Xenophobia and the Church – an Open Forum

Xenophobic attacks in Gauteng are rocking the press and media world here in South Africa – I think its been reported on CNN as well. This morning I was listening to SAFM and a bunch of guys talking through the whole issue. One phone caller made a rather outlandish comment which I think begs some discussion. This particular caller suggested that the xenophobic attacks we are witnessing are a result of the failure of the church to hold the government morally accountable!? Do you think this is the case? Are we the government’s moral watchdogs? In what ways can we be proactive in this instance?

This is a difficult discussion because categories like ‘the church’ are rather slippery and used differently by different people. When this particular caller used that category I think he had in mind the likes of Frank Chikane and Desomond Tutu. The other difficulty is the root cause of the xenophobia – is it outright xenophobia or simply reaction to unbearable economic pressures?

What do you think…?

***UPDATE (13:50): Tutu has come out quite vocally this morning against the violence pleading for it to end. It would seem to me that Tutu has been, for the most part, a constant moral thorn in the government’s side, irrespective of who the ruling government has been.***

Working with the Homeless in Cape Town

My fiancee works for an organisation called U-Turn who work to uplift homeless people in the area of Claremont in Cape Town. They’ve just got their new website up and running and its worth a look.

The reason I mention it here is due to the current difficulties our organisation is facing. Up until now the municipality has allowed us to lease a building in central Claremont which has operated as a second-phase shelter for the upliftment of homeless men and as a base of operations for all the other work that goes on with the first-phase homeless folk who are still on the street. Unfortunately the municipality requires us to move because they will be demolishing the building in order to build a new road through the area. We have known about the move for a few months now and the municipality has promised us an alternative venue also in central Claremont. However things have come to a head and we’ve been asked to vacate the building within two weeks. Unfortunately the alternative venue is nowhere near ready for our second-phase residents to move into (it completely lacks proper ablution facilities). The costs of making the new venue ready for residents and fully operable are quite significant.

Now I don’t normally do this on my blog but I thought it would be worth putting out there (especially for my US and UK readers who’s Dollars and Pounds go a lot further than our South African Rand):

Would you consider partnering with this ministry in some form? There are suggestions on the website as to how you can contribute to the ministry and help us in this time of need. Thank you for your consideration and please be in prayer for U-Turn over the coming months of transition.

The Wealth of a Student

I’m the 1,149,766,905 richest person on earth! Discover how rich you are! >>

I don’t know how accurate this little website is but it’s pretty sobering.

 

Less than $1 a Day…

Poverty in South Africa has doubled since 1996. Currently there are over 4.2million people living on less than $1 a day here (approx. R7). That’s enough people to fill a large city, the size of Durban for example, and still have a million left over!

(HT – Contact Online)