Recycling, Writing, Praying, It's Simply Not Enough Anymore...

http://jonkgoering.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/nicaragua-children-of-the-dump-chinandega/

OK I know I was going to break away for a while but I need to do this one thing.

One issue that I want to begin to cover here IS in fact Poverty. Because poverty is So intertwined with the oppression of women and children. I strongly believe we cannot fight misogyny without also confronting certain hierarchies and certain economic hierarchies. While I do NOT concur with the 'solutions' offered by human ideologies, e.g. Marxism, Leninism, etc., been there Done that and THEY DON'T WORK--I have my own theories as to why they don't, Patriarchy and their Refusal to dump the male entitlement to women's bodies I think is one of the biggest reasons, i.e. male superiority and all, I Do Believe that their Analysis of the problem is right in many regards, minus their whole materialist and denying the existence of God and sinful human nature.

However, I am in no way, in favor of unbridled capitalism either, I do support free market, if its FAIR TRADE, and Ethical. And I am more communal--grass roots kind of way, communism that is driven by Love, like in ACTS [Bible], not by a Gun which really is nothing more than Feudalism with a Gun. I also am pragmatic enough to know there will NOT be a Utopia until Jesus Christ Himself, as Lord, is ruling and hate is not allowed. [my belief, one I will stand on, no matter how unpopular it may be]

BUT regardless, of what I believe, Faith wise, I Do believe, we should Work to yes, confront injustice and poverty and not have this attitude of well, you know its just sinful human nature so lets just live, eat, drink and be merry. God was Very Clear in HIS WORD, over 400 times in fact [I counted, in the Concordance] to NOT ignore the Poor, to NOT ignore Oppression and to DO SOMETHING, about it.

And no, not just give a Pittance out of one's Comfort either. WE ARE TO SACRIFICE OUR COMFORT SO THAT OTHERS CAN HAVE THE BASICS, THAT IS A COMMAND.

Though one that is NOT taught in modern day churches.

But Jesus was Very Clear on this, Numerous times and I don't think, we can really Say we KNOW HIM if we are NOT working to Give up OUR LIVES SO THAT OTHERS MAY FIND LIFE AND LIVE.

And this is something I have been pondering a lot more and more-in My LIFE. Its not Good enough for me anymore to just Write about it or to just Pray about it--while I am not rich, in America's standards, I am stinking rich, to the comparisons of many in the world so that leaves me then, to question, OK What is my responsibility to my neighbor?

And more and more I am finding that many things in My LIFE have to CHANGE, not just morally but ETHICALLY, how I consume and how I use things and how I give. How I have obligations to not OWE anyone but Love, and I do have a lot of debts...not credit card but poverty debts but still--they have to be paid.

So that leaves me with no Money to give [at least for now] but does that mean my duty Ends just because I am not able?

NO, I don't think it does so in trying to find what it is that I should be doing...I am seeing more that its in many 'little things' that I could be giving up, so that I can give more. You know one can be Poor and still be Greedy. Oh yes, while we may not shop at malls and high end stores, do we Really need that dress from the Thrift Store when we already have ten in the closet? Things like that,

and I have to think--how much have I consumed that I could have rather, sent to someone in need? Even things I find in the trashcan, I do a lot of recycling, but Could I sell them, for maybe even a dollar and feed a child?

You see, change is a process and it is NOT easy--if one Thinks it is, I suggest, Try it and see just how that 'selfish nature' in you rises up and says, "oh, but wait, that isn't too bad why its not like you are hoarding or what have you",

we live in a Society that we are Bombarded all the time with Image. Do we 'look good' and Do we have pretty homes and Do we drive the nice car and Do we Do we Do we. And our self-esteem is so influenced by these images to live up to that we don't really Realize it, but try walking outside in public in sackcloth and see just how quick that image of what Self should be--does to you.

While I am not advocating that we walk in sackcloth, because actually that is really just another form of Spiritual PRIDE that is Just as Sinful as walking around in diamonds and furs-Why? Because its drawing attention to Self and saying, "See, look at me, See how Holy I am",
when in fact,

only God is Holy and its not About OUR Holiness [our righteousness is like filthy rags God says] but its about OUR LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER.

Love doesn't Have to Prove how Holy they are, Love just is.

Its the Getting there, that I am finding, ain't so easy--not for me anyway. That is where God is working on me--and He is like Really Patient, I am seeing That more and more too.

Anyway so I was updating the blog last night and I wanted to add some more about the families, children who live in trash dumps. Years ago, my first marriage, to a man who had Lived/Worked overseas in many countries [he was much older than me and married me for a Green Card but I was young, naive, broken already and fell for the fraud but nethertheless, I DID learn a lot from him], and well anyway, he told me about the dumps in Cairo and the people living in them.

When I did some 'brief and I do mean brief' mission support work on a short term mission trip to Mexico, working with street children I saw with my own eyes, children living in dumps, children selling their bodies and I remember how Livid I was when I came back to America. I was Never the same after that---God How and Why is it that we have so stinking much here and just across the Border there are children with NO water and NO homes and NO families--babies thrown into the river because they are deformed and the mothers, poor all ready and abused/broken simply cannot provide for them...

How, Why and This is NOT RIGHT.

But it wouldn't be until years later when I myself was homeless Again [I had been homeless as youth, after running away from abusive home but for some reason being homeless With children, was more traumatic for me, I was pregnant at the time], that I would KNOW what it is, to be a society discard. I haven't been the same since and I would find myself in that situ twice in my life...as a single parent. I suffer from a form of PTSD because of it, I didn't know that until I got support from other ex-homeless and found out that was the reason I would have the triggers and fear and nightmares, it just Does something to you. That and I know what it does to women--being forced into prostitution, etc., and I won't go into details there...but I draw from those experiences.

But as BAD as all that was, it was in college that I would learn just how many people Live like that EVERY SINGLE DAY FROM BIRTH TILL DEATH. And not only that, its the ONLY WORLD THEY KNOW AND SEE...

with knowing this I wanted to do something. For many years I hated Christianity [American churchianity, cuzz it really Isn't Christian, for the most part--exceptions to this] because I saw it as a band aid, and I didn't want to just give a band aid, I wanted Revolution, I wanted it to Change...I didn't realize then though, that a lot of that rage was also my OWN rage and my OWN PAIN. And I believe that is Why so many revolutions Turn out despotic and more horrid than the prior oppressors Because of that right there. Its a type of transference of pain and rage in one's heart and so they can't change what has happened/happening to them so they project that onto changing the world...to get some kind of revenge. The Anger and Rage are understandable, even justified---but the Methods in how to go about change, often time are not, its a catch 22 really and even IF here is some change, the 'hate' that drives it, does its own little nasty death, to the ones helped and to the ones doing the Revolution. Why we never get Rid of oppression using Violence. At the same time, there will Never be Peace until there is Justice. [another issue, another time].

So like past two years I've been in my heart jumping back and forth between love and repentance and seeing the indifference to revolution and this crap Must not be allowed to continue and then Seeing how I too, have contributed to the darkness in my own ways. And just trying to Sort through it all and asking God, ok What do I do?

Well without going into detail here He's been answering me and so a lot is changing, in my life and so forth...but I feel this urge to start writing [though I will not be happy with just writing] about poverty and what feeds into it and how that WE, can do somethings, to HELP.

To HELP CHANGE IT, not just put a Band aid on it...and while we cannot change the world, we can at Least, help as many as we possibly can in some way.

So, I want to begin here, I am going to share with you, what So many in our world are living in right now, as we speak. And while I won't be writing a lot on here, to get some work done, I have thought, well maybe I should go ahead and do a series on this, to Educate and see, where it takes from there. I am also doing this for myself, because I am working on some things in My LIFE, so that I can do more, than just write and pray about these things one day and I hope, one day soon. [though, I do want to say, God reminds me, without Love, it is nothing, you can give your body to be burned and everything to the poor but if you do NOT have LOVE [God's Love] it is Nothing--and that actually is harder, at least for Me, than it is to like be a pauper, lol--so for now, just working and God is changing, He does the Work in us, not Us...not me, that's for sure].

Cambodia

In then suburb of Phnom Penh there is a district where all the garbage from the citiy is dumped. Many people live there with their whole family, most of them are migrants from the rural side of Cambodia who couldn't succeed to find a job in the city and ended up there. I have been told that they could earn more in one day on the dump than farming rice. However the dump is dangerous, many kids have been killed under the trucks discharging the dump and many are injured with the waste which is on the floor, among them medical waste. Another problem is the high level of dioxine(PCB) and methane gas which they inhale all along the day. THe families live next to the dump, in makeshifts from http://www.demotix.com/news/35347/people-living-garbage-dump-cambodia



I don't just want to Show you these things, but I want to write here about Why this horrible reality IS a reality for so many, from economics to resources to environment and What can be done to Change it. ARE there things we All could be doing? What organizations are there [Relief] that are working to change these things? Why is this not changing when we have All this wealth and technology? How do Other factors such as the Status of women contribute? [I know for fact its a Huge reason, and why the two go hand in hand]

And why has Revolutions FAILED in this...look at North Korea--word is out that they are doing mass arrests of any one the streets looking for food [they are an INSULT to communism in my book, and why the whole Maoist-Stalinist model is nothing more than a capitalist-fascist misogynist Crock]. Not only that they Shoot mothers for trying to get food while kids are dying in the Street.

There Has to be some solutions, Somewhere...we should at Least, Try.

To me, that IS what Love is, I don't know, how we can Say we KNOW God and KNOW His Love, and NOT be moved to DO SOMETHING,

to at Least, Try to do something.

I don't have the answers, I really don't, I'm messed up enough as it is in my own self-life but you know, life is more than me and this world is more than us, we are piss ants really if you look at us from outer space, how God must see us [how small we are], a tiny bit in a world with so many--but I think, the Reason we ARE here, is that, in our tiny bit, we are to Learn, to Love and Care for one another, in Action,

not just in Word.

So--I want to write on this and of course I will be weaving it it with textiles and women's rights [after all, I think they all ready are] but, for now, and of course the search for Fair Trade Chocolate,

I want to really dig in, to some of these issues, Poverty, and see, what ways, I and you, if your heart leads you here, can work, to make a difference,
even if it is,
just a small one.

Just thought of this [though I've pondered this before], that is the difference between Freedom and Authoritarianism--under Freedom we are Free to move so that we Can do something...under theocracy, fascism, totalitarianism, no one is free and therefore no one can do anything to help Anyone. When women are not free women cannot do the Duty that God demanded of them to help the poor and to be merciful. Men will be held accountable To God for that.

At the same time, Freedom is not the same as Economics, many get the two confused and think they are one and the same, they are NOT. The level of freedom and the means of how economics work are different, they may intertwine but they are more often in conflict With each other. That is why many think if you change how we do economics you Have the change Governments. That isn't true, though Fascists [all kinds, right, left, religious] have sold us that LIE.

Freedom is really not Freedom if there is sanction to oppress. Nor can true spiritual freedom to Obey God be realized under the fist of man, i.e. clergy, priests, fundies, etc. That is 'man' or 'men' playing God, not God as God. And that is a Dangerous place to be--God says NO other 'gods' before me--he was referring to MEN, Religion just as much as the totem poles and rock stones and also, if we want to get truthful here, Bible says, love of the Works of our Hands too-was deemed a 'god'.

This is why in the countries that have the most poverty, they also have Horrible status for Women, Horrible Government Restrictions on movement, etc., BUT on the Other hand, in Free nations, we will be held More accountable for what we Don't do, to help those, who are not free to Get themselves, out of Poverty. Including---those in our own backyard who are poor because of interpersonal oppression, e.g. patriarchy being a Big one there AND class elitism, not paying workers fair wages, land hoarding and robber baron rents, All which God condemns in the Bible.

IF we are born in a Free Land, I think, that we are to Take that Freedom, and give...because we are Free to do so. IF we don't,

we are actually, worse, than the depots who live under despots who 'do as they are told'.

Something to think about...

Jane



Love, Solidarity,

Jane