Burma Crisis

Hello again,

One of the reasons i haven't been blogging as much recently is that most of the really good information i come across seems to make it into a bunch of other blogs, so there's no point reposting it here. But i got an e-mail yesterday with some things i hadn't heard before - things that also couldn't be reposted too often.

I don't know how much you've heard about the crisis in Burma right now, but all I had heard until yesterday was neutral news reports of monks protesting and the government fighting back. But then I got an e-mail from an organization I trust called World Hope with some more information. I discovered that the Burmese government is truly oppressive, Christians suffer greatly there, and the protesters need to be supported by the global community. I'm frustrated that the news networks describe the conflict in vague terms and leave people with no sense of what the conflict is over or whether it warrants international action.

The e-mail I got from world hope (which you can read here) contained links to three ways to get involved - one petition and 2 e-mail addresses to write. I did all three, and I'm copying them here for you to use if this makes sense to you. The petition link also contains more information about the conflict. Also, if you have a blog, please consider re-posting this for your readers. Wouldn't it be great to know that you were a part of the global outcry that helped liberate an oppressed people?

• Avaaz: People power can win this. Burma's powerful sponsor China can halt the crackdown if it believes that its international reputation and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing depend on it. To convince the Chinese government and other key countries to intervene, Avaaz is launching a major global and Asian ad campaign including full page ads in the Financial Times and other newspapers to deliver its message. Avaaz needs 1 million voices to be the global roar that will get China's attention. Visit www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma/t.php to sign the petition.
  
  
• You can email the EU President Luís Amado to strengthen the EU position on Burma at http://burmacampaign.org.uk/eu_action.html.
  
  
• You can also send an email to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at inquiries@un.org, urging him to coordinate a strong response to Burmese repression at the UN Security Council and reminding him that waiting, as the UN did in Darfur and Rwanda, could cause untold suffering.
  

Thanks.

Petition for kid-safe films on airlines

Hello again,

Recently i got this article in my inbox about in-flight movies on planes. If you fly you've probably experienced 2 kinds of in-flight entertainment: the kind where everybody gets to choose what movie they want to watch on their own small screen mounted to the seat in front of them, and the kind where several screens are placed throughout the plane and everyone gets to watch the same movies, which are chosen by the airline. Apparently, some airlines have made the choice to show barely-edited versions of R-rated movies on planes with the latter entertainment system, regardless of the fact that these screens are perfectly in view of the children on the planes, all the way down to preschoolers. The article argues that the passengers are basically a captive audience - adults can choose to close their eyes but parents can't control what is shown to their children. So someone's written a petition, and i signed it, and maybe you would like to too. For more information about the petition or to sign, click here.

the most hilarious thing i 've ever seen!

Ok, I'm not sure whether they're really trying to attract billionaires to their cell phones or if they just thought it'd be so hilarious that more normal people would pay attention to their ads, but Sprint appears to be actually selling a phone and throwing in a private island. Of course, that way the phone costs 10.5 million dollars. I don't know enough about the web to get the video to show up here but the link to it is here.

Good thought - excessive emphasis on excellence can be a bad thing

Check out this blog post about how a focus on excellence can get overdone. It's short and sweet, just like this one :)

Excellent Article at Youth Specialties: "It’s a Both-And Thing"

Hello,

If you're a young youth worker like me, you've probably struggled with the tension between doing big events vs. small group, relational ministry. I just got a link to a great article by Grant English that dissolves the tension and makes the whole thing seem oh-so-simple. In a really believable way. Check it out: It’s a Both-And Thing, The False Dichotomy between Events and Relationships

I got the link to this in the Youth Specialties weekly e-mail update, you can sign up for it here.