Representatives respectively managed to clear 106 bills in four years, the U.S. Congress passed 29​7​ just between 2013 and 2014. That figure was indeed one of the lowest for any U.S. Congress session as the two chambers passed 604 in just 1999, and 460 between 2007 and 2008.

Yet, the Nigerian lawmakers are the highest paid, according to a 2012 analysis by the UK-based Economist.The report compared lawmakers’ earnings with their countries’ GDP – what each citizen is worth if their nation’s total wealth was shared by the population. The analysis found Nigeria ahead of all other countries of the world, with its lawmakers taking 116 times what an average citizen takes of the GDP. Kenya and Ghana followed with ratios of 75 and 29.8 respectively. Norway’s ratio was 1.8, while U.S. lawmakers took 3.8 of what their citizens received. The United States pays its lawmakers an average annual salary of $174,000 while Britain pays parliamentarians $105,000.

Nigerian lawmakers officially receive a modest pay of about $50,000(about N12m) yearly.
But they also pocket several illegal allowances, including the huge quarterly allowance which is nearly a $1m (N220m) a year.

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My youngest son, a Yale Ph. D,  works for a powerful Nigerian foundation in Lagos that is seeking to improve the business climate in Africa. He is rightfully annoyed with the attention paid to corruption in Nigeria. There is a more important story developing in the country, he argues, namely the boom in the Lagos economy with its spin off in the rest of the nation. I am grateful for that story and pray that it will soon outshine the negative story of national fleecing.

This paragraph is being written several weeks later--on July 11, 2015. The news yesterday was that both the new President of Nigeria, General Buhari, a pious Muslim, and his Vice President, a Pentecostal pastor, have offered to reduce their salaries by 50%.