Storms, social capital and elections

Quote
‘A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm.’ Henrik Ibsen, Norwegian playwright.

News
‘Superstorm’ Sandy, which left 69 dead in the Caribbean and over 100 in the US, is the second most damaging storm in US history after hurricane Katrina in 2006. Besides the death toll, the economic cost is estimated at over $50 billion, and thousands of homes are still without power. Behind these hard statistics, there’s the softer, relational impact to consider. A wrecked house is also a family uprooted; reconstructing a neighbourhood involves restoring community relationships; a displaced population means small businesses and livelihoods going to the wall.

The way the news media reports on such disasters reflects our values. We’re fascinated by the death and destruction that nature can inflict, but we yearn to read about the human spirit too. Out of the tragedy come inspiring tales of kindness, selflessness and courage, which seem to flourish in times of shared adversity.

Coming just a week before the US presidential election, how has the storm influenced the political landscape? Initially it seems to have favoured President Obama, as he put campaigning aside and took an effective lead in the overall disaster response efforts.

But in another way it has put a healthy dent in the facade of adversarial politics. During the election Republicans and Democrats have sought to denigrate and demean their opponents, pointing out the political and personal flaws in their adversary more than the merits of their own campaign. Yet following the storm we’ve seen Republican politicians go against the partisan flow to commend President Obama for his handling of the crisis.

Why is this important? Because, like the stories of strangers helping each other after the storm, it reveals the level of social capital in the country. Social capital is the breadth and quality of relationships in a community that lead to a sense of belonging and mutual cooperation. Arguably, the greater long term crisis in America is the steady loss of social and relational capital, leading to the kind of greed and recklessness which were a direct cause of the financial crisis.

Which candidate for president will do more to build social capital? Perhaps this is what American voters should be considering on Tuesday.

Read on...
Although government and insurance companies will eventually pay for much of the material damage caused by Sandy, there’s a need for more local investment. One way to regenerate communities in a relational way is through social investment bonds; read an article about how these worked in a deprived area of Sheffield here.

Walk the talk
How do you discuss the news with friends or family? We tend to be limited by the framework used by the journalist. Why not start a conversation that explores the relational issues and impact behind any economic or political headline?

The last word
From the Bible, Matthew 12, verse 25: ‘Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, "Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.”’

The EU – a noble winner?

Quote

“We are called to bethink ourselves of the Christian basics of Europe by forming a democratic model of governance which through reconciliation develops into a ‘community of peoples’ in freedom,  equality, solidarity and peace and which is deeply rooted in Christian basic values.”
Robert Schuman, French foreign minister and a founding father of the EU.

News

The Norwegian Nobel committee took quite a risk in awarding the peace prize to the European Union a week ago, as social unrest in Athens and elsewhere threatens the very concept of a united continent, and public opinion in Norway is sharply divided over the EU.

The award recognises the long term achievement of the Union in building stability and peace in a continent whose nations habitually resolved conflicts by going to war with each other.  (The last time Europe enjoyed 60 years without war was in 1410.)  The Nobel committee also recognised the EU’s contribution in replacing dictatorships with democracy in Southern Europe, and Soviet domination with liberating independence in Eastern European nations.

The founding fathers of European Coal and Steel Community, which became the EEC, then the EC and finally the EU, sought to make the major industries of France and Germany so interdependent that it would be inconceivable for the two to go to war with each other again.  It was a relational goal for which they adopted an economic strategy. 

Since then, the very success of the European project (coupled with NATO) has led to peace being taken for granted.  Consequently, the ambitions of the European project have become increasingly economic and political, and the vital realm of relationships between the various European peoples has taken a back seat.

The flagship of the EU is now the Euro, and saving the currency is forcing member states towards closer political union and the loss of their sovereignty.  But will this ultimately lead to the kind of relationships within and between member states that European peoples aspire to?   In the long run that may well determine whether the EU will live up to its Nobel reputation.

Read on...

A paper by Dr Gary Wilton about how Christian statesman Robert Schuman sought to place Christian values at the heart of rebuilding Europe in the aftermath of the second world war can be read here.  http://www.jubilee-centre.org/resources/the_enduring_legacy_of_robert_schuman

Walk the talk

We can all be tempted to allow some form of material advantage to sneak in and become a hidden agenda behind some of our more noble goals.  Do you need to take an honest, tough look at your motives for any of your current initiatives or commitments?

The last word

From the Bible, Psalm 37, verse 11: “The lowly will possess the land and will live in peace and prosperity.”

Strikes, South Africa and relational stability

This week's Friday Five was co-written with guest contributor Dr Zolile Mlisana

Quote

“To be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”  Nelson Mandela

News

The official inquiry began this week into the deaths of 44 miners at the Marikana platinum mine in South Africa. The wildcat strike might have gone unnoticed had the unrest not escalated into the bloodiest confrontation between police and protesters since the end of apartheid, as 34 miners were killed and 270 injured on 16th August. The strike was called off after mine owners Lonmin increased their workers’ salaries by 22%.

As strikes continue in other mines, social reverberations continue to emanate from this disaster, calling into question some of South Africa’s cherished national successes – economic growth, political stability and black economic empowerment. What do these actually mean for the thousands of miners at the bottom of the economic pile, and for their families back home?

Mining companies are now required to improve the housing and living conditions of workers, and to invest in community development around the mines. Despite significant progress, it has often been done without consulting the miners themselves, and so can appear paternalistic.

The extractive industries represent a fifth of South Africa’s economy, so the growing industrial unrest is costing all stakeholders dearly. Although the wave of strikes focuses on pay and living conditions, there is a deeper, relational malaise behind them. It was hoped that the economic injustices of the apartheid era would have been overcome 18 years into majority rule, but the new black political elite have not succeeded in changing corporate culture, nor preventing pay differentials reaching unprecedented levels.

The rainbow nation, celebrated globally for modelling racial reconciliation, urgently needs to address the lack of parity between different economic groups, such as mine owners and workers. Parity is not the same as equality; it’s about respecting every person as a human being, and recognising the contribution each brings to the company. Where genuine parity in relationships increases, it will lead to fairer pay and conditions. But where it is neglected, strikers are more likely to resort to the one way they believe their voices will be heard – through violence.

Read On

The problem of poor housing for industrial workers can become a catalyst for social transformation. Read the story of how business owner George Cadbury created a whole new community for his employees over a century ago here.

Walk the talk

How does the tendency to measure people’s contribution to a company in financial terms influence the way we relate to them? What could you do to increase respect and understanding for someone else either above you or below you at work?

The last word

From the Bible, Proverbs chapter 22, verse 2: “The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the maker of them all.”

Riots and relational responsibility

Quote

“An honest man speaks the truth, though it may give offence; a vain man, in order that it may.”  William Hazlitt (1778-1830)

News

Protests and riots have continued to erupt across the Muslim world in response to the US film denigrating Islam, and the flames have been fanned by a French satirical magazine which published a series of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

The right to freedom of speech and conscience is of paramount importance in the Western culture.  On the other hand, people in the Muslim world assert their right to defend their values and beliefs from attack – in this case religious offence surrounding the honour of their Prophet.

It’s incomprehensible to most people in the West, whose worldview is individualistic, that Muslims should mount angry protests against people wholly unconnected with the film.  On the other hand, it is baffling for many Muslims that the Western world (which they assume to have something of a collective identity, based on Christianity, after their own worldview) should allow some of its members to carry out with impunity acts that deeply offend the beliefs of others.

These two rights are understandably cherished, but for them to lead to more freedom and peace – not less, as we’re seeing this week – they must be tempered by relational responsibilities.  The right free speech should be matched by a responsibility to use that freedom with sensitivity, and not set out deliberately to offend and provoke others.

Conversely, the responsibility that should accompany the right to defend one’s beliefs is to be careful at which door one lays the blame, and to ensure that any protest is commensurate with the offence.

The more that rights are thought to stand alone and sufficient, dislocated from their relational responsibilities, the greater will be the mutual incomprehension, suspicion, fear and violence we have witnessed this week.  

Read on…

Colin Chapman wrote a Cambridge Paper on Christian responses to Islam, Islamism and 'Islamic terrorism', which seeks to understand the Muslim worldview better and the factors which lead to Islamic extremism.  You can read the paper here. 

Walk the talk

We often form our judgments in discussion only with those who think like us; why not approach someone you know who is a Muslim, and ask them to share their thoughts and feelings about the events of the last few days? 

The last word

From the Bible: 1 Corinthians 8, verse 9: “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.”

Paralympics and the power of encouragement

Quote

“…that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” 

      Alfred Lord Tennyson

News

The Paralympic Games of London 2012 drew to a close last weekend, leaving many acknowledging that the event has done more to change attitudes towards disability than any number of educational programmes or equal rights campaigns. 

A subtle transformation took place among crowds in the packed venues, as they watched people whom they previously considered as different and marginalised overcome their handicaps spectacularly, to triumph in one of the 20 Paralympic sports.  No longer were these unusual athletes defined by their disability but by their extraordinary ability.

The Paralympics had perhaps had an even greater emotional impact on the nation than the Olympics.  Commentator Steve Cole wrote, ‘A journalist who had been cynical before the Games wrote about how it had taken him a while to realise why he was so emotionally caught up in the euphoria of the Games.  He then acknowledged that he had never been in an arena where everyone was 100% encouraging.  80,000 people from many of the world’s nations encouraged every single athlete from every nation, whether they were first or in last place.’

Changed attitudes lead to changed relationships, and maybe the biggest dividend from these Paralympic Games will be a growing understanding, respect, appreciation and friendship between the able-bodied and disabled.

Yet the greatest lesson to be learned from the last fortnight, perhaps, concerns the power of encouragement.  When a person decides to seek the best for another as the paths of their lives overlap – for an afternoon of sport or a lifetime of relationship – then they can literally ‘put courage into’ the one facing hardship, difficulty or fear.  Who knows how many people’s life outcomes might change if they could only receive the right encouragement?  

Read on…

The father of the Paralympics was Ludwig Guttman, a Jewish doctor who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany early in 1939 and later became director of the first specialist spinal injuries unit in Britain.  Read Jeff Fountain’s brief account of this unsung hero here.

Walk the talk

In your heart do you feel disabled in some way, by some choice or event in your life, and thereby excluded from the company of others?  Why not go to a trusted friend and bring this into the light, giving him or her an opportunity to encourage you?

The last word

From the Bible, Hebrews 10, verse 25: ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another--and all the more as you see the Day approaching.’

Obama, style, celebrity and substance

Quote

“On matters of style, swim with the current, on matters of principle, stand like a rock.”  Thomas Jefferson

News

President Obama’s acceptance speech at the Democratic Party’s convention last night was “…dominated by unexplained goals that were often worthy, but also familiar and incommensurate with the problems at hand," according to David Brooks of the New York Times.  It was a far cry from the soaring rhetoric of four years earlier, which carried Obama to victory in the 2008 election.

Voters in America, as in most democracies, have to weigh up the difference between a candidate’s ability to inspire people with a vision on one hand, and deliver consistently against their promises on the other.

Declining voter turnout in many elections reflects disillusion with politics.  Two factors stand out: firstly, there is a resigned acceptance that politicians will probably mislead the public, or cheat on their spouse – public and private manifestations of the same character weakness.  20 years ago in Britain, Cabinet members would resign for either of these misdemeanours.

Secondly, the cult of celebrity, in which style is elevated over substance.  Politicians must look good, cultivate their personal brand, and be masters of the media to get elected.   However, those talents are not necessarily the ones needed to make sound judgments, build consensus, and lead others: the stuff of government.

People are voters for a day, but citizens for the following four years.  The goal of elections is not to put certain people in power but to hold them accountable for what they subsequently do with that power.   We undermine the relational realities of democracy when we want politicians to be celebrities first and foremost, rather than the kind of leader people can trust to govern their nation well. 

Read on...

Oliver Cromwell refused to have his image manipulated by the media: he insisted that the artist painting his portrait showed him as he really was, “warts and everything”.  Cromwell’s character and faith helped to shape democracy in Britain; read Nick Spencer’s account of the Christian sources of British political thought here.  

Walk the talk

As the culture increasingly puts more emphasis on style than substance, is there a danger of investing more in one’s charisma than one’s character? 

The last word

From the Bible, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 1, 4: “When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God…   My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power.”