One of TEAR’s Project Officers recently did an interview with The Age newspaper in Melbourne. It’s an eye-opening account of what’s happening in the country.

Check it out.

But that’s not the reason it squeezed these words out of me. Rather, it was seeing the reversal of a goverment policy which was born out of greed and moral anaesthesia. This is a victory worth the type.

I contributed four pieces, three poems and an audio-visual item, which you can see here. The evening went really well, there was music and dancing, and all those attending were very positive about the experience. I was amazed once again, by the number of complete strangers I meet who prove the theory of six degrees of separation (or in this case, one degree).

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

Have a look at: Change.org to see what others are saying, and add your own thoughts.

Change.org is a social network for hundreds of social causes and over 1 million nonprofit organizations.

From the website:

“Today as citizens of the world, we face a daunting array of social and environmental problems ranging from health care and civil rights to global warming and economic inequality. For each of these issues, whether local or global in scope, there are millions of people who care passionately about working toward a solution but have no way of connecting with each other to advance a common goal.”

John Dear is one of the leading voices for peace in the USA. A priest, pastor, peacemaker, retreat leader, and author, he served for years as the director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest interfaith peace organisation in the USA. He has given thousands of lectures on peace across the US John is involved in three events in Melbourne over the two days:

• March 13 9:30am-4:30pm Day Retreat: Exploring Gospel Nonviolence
• March 14 9:30am-12:30pm Public Lecture: Peacemaking in a Violent World
• March 14 7:30pm-10pm Public Lecture: Peacemaking in a World of Fear with Tim Costello.

For further details about these events including venues, prices and how to register visit www.paceebene.org.au/johndearinmelb or contact Simon on 0402 857 915.

The “un-wasted life”, according to Piper, is “a life that puts the infinite value of Christ on display for the world to see”.

This message is delivered with passion and with brutal honesty from a man who has spent his life trying to make it count for Christ. I encourage you to listen to the audio version and share it. There’s also a transcript available.

One of my goals for this project was to build accessibility into the design from the start. There is a one significant step to go - the font sizes are currently in pixels and I need to change that to em’s. Other than that, I think we did pretty well - even the videos on the website are accessible (to a degree). The vids were made accessible using Quicktime Pro, and a great piece of free software called MAGpie.

On my to-do list (apart from the font size thing) , is allowing the access keys to be customised (‘customized’ for my American friends) on a per-user basis, as access keys - even when based on a ‘standard’ - are now becoming more of a hindrance than a help, as they conflict with shortcut keys used by web browsers and operating systems, and vary widely between websites.

Several interuptions from various service providers created some fun hic-cups over the busy Christmas season, but the site itself performed well. The website received some great press, including an online plug in Marie Clare, and a spot on Channel Nine’s ‘Today’ show (read text, watch video).

Check out: www.usefulgifts.org the next time you need to buy something for the person that has everything!

8:00 PM, Candy’s Apartment, Kings Cross, Sydney, Cost : $12

• Check out The Grand Sons website.
• Listen to The Grand Sons on the Triple J website.