A Peaceful Perspective... August 23, 2010

In this edition...

• Column: Churches and Chicken Fried Rice
• HIV findings 'offer hope for cure'
• Greenpeace pushes for renewable energy in SA
• Anglican Archbishop Calls for End to Public Service Strike
• Column: Being Human
• Arch: always thinking ahead: Even though he's retired, it's good to know he's there
• Residents praise recycling initiative
• Shack dwellers receive first house in George

Column: Churches and Chicken Fried Rice

One of the central debates facing Christianity from its onset surrounded the essential requirements for acceptance into the community of believers. More specifically, some wondered whether or not particular ethnic heritage or cultural traditions were mandatory, whereas others considered various beliefs and behaviors surrounding food and other existing customs. As the small number of Jesus’ original disciples expanded both numerically and geographically, complicated deliberations continually surfaced: What is central? What is indispensable? What aspects of the Christian faith are open to change, and which can be considered non-negotiable? Approximately two-thousand years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the critical questions remain: What is essential to faith in Jesus and acceptance in Christian communities, and what can be negotiated depending upon time and place? more >>
Source: ANiSA News

HIV findings 'offer hope for cure'

Israeli researchers says they have discovered a way of killing off cells infected with HIV that offers hope for a cure for the disease. The technique involved getting the virus to overload the host cell with viral DNA, which made the cell self-destruct and kill off the virus. However they warned that so far they have only "cured" HIV in small dishes of cells in a laboratory. Their findings would be published on Thursday in the journal Aids Research and Therapy. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Anglican Archbishop Calls for End to Public Service Strike

The public service strike is causing suffering to hospital patients, students and learners, and government and union negotiators should act urgently to end it, the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, the Most Revd Dr Thabo Makgoba, said in a press release released on Thursday 19 August, 2010. He also called for essential staff in institutions such as hospitals to return to work immediately. “Our country is facing a huge crisis at this moment,” he said in Cape Town. “Striking essential public service employees and educators are, however unintentionally, causing much anguish and even physical suffering.” Addressing striking workers, he added: “We understand your plight and your rights to seek justice in terms of fair and adequate salaries and other benefits, especially in the face of corruption by some government officials. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Arch: always thinking ahead: Even though he's retired, it's good to know he's there

For a Nobel Laureate who could easily command millions in any currency, this is not where I expect to find the offices of Desmond Mpilo Tutu…. Up the stairs to the nondescript offices, and into the modest waiting room. None of his endless number of honorary degrees hangs from the walls, the way doctors decorate their surgeries to remind you they qualified somewhere. And then the wait. This is the first time; I am nervous, a rare reaction to meeting people. Suddenly, a loud but warm Afrikaans greeting behind my back. It is Arch. The Afrikaans catches me off guard, and I stumble with my words. Into the sparse Office of the Arch. He speaks first. "Let's pray." more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Shack dwellers receive first house in George

Speechless and in tears, Rachel Jumat and her partner, Cornelius van Greunan, became the owners of the first house to be handed over by George Mayor Mercia Draghoender at Erf 325 in Pacaltsdorp. The middle-aged couple, who lived frugally in a shack made of plastic at the nearby Syferfontein squatter camp, were overwhelmed when Draghoender also gave them a washing machine, deep-freeze and combination oven/ hotplate as a housewarming gift to welcome them to their new two-bedroom home. “It has been my dream to live somewhere where I can be dry and safe,” Jumat said. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Greenpeace pushes for renewable energy in SA

South Africa has renewable resources that can provide solutions to the country's energy problems and create jobs - while fighting global warming, says Greenpeace officials. "Greenpeace's estimate that 78, 000 green jobs could be created is conservative," Glen Mpufane, who heads a development group, who joined a Greenpeace forum on green jobs on Wednesday. Unemployment is around 25 percent in South Africa, which was hard hit by the global recession. Environmental groups in South Africa are campaigning for a major move toward renewable energy rather than nuclear and coal energy. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

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Column: Being Human

I write this meditation sitting in the departure lounge at Götenburg airport on the west coast of Sweden having just spent two days at the annual conference of the Swedish Christian Humanist Association. The conference was held in Jönkoping about two hours drive to the east of the airport. It is raining outside, though it is the middle of summer, and having already drunk my allotted cappuccino for the day I thought it would be good to write my next meditation for Volmoed. Many thoughts are racing through my mind. One batch is about the conference, the paper which I presented, the discussion which followed and the wonderful people I met. But I also think back to my first visit to Sweden in 1971 when, together with Isobel, I was just starting out on my ecumenical travels to many places across the world. It seems an eternity ago. Steve was then only nine years old. Yes, it was an eternity ago. more >>
Source: ANiSA News

Residents praise recycling initiative

Environmentally conscious Nahoon residents are leading the way with a new community recycling initiative, which could be expanded if Buffalo City Municipality (BCM) come on board. The issue of recycling, more especially the lack of facilities for recycling, was raised at the Nahoon Dispatch Civic meeting held earlier this year. Members of the community expressed a deep desire to clean up the environment and requested recycling bins all over the suburb, making it easier for them to recycle their waste. more >>
Source: ANiSA News