Money from nothing

Mervyn  (Bank of England King), (parentheses deliberately misplaced), has told us he wants to help the economy by injecting some 85 billion into the system. It is called Quantitative Easing, or as Dire Straits (the Band, but it might as well be the term for our current times!) might have sung it, "money for (from) nothing". I know that Q.E. is a hotly debatable tool and I do not know enough to be able to make an informed comment about its appropriateness at this time or ever. However I did listen to Mr King being interviewed about it, and found his answer to the question, "How does it work?" interesting. He answered firstly by giving the catch all response, "It stimulates the economy". The interviewer thank goodness was not satisfied with this. "But how does it do that?" he insisted. Here comes the interesting part. The Bank buys bonds from, guess whom? Bankers! So the Banks get massive cash injections, which they are then supposed to use for stimulating growth by lending to small to medium businesses, to the construction and manufacturing industries. What are these people telling us time after time after time? That the banks are not lending to them, despite one round of Q.E. already in the system! So what are the banks doing with all this money. They are shuffling it around other banks and financial insititutions of course. You can be sure of this: substantial amounts of it are making yet more bankers wealthy. If Q.E. is going to help at all, it has to be done with major strings attached, to prevent the cash from evaporating long before it ever hits the factory floor.

Money money money

The Greek debt crisis is consuming yards of press and tv footage. I cannot begin to imagine how on earth, unless the Greek nation has access to raw materials which are worth millions, they could begin to pay off yet more debt, which they will need to incur in order to go on trading so we are told. If they default on their current debts, there will admittedly be a lot of pain in the short term, but maybe it is better to bite a painful bullet now than go on suffering hugely and indefinitely and still majorly painfully. People will still trade with them. It would help if they could tax their population a bit more effectively and efficiently. Of course governments in debt is no new thing. It's been happening since time immemorial, with rich bankers and money lenders financing wars and trade initiatives for most governments since Pharaoh was a lad.  Maybe Greece should sell itself to China, which seems to be flush right now. But seriously, the whole merry go round of countries in debt rather begs the question of who exactly does control policy. In name, the government does, but O boy, the shadows in the back room must be pulling some hefty clout wouldn't you think? Kind of makes me think again about Jesus' advice about giving to Caesar what belongs to him. In those days the tax revenue probably did acrue mostly to the government. Nowadays, does it really belong to Caesar, or does it actually belong to Caesar's debtors? Speaking of which, Italy is also under the economic microscope these days. Turn in your grave Caesar. 

9/11

The 10 year anniversary of the destruction of the Twin Towers is featuring large in the media. People can remember where they were, what they were doing when the news broke. It was an incredible and unbelievable act of chilling and catastrophic hatred. This weekend many churches are opening their doors in the cause of peace and reconciliation and healing. It is sad that so often it takes a catastrophe to make us look long and hard at our attitudes. This anniversary will hopefully see great progress along the road of mutual understanding and respect. Many from both faith groups have given serious thought to attitudes of suspicion and negativity which were in place long before 9/11, and  shortly after that atrocity they began to realise that it was time to review previously held racist opinions. Fear and loathing of those who are different from us will never lead to good. The Christian Faith  bids us reach out to them in kindness and respect. At their hearts, those of deepest Islamic faith feel the same, of that I have no doubt. It is sad and strange that despite the fact that Love is Lord in both faith groups, so much savagery and destruction have proceeded from them. When we humans get our hands on the pure spiritual stuff, we sure can cause havoc with our own legalistic additions and interpretations. I suppose we are in constant need of that reminder from the Cross of Christ, that the way to a better pace is laced with pain. The pain of 9/11 hopefully will take us to a place which would have been anathema to the twisted fanatics who flew into the Towers, but of great blessing to millions from both faiths.

From here to there

Some things seem easy to figure out. Our local daily paper, "The Press and Journal", has been leading for a number of days recently with articles about the controversy surrounding the proposed bypass of the City of Aberdeen. A small group of protesters have tried to block this initiative at every turn. The most recent episode in this saga had a local businessman put round a petition expressing the exasperation of around 2000 local citizens with this group. Nevertheless, they continue with their objection. The fact that Aberdeen needs a bypass is a no-brainer. Of course it will adversely affect some, but it is adversely affecting a lot more at the moment. Moving out from the local, another headline has been about the proposed merger of the police forces from regional forces to one national Scottish force. The chief constables are against it, the government is for it. It's easy to figure out that the politicians reckon it will save money. What is more difficult to establish is will it be better, or worse for policing in Scotland. One intuitively thinks, worse. Moving on to Glasgow, and Celtic Football Club, where there is astonishment expressed at the "Not Proven" verdict handed out by the jury on the charge of "religiously aggravated attack" on the manager, Neil Lennon. Having seen the incident captured on CCTV and read the evidence of those involved, one wonders what the jury knew that the average newspaper reader doesn't. I am inclined to think that for a whole jury to decide this, there must either have been complicating circumstances, or all the jury members belonged to some sectarian club or other. Finally, going global, there was a debate on the radio concerning Guantanamo Bay, and the US Army's notorious prison camp there. Barack Obama promised to close it down. He hasn't yet. On the face of it an easy decision to reach. In the backrooms, what arguments have persuaded him to stall?
Some things are easy to figure. Others seem easy, but turn out to have unforseen problems, and others we just know are difficult, like separating the investment functions of the banks from the saving and lending functions, now, or later.
Some people look at the Christian Faith, give the world's  rampant exhibition of distress, tragedy and plain evil a cursory glance, and reckon it's a no-brainer that God doesn't exist. 

Watchtowering

The doorbell rang this morning, 20 minutes before I needed to jump in the car and head off to a funeral, which I was taking. I hadn't changed out of my ripped jeans. A very neat, thin young man stood there on the step, with a pleasant young lady in tow. He greeted me politely and then proceeded to direct my attention to a folded A4 sheet he was carrying, which had various headers on it to do with the state of the world, humanity and spiritual questions. He asked if I ever thought about such things. I said I did. He asked if I owned a Bible. I said, "Many". He said I must be a man of faith. He obviously didn't know what "Manse" written in big bold letters above the number of our house meant. I asked him where they were from. "London". I immediately commiserated with them, not because of the recent riots, but because I couldn't help contrasting the highland beauty of here, with the  cosmopolitan landscape of there. I jumped to the conclusion that they were from a Bible College in London and were out doing some missionary field work. I hadn't read the small print at the bottom of his leaflet. We had a short pleasant chat about the importance of spiritual priorities and I asked them when they were heading back. They told me they would be leaving on Sunday. I said if they had time our church service started at 11.30am. The strange silence and very non engaging stare I received on the back of that was disconcerting. I had to terminate the conversation or I was going to be late, but I wished them well. I closed the door and searched the leaflet, finding at the bottom what I suspected. This was a "Watchtower Press" publication, otherwise known as the Jehovah's Witnesses. I felt sad. I wished I had had the presence of mind to say to him, across his empty stare on the back of my invitation, "Yes, isn't it sad when we find we are unable, for reasons of our own religious dogma, to accept the warm benign invitation of another honest seeker, to join them in worship." 

Riots and Chaos and Catastrophe

If there ever was a week for news big and bad, this was it. David Cameron, initially staying away and thinking this would all go away, had to cut his holidays short. Parliament has been recalled to an emergency debate. Where have we gone wrong, who is doing what wrong, and what can we do about it? These questions are on everyone's lips not least the members of parliament. The questions being asked may not be very different from the famous debate in the Times, over the question, "What is wrong with the world?"  G.K. Chesterton, author and essayist, sent a letter in. "Sir, I am. Yours etc. G.K. Chesterton"
G.K. Chesterton was a devout, sincere and intelligent Christian. His response comes from the orthodox Christian theology of the Cross of Christ. Orthodox understanding sees the Cross as part of God's response to Sin. Orthodox Christians see Sin as something which contaminates everyone, and which when spelled out is simply our turning away from God to anything else which is lower and hurtful to ourselves and our race. Looting and rioting and violence are the kinds of actions which help us to distinguish ourselves from the real nasties. Or so we think. And whilst most of us would not descend to such abject depths, the Bible doggedly asserts that we have it in us to do so. That is why we need a saviour.
Jesus however does not stop the world from rushing headlong to destruction. Certainly he came because that is what it does. He saves us from rushing straight off the edge of eternity into the total absence of God, but he does not stop us from rioting or slaughtering one another, as our own Scottish clans did to one another just a few hundred years ago, and which others are still doing in some parts of the world today. So when the riots break out, as they always have and always will, sure, let's do all in our collective wisdom and power to stop it and stem whatever evil tides are momentarily buoying the chaos up. But, the elegant and beautiful dove of peace and the spirit of universal harmony are elusive and transient at the best of times, because our world is broken. However it is through that brokenness that the light gets in, as Leonard Cohen has so perceptively remarked. And even in the height of the madness that flooded our cities, we saw shafts of light: people doing brave things in the face of mob unrule and terror. Evil does not reign. It just erupts every now and again. Goodness and love do not rule yet either. But the Cross and Resurrection signpost which way the story ends.

News of the Empire

The Rupert Murdoch - News of the World story is rampaging across the media. The famine in Africa, the war in Libya, all have dropped into the interior of newspapers and rarely manage to make the t.v. headlines. Prince William and Kate barely rate a mention as they visit the Americas. This is big. I heard bullish former police officers being interviewed by the Home Affairs select committee. They tried to make their warm relationship with News International sound completely justified. Astonishing. No less astonishing was Murdoch's attempt to hold off the baying pack by silencing the News of the World for ever. In an unconvincing show of repudiation of the paper's evil deeds, he lamented its course into crime. But what I want to know is, to what real end? Murdoch still stands ultimately responsible for the crimes of the paper. If the paper is guilty, then what of its proprietor? Does he think he has done the right thing and the public will thank him for removing his rag? The public are not so stupid. Today's paper is not the criminal and sacrificing it was neither here nor there. The net will move past this distraction and continue to close on Murdoch and his flunkies. What a pity the News of the World won't be around to report it. Maybe that was why Murdoch closed it down.