Good for Canadian Marriages...

Wedding bells ring only once for most Canadians: study
Last Updated Wed, 28 Jun 2006 16:25:06 EDT
CBC News

Most Canadians marry only once in their lifetime, a new survey suggests.
(Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press) Almost 90 per cent of married Canadians
have been wed only once, says the study in the Canadian Social Trends
survey, released Wednesday by Statistics Canada.

The study, "Till death do us part? The risk of first and second marriage
dissolution" appears in the June 2006 issue of Canadian Social Trends.

Among indicators of success for a marriage are:

According to the study, first marriages were more likely to succeed if the
couples:

- Did not live together in a common-law relationship before wedding.
- Had children.
- Attended religious services.
- Believed that marriage was important for happiness.

Read the article:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/28/marriage-survey.html
Read the report:
http://www.statcan.ca/english/freepub/11-008-XIE/2006001/main_death.htm#summ
ary

Make it a peacemaking mission instead...

"Canadian troops have been handed an impossible mission which can only lead
to significant casualties," says the report by the policy think-tank.

"Until Canada fundamentally re-evaluates its approach and creates its own
new strategy for its presence in Kandahar, with a clear split from the
failed U.S. policies there, the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is blindly
following a path that will lead to senseless military and civilian
casualties."

Read more:
http://news.sympatico.msn.ctv.ca/TopStories/ContentPosting.aspx?feedname=CTV
-TOPSTORIES_V2&newsitemid=CTVNews%2f20060627%2fafghanistan_report_060628&sho
wbyline=True

Dr Was

More Rations: http://www.havelock-viha.com/journal.htm

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Reminder, you are welcome to use any of our comics. When you do, please just cite 'Dr Was' and our web location...Thanks, Michael Ramsay

Education - Religion - Interesting

Suspicious Tutoring

By Guido Kleinhubbert

Scientologists are taking advantage of Germany's education problems for their own ends: They are luring weak students by providing after-school tutoring. Education authorities in Germany are on alert.

Matthias Krug / DER SPIEGEL The church of Scientology in Hamburg

The ad on a supermarket notice board in the city of Essen was aimed at all the parents in the neighborhood. Right nearby there was an "alternative school" where learning was still fun. "Sounds just right", thought one dad, who is now reluctant to give his name out of sheer fear. He took down the phone number of the school and that same evening arranged some after-school tutoring for his daughter.

At first it seemed as though the new teacher was a really good find. However...

Read more: http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,422970,00.html

Poverty: US Study shows CEOs earn 262 times more than the ave worker

Stats from: Financial Post. June 23, 2006

US CEOs earn 262 times more than the average worker. CEOs earned an average of US$11-million last year.

A separate study by Corporate Library in Washington found that chief executives of 11 of the US's largest companies were collectively paid US$865-million in the past two years while overseeing the LOSS of US$640-billion in shareholder value.

----
13 million children lived in poverty in 2004. The rate of poverty among children was 17.8%, significantly higher than the poverty rate for the population as a whole. Child poverty in the U.S. is much higher -- often two-to-three times higher -- than that of most other major Western industrialized countries.

Each day in America, 2,019 babies are born into poverty. This means that a child is born into poverty every 43 seconds. Almost 80 percent of poor children live in working households.

One in five children is poor during the first three years of life - the time of greatest brain development.

An American child is born without health insurance every minute - 90 percent of our nine million uninsured children live in working families.

In Minnesota, 121,691 children lived in poverty in 2002. That translates to a poverty rate of 9.6%, the second-lowest in the nation.

-----

See Canadian comparisons of income: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2006/06/canadians-worth-140800-each-statistics.html

Stats Source: http://www.osjspm.org/101_poverty.htm#2

food for prayer: murder wave hits US 'ex-burbs'

The Sunday Times June 25, 2006
Tony Allen-Mills, New York

THERE were five teenagers in the car rolling quietly through the muggy night
an hour before dawn in central New Orleans. By the time the police caught up
with them last weekend, they were all dead — riddled with bullets in the
worst outbreak of gun violence since Hurricane Katrina devastated the city
last year.
...
New Orleans, the city that briefly enjoyed a zero murder rate in the wake of
the evacuations forced by Katrina is on the way to regaining its status as
America’s most dangerous city, even though its population has halved.
...
Police in San Antonio, Texas, have been scratching their heads over the
causes of a dramatic 70% increase in the murder rate this year.
Traditionally peaceful states such as New Hampshire, Iowa and Kansas are
also experiencing violence unknown a decade ago.
...
Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2241953,00.html

Food for prayer: Toronto's gay pride parade is this weekend

Published: Saturday, June 24, 2006

TORONTO -- Leather-clad dancers and drag queens in full bloom will march to
the beat of their own drum tomorrow in Toronto, even if Ottawa is trying to
call the tune.

The city's gay pride parade is Canada's largest celebration of gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered culture.

Read more:
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=370cf992-2d95-418b-
961e-64186b85ca1f&k=54362

See also: Gay Pride Parades: Does a non-Christian engage in homosexuality? Who cares? from the H-V News Service, July 23, 2003. (The article may be a little 'over the top' but I think it still brings some things to the table worthy of discussion)

Poverty is the most serious and widespread human rights abuse, UN official says

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today
described poverty as the "most serious, invidious and widespread" human
rights violation confronting the world, while calling on all States to keep
laws at the forefront of their efforts to fight terrorism, highlighting in
particular concerns over the use of torture

Read more:
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18982&Cr=rights&Cr1=council

Urban Poor...

Forum ends with urban poor focus

By Daniel Lak BBC News, Vancouver The forum said developing countries must tackle urban issues The World Urban Forum in Vancouver has closed with a call for developing countries to pay more attention to the problems of the urban poor. The UN-sponsored gathering of some 8,000 delegates also focused on the environmental and social challenges facing the world's largest cities. The gathering spent five days considering the growing movement of people around the globe to cities. Read more: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5112386.stm

Guardian Angels plan Winnipeg branch

A controversial group of citizen patrollers which rose to fame in New York
City will be making arrests on Winnipeg streets as soon as next January, the
Canadian director of the Guardian Angels said yesterday.

Canadian leaders of the notorious crime-busting group -- renowned for their
red berets and red satin bomber jackets they wear on neighbourhood
patrols -- said they'll visit the city this September to recruit potential
members.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/

I don't know whether the US vigilante group (http://www.guardianangels.org/)
is good, bad, or neutral, but I do know The Salvation Army already wears
'Red Berets' and patrols the streets here...maybe we could ask them to
change the colour of their berets for their new Winnipeg chapter...I don't
imagine that either the Army or the Angels would want to have our
organizations mistaken for each other...

Canadians worth $140,800 each: Statistics Canada

CBC News

Canada's national net worth reached $4.58 trillion by the end of March 2006, or roughly $140,800 per person, Statistics Canada said Friday.

Read More: http://www.cbc.ca/story/business/national/2006/06/23/networth.html

In 1989, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to eliminate poverty among Canadian children by the year 2000. At the start of 2005, one million Canadian children, or nearly one in six, are still poor. Aboriginal people are disproportionately affected.

Make Poverty History: http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/e/aim4.html

 

 

Choose Good

Choose Good; Choose God...

A response to Ignatieff?

"If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being." - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

See Post: You're wrong, you can't defeat evil with evil!
Link: http://renewnetwork.blogspot.com/2006/06/youre-wrong-you-cant-defeat-evil-with.html

Real Men Don't Sing ...

I recently ran across this article...

Real Men Don't Sing (Or Do They)?
Can we worship God without breaking into song? by Geoff Ryan

"You can't worship God, it seems, unless at some point you break into song"

Read it: http://therubicon.org/?p=16

U.S. senators reject Iraq withdrawal

Last Updated Thu, 22 Jun 2006 13:15:14 EDT
CBC News

The Republican-dominated U.S. Senate voted down two proposals on Thursday
that called for U.S. soldiers to start withdrawing from Iraq this year.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/22/senate-iraq.html

The new spending will bring the price tag for the military campaign in Iraq
to nearly $320 billion. That's $357 billion Cdn, about 1½ times the total
expenditure of the government of Canada in 2005.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/15/ussenate-spending.html

When the bombs were still falling in Afghanistan and battles still raging,
already U.S. Afghan allies were rounding up prisoners: Taliban fighters,
suspected al-Qaeda militants, and a few people they just wanted to get rid
of. Hundreds of the captives were turned over to U.S. troops. Because most
of them were captured on the battlefield, they qualified as prisoners of war
under the Geneva Conventions, in theory, guaranteeing them protection from
mental and physical abuse.

However, soon there were fleeting glimpses of what happens to prisoners who
have lost their rights. Tortured, hooded, manacled figures are seen [in Abu
Gharib] on their way to a place that would become the symbol of a tough new
U.S. policy: Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Some 600 victims are sequestered on the
U.S. naval base in legal limbo.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/iraq/abughraib_halton.html

So far between 38 475 and 42 889 unarmed civilians have been slaughtered in
Iraq since the occupation began.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Please pray for an end to this madness...

Booth never wanted advertising...

William Booth was opposed to accepting advertising in the War Cry; we now
accept advertising....

thoughts: ramsay@havelock-viha.com

Freedom of the Press growing in Canada...

Senate to call for commercial-free CBC-TV
Last Updated Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:47:33 EDT
http://www.cbc.ca/story/arts/national/2006/06/20/senate-report.html
CBC Arts

A Senate report is to recommend CBC-TV become completely commercial-free and
that Ottawa boost CBC funding to make up for the loss of ad revenue,
Canadian Press has learned.

The report on the state of Canada's media is to be released Wednesday.

A committee headed by Senator Joan Fraser, a former journalist, has been
working on the report for the last three years, with hearings held across
the country.

It will recommend boosting CBC's annual $1-billion budget to make it
possible to get rid of ads, the wire service said.

The report also examined private-sector newspaper, radio and television
concentration.

It will recommend measures to prevent private media conglomerates from
dominating any single market, with a review triggered whenever a media
company acquires above a certain percentage of audience share.

According to sources, the report of the Senate's transport and
communications committee will recommend that the Competition Act be beefed
up.

The review was spurred by CanWest Global's decision to publish national
editorials throughout its Southam newspaper chain without allowing local
editors to opt out.

CanWest owns several big city daily newspapers and is the country's second
biggest private broadcaster after CTV. The BCE group owns CTV and controls
The Globe and Mail.

----

Wow! That's great! A public broadcaster not controlled by those wealthy
enough to buy ads. This is great! Keep up the good work Senate - may you
never become an expensive and redundant elected body!

Dr. Was

 

 

 

 

---

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More Comics: http://www.drwas.blogspot.com/

To view our links on this page...

visit http://www.havelock-viha.com/sheepspeak.htm

Ramsay Office #1

I went to the Library today, to my usual corner (one of the tutorial rooms)
to find a new sign attached to it "Ramsay Private Office". Next to it was
the other tutorial room, "Ramsay Private Office 2", where I work if Susan is
in #1.

God bless Richard, and all the staff, here. We will miss them while we are
away...

No more purity

Banned: Schoolgirls are forced to take off chastity rings - or be ordered out of lessons

Gaby Hinsliff, political editor
Sunday June 18, 2006
The Observer

It is only a band of silver, imprinted with a Bible verse, worn by a schoolgirl but the decision by one of the country's top state schools to ban 'purity rings' - increasingly worn by Christian teenagers to symbolise a pledge not to have sex before marriage - has prompted not just a standoff with local parents, but a debate over religious expression and sex education.

Read more: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1800271,00.html

Court decides: Bible not hate literature

By SHARON DEWEY HETKE



The Saskatchewan Court of Appeal has overturned a ruling that had branded the Bible “hate literature” when used in certain contexts.

Read more: http://anglicanplanet.net/TAPCanada0606e.html

American Anglicans vote for church spilt?

Episcopal Church elects first woman as presiding bishop
SOLANGE DE SANTIS
STAFF WRITER

June 18, 2006 - Columbus, Ohio
American Episcopalians, meeting at their triennial governing convention, elected Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of the diocese of Nevada, as presiding bishop, or national leader, of the 2.4 million-member denomination.She will lead a church where moves toward greater acceptance of homosexuality have caused a conservative minority to threaten schism. In addition, the U.S. church has been subject to criticism from Anglican churches worldwide.

She will also work with primates of churches that do not ordain women, much less have female bishops.

The presiding bishop represents the Episcopal church at home and abroad, leads the church’s national office in New York City and presides at meetings of the house of bishops, among other duties.

Bishop Jefferts Schori will be installed as presiding bishop on Nov. 4 at Washington D.C.’s National Cathedral.

Editor’s note: In the coming days, the Anglican Journal’s Web site, www.anglicanjournal.com, will feature reaction to the election of the first woman primate in the Anglican Communion.

June 18, 2006
Read more: http://anglicanjournal.com//extra/news.html?newsItem=2006-06-18_ecusa.news

Happy Fathers' Day!

Not a bad platform (Sounds Primitive Army!)

"For the Good of Everyone, the Poor First."

- Mr. Lopez Obrador, Mexican Presidential Candidate.

Opportunities for Enthusiastic Evangelistic Slum Sisters and Brothers

UN predicts huge jump in global slums
Jun. 17, 2006. 01:00 AM

GENEVA—About 1.4 billion people worldwide will be living in slums by 2020,
unless action is taken to improve conditions for the urban poor, said a UN
report released yesterday.

The number of slum-dwellers globally is expected to grow from the current
one billion — nearly all in the developing world — as city populations
swiftly rise, the UN Human Settlement Program said.

"Slums in many cities are no longer just marginalized neighbourhoods housing
a relatively small proportion of the urban population," the report said. "In
many cities, they are the dominant type of human settlement."

Read more:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150494610516&call_pageid=968332188492

You're wrong, you can't defeat evil with evil!

Why it is not in Canada's best interest for the Liberals to elect Mr.
Ignatieff as their new leader:

"To defeat evil, we may have to traffic in evils: indefinite detention of
suspects, coercive interrogations, targeted assassinations, even pre-emptive
war. These are evils because each strays from national and international law
and because they kill people or deprive them of freedom without due process.
They can be justified only because they prevent the greater evil. The
question is not whether we should be trafficking in lesser evils but whether
we can keep lesser evils under the control of free institutions." - Mr.
Ignatieff, writing in The New York Times Magazine in 2004

Christians cannot support people who openly encourage the support for this kind of 'evil'; we just can't.

Think about it...

Quotable quote:

"There's always a way to win; there's always a way to lose. And it's up to
you to find that way before the final buzzer goes."

- Ken Dryden (Federal Liberal MP and Canadiens Hockey Legend)

How does this work vis a vis sanctification?

Police: new street racing law may lead to more dangerous driving

Law won't deter street racing, experts say
Harsher penalties could even encourage culture of dangerous driving, police warn
CAMPBELL CLARK and TENILLE BONOGUORE

From Friday's Globe and Mail

OTTAWA and TORONTO - The Conservative government introduced a bill yesterday to create a new offence for street racing, but lawyers said it will have little impact in practice.

Although Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced plans for the bill to great fanfare in May, the new offences essentially mirror the dangerous-driving charges already in the Criminal Code, but with slightly longer maximum sentences.

Perhaps the greatest change is that driver's licences of individuals convicted of street racing will automatically be suspended for at least a year, although judges can also order suspensions for dangerous driving.

"What really does it add? Well it adds a couple of words -- street racing -- to offences essentially already on the books," said Josh Weinstein, a Winnipeg criminal lawyer and member of the Canadian Bar Association's criminal law section.

"It bumps up the time a bit, but at the end of the day, I think the public's going to have to wonder whether this is all just smoke and mirrors."

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060616.wxstreeracing16/BNStory/National/?cid=al_gam_nletter_newsUp

Pride comes before a fall

review | posted June 14, 2006 (July 3, 2006 issue)
We Are the World
David Rieff

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060703/rieff

Denominationally (any denomination), sometimes are we vulnerable to the same
wrong assumptions?

comments: ramsay@havelock-viha.com

To view our links on this page...

visit http://www.havelock-viha.com/sheepspeak.htm

Click the picture for more comics...

 

 

 

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Second Chances?

Published on Thursday, June 15, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times
Ex-Cons Need Not Apply
Why should a prison past keep someone from punching a time card?

by Patt Morrison

Believe in the American credo, do you? Second chances, bootstraps, clean
slate, all that? Good for you. I do too. Let's see whether you still do
after reading this.

A vast class of men and women — maybe 13 million of them — live under an
unbreakable glass ceiling. They committed a crime, and they helped to put
that ceiling in place themselves. But isn't there a statute of limitations
on punishment? Can't someone help them turn that glass ceiling into a
sunroof?

These people, ex-felons mostly, are out of the cell, but they're still in
"the box" — the little square on almost every job application that asks,
"Have you ever been convicted of a crime?" Most of us breeze by it. For
those millions — and another 650,000 who are paroled or released every
year — that box is the end of the line. Check that box, and check off your
chance for a job.

Why should you care? Because you pay for it too, one way or another...

Read more: http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0615-25.htm

Any thoughts? email ramsay@havelock-viha.com

Food for Prayer - Pornography

I ran across this stat today - 1 in 5 children is propositioned for sex over
the internet (US stat)- 1 in 5. That's horrible!

Some countries ban and enforce bans on child porn, etc. (Making ISP's
legally responsible in part would be one way to easily control it.) I guess
governments do what is important for their citizenry....too bad freedom of
expression is seemingly more important than freedom from pornography and
sexual predators....

Unhappy and Gay

The Times (UK) June 16, 2006

I'm no abomination, says gay bishop
By James Bone

Conservatives and gay rights activists are fighting for the future of Anglicanism in an Ohio hotel

GENE ROBINSON, the first openly gay bishop in the history of the Anglican Communion, stood before 1,500 American Episcopalians and proclaimed: "I'm not an abomination in the eyes of God." The Episcopal Church should "stand up for right", he insisted.

Moments later, Robert Duncan, the conservative Bishop of Pittsburgh, took the microphone to declare that the Church had reached an "impossible moment" and was on the brink of an historic schism...

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2228157,00.html

A Changing Mass for U.S. Catholics

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and CINDY CHANG
NY TIMES
Published: June 16, 2006

Roman Catholic bishops in the United States voted yesterday to change the wording of many of the prayers and blessings that Catholics have recited at daily Mass for more than 35 years, yielding to Vatican pressure for an English translation that is closer to the original Latin.

The bishops, meeting in Los Angeles, voted 173 to 29 to accept many of the changes to the Mass, a pivotal point in a 10-year struggle that many English-speaking Catholics had dubbed "the liturgy wars."

Click HERE to read more of this article from the NY Times.

Canadians replacing one 'sin' with amore deadly one...

Canadians fatter, but smoking less
SCOTT DEVEAU

Globe and Mail Update

Canadians are a whole lot fatter than they think, but they are also smoking considerably less, according to the latest national health indicators.

Statistics Canada released Tuesday its annual Canadian Community Health Survey, a comprehensive snapshot of 37 different health indicators in 2005. For the first time, Statscan relied not only on self-assessed body mass indexes (BMIs), but actually measured roughly 5,000 of its 133,000 respondents.

Click HERE to read more.

Canadian Christian Stats

Good news for Christianity in Canada

 

By SHARON DEWEY HETKE

 

Recent poll reveals 62% of Canadians believe that through the death & resurrection of Jesus Christ,
God provided "the way for the forgiveness of sins."

 

Click HERE to read more of this article from the Anglican Planet.

Meeting Christ in the children of Uganda

 Photo:Kyla Smith   

By KYLA SMITH

I recently returned from Rukunyu, a small village in southwestern Uganda, where I was an intern with the Samaritan's Purse Water for Life program which is offered through a partnership with CIDA.    

 

Click HERE to read more of this story from the Anglican Planet.

There is a move to curb donations to religious institutions

Last Updated Tue, 13 Jun 2006 11:14:13 EDT
CBC News

A Toronto-based Muslim group wants the federal government to ban all foreign donations to religious institutions in Canada as one way of trying to curb the influx of extremist views.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/13/terrorist-funding.html

Opinions on this or any of my comments on the news: ramsay@havelock-viha.com 

Good and Bad News for Payday Loan Victims

regulate payday loans (good)

Bill would delegate power to provinces (bad)

Each will devise own consumer protection
Jun. 13, 2006. 01:00 AM
JENNIFER DITCHBURN
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA—The government is preparing to introduce legislation that will rein
in Canada's mushrooming payday loan industry, delegating power to the
provinces to regulate the business and protect consumers.

Read more:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Artic
le_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150149009721&
call_pageid=968332188492&col=9687939721
54&t=TS_Home

Good news: NDP MP Pat Martin of Winnipeg was pushing for similar legislation last session. This is already in the works (regulating payday loans) in Manitoba. Regulating loans provides some relief for the poorest in our society who most often are the ones who suffer from the deregulation in this industry.

Bad news: Offloading the responsibility to the provinces means 1) we do not have a consistent law; 2) less chance of actual implementation; 3) less accountability. 4) It will be way more expensive to regulate and enforce.

Now Canadians torture people too?

Is it true? Have we strayed this far?

http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/
ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060612/terror
_pubban_060612

Pray that we haven't and that we won't engage in the kind of horrible acts
of torture that other countries do. Really. Pray! And pray that the
legislation that denies the accused access to an open and fair trial is
repealed. Pray, just pray.

Another revolutionary quote:

"we teach the people how to read and write, we will count on hundreds of millions of revolutionaries, fighters for a world change." - Fidel Castro.

From: http://www.ain.cubaweb.cu/idioma/ingles/2006/jun09fidel-alfabetizacion.htm

How does this work with a Primitive Salvo spin on it? Dig into your rations: http://www.havelock-viha.com/journal.htm !

How many 'days of rest' do we need?

" In Nigeria we have the following rest days: "52 Sundays, 52 Saturdays, 2 days for Eid-El- Kabir, 2 days for Eid-El Fitri, 2 days for Christmas, 2 days for Easter, 1 day for EI-Maulud and 1 day for Democracy Day. "

"1 day for Independence celebration, 1 day for workers day and 1 day for Children's day. That totals 117 days for holidays." "Imagine 117 days instead of 52 days for rest! This is official for every Nigerian."

- The Rt. Rev Duke Akamisoko, Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Zonkwa

Read more: http://www.anglican-nig.org/wkethics_bp.htm

Joining in World Cup football fever, UN agency to wave 'red card' against child labour

7 June 2006 - With World Football Cup fever in full swing, the United Nations labour agency is preparing to wave a symbolic 'Red Card' against child work as part of a series of global events beginning this week to mark the World Day Against Child Labour.

"Many have said child labour will always be with us," International Labour Organization (ILO) Director-General Juan Somavia said in a statement today. "But the global movement against child labour is proving them wrong. That is the meaning of the symbolic waving of the Red Card against child labour - it's not just a gesture, it's a way to highlight our struggle for the right of every child to a real childhood."

World Cup football legend Roger Milla of Cameroon and leaders of the sports, scouting and labour worlds will speak at ceremonies in Geneva on 12 June marking the World Day and the symbolic waving of the card that signifies a referee's expulsion of a player from the soccer field for a serious foul or other breach of football rules.

Read more: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=18770&Cr=Child&Cr1=labour

Taking care of those in need...

Russia to write off part of debt of poor nations
Last Updated Sat, 10 Jun 2006 22:32:20 EDT
CBC News

Russia says it will write off about $700 million US in debt owed by the
world's poorest countries.

Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin made the announcement on the eve of a G-8
finance ministers meeting on Saturday in St. Petersburg.

read more: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/10/g8-russia.html

Good for Russia! It is particularly good when you consider how much money
they lost supporting poorer countries during the cold war period...

Happy Birthday SGV!

Sheep and Goats

What will define the goats in our day and age is if we, when the Lord is
hungry, refuse to give him something to eat; if we, when the Lord is
thirsty, give him nothing to drink; if we, when the Lord is a stranger, do
not invite him in; if we when, He needs clothes, do not clothe Him; and if
we, when he is sick or in prison, do not look after Him. How do we do that?
By looking after others.

There are many professing Christians in Canada (72.6 % of us actually, or
more than 21 million people) and there are more than 2.1 billion professing
Christians in the world but, as for feeding is concerned, everyday more than
16,000 children die from hunger-related causes—or one child every five
seconds and they don’t need to die; the world produces more than enough
food to feed everyone; as for offering a drink of water, there is a serious
world wide crisis around water. People are dying and Canada alone controls
over 20% of the world’s fresh water supply. In Canada, one of the world’s
wealthiest countries, with so many professing to be Christian, there are
thousands of homeless people . We are even told not to stop and offer a
stranger a ride –it is dangerous- and this world thinks it is foolish to
invite a stranger into your home. How many of us visit people in the
hospitals and prisons? (There is lots of opportunity for that given that
there are in excess of 3 million people in jails across North America). How
many of them are visited regularly? How can there be that many starving in
the world and that many homeless in Canada if everyone who claims Christ is
really following him? What are we doing about it? How many Canadian
church-goers are visiting those in prison? How many are offering food and
drink when people are dying? How many are surprised by all this and …how
many of us may be surprised to find out that we are goats rather than sheep?

Read the apocalyptic warning itself: Matthew 25:31-46

Happy 4th Birthday Sarah-Grace!

Abraham and Lot

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Dr. Was for June 11, 2006

Quote

"A text out of context is a pretext..."

Pray for the new candidates accepted for CFOT

From www.salvationist.ca
June 5, 2006 at 3:24 pm

Major Beverly Ivany, Secretary for Candidates, is pleased to announce the
acceptance of the following candidates into CFOT Winnipeg this fall for the
‘God’s Fellow Workers’ 2006/2007 session.

Julie Young of Barrie Corps, Ontario North Division

Kim Bridge of Kamloops Community Church, British Columbia Division

Nathan & Amanda Swartz of Goderich-Suncoast Citadel, Ontario Great Lakes
Division

Tina Dominaux of Grand Banks Corps, Newfoundland East Division

Lynda Wakelin of Calgary Glenmore Temple, Alberta Division

US senate supports gay marriage

Wednesday 07 June 2006, 22:56 Makka Time, 19:56 GMT   

George Bush is doing badly in the polls

Republicans are to take their fight for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage to the House of Representatives, despite a senate defeat and little chance of successs in the full Congress.

Democrats said that the vote, in which the ban was defeated by 49 to 48 but needed 60 to pass, was merely an attempt by Republicans to rouse conservative supporters before congressional elections in November and to divert attention from presidential woes.

 

More: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/DCBF8506-F59F-420F-9C38-4B256BA7F55D.htm

Related: Bush pushes ban on gay marriage, Schwarzenegger: Stop gay unions

Food for prayer: is a fair trial still possible in Canada?

INDEPTH: TORONTO BOMB PLOT
Prosecuting 'terror' charges - Fair trial?
CBC News Online | June 7, 2006

It didn't take long after the Sept. 11, 2001, incident in the United States for the Canadian government to come up with its Anti-Terrorism Act. Within four months, Ottawa passed legislation that amended the Criminal Code of Canada to include a section that defined "terrorist" offences.

The Anti-Terrorism Act also gave police extraordinary powers to help them in their investigation of suspected "terrorist" activity. Among those powers were preventive arrests and fewer restrictions on the use of electronic surveillance.

Mohammad Momin Khawaja was the first man charged under the Anti-terrorism Act.

Before the arrest of 17 people in an alleged plot to bomb targets in Toronto and Ottawa, only one other person had been charged under the anti-terrorist provisions of the Criminal Code. Mohammad Momin Khawaja was arrested March 29, 2004, accused of participating in the activities of a terrorist group and facilitating a terrorist activity. He's not scheduled to go to trial until January 2007. His lawyers say they still haven't seen the evidence against their client.

The anti-terrorist provisions of the code remain untested in court.

As they emerged from a Brampton, Ont., courthouse on June 6, 2006, lawyers for several of the accused said they felt their clients would receive a fair trail - but they did have concerns about the atmosphere and the process.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/toronto-bomb-plot/anti-terrorism-act.html

Read the legislation and FAQ's: http://www.justice.gc.ca/en/anti_terr/faq.html

Anglican 'civil war' possible, says author

From the ANGLICAN JOURNAL. June, 2006 - by MICHAEL MCATEER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Having failed to have their way on other controversial issues, conservatives and evangelicals have rallied around the homosexual issue and are determined to win the ongoing battle for the "soul of Anglicanism," says journalist and author Stephen Bates.

"There's a certain desperation on the part of conservatives that if they lose this issue they've lost everything," the religious affairs correspondent for the Guardian newspaper told a symposium  entitled Church at War: Anglicans, Homosexuality and Social Justice.

Read more: http://anglicanjournal.com/132/06/canada16.html

Any thoughts? Is a split ever okay? mail to: ramsay@havelock-viha.com

No more mr. nice guy

"Without God one can be nice but one cannot be good."

Food for prayer: be wary, no one is immune to sin.

Dick Marty reveals global spider's web of U.S. detentions and transfers, alleges active collusion by Council of Europe states. (Council of Europe)

Europe accused of aiding CIA in terror flights

Updated Wed. Jun. 7 2006 10:17 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

The head of a European investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons has accused 14 European nations of colluding with the U.S. as part of a 'spider's web' of human rights abuses.

In a 67-page report, Swiss senator Dick Marty charged that many European governments "did not seem particularly eager to establish" the facts before they allowed the CIA to use their airports for its program of "extraordinary renditions".

Under the program, U.S. intelligence agencies allegedly sent terror suspects for interrogation in other countries, where they have no legal protection or rights

Click HERE to read more.

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Food for prayer. The problem is much deeper than just one aggressive administration and one militaristic nation parading around the globe. History has shown again and again that we are all capable of contributing to horrible acts when we stray from God. Remember, the world needs Jesus. Without the peace that comes from following Christ, this sort of corporate, personal and even systemic brutality will not end. No one is immune to sin.

Would Jesus walk or take a bus?

ANGLICAN JOURNAL - JUNE, 2006.
staff

"What would Jesus drive if he embarked on his travels in 21st century Britain?" More than one in four (29 per cent) British churchgoers said Jesus would walk. But, if he chose to drive, his chosen vehicle, according to 17 per cent of those polled, would be a camper van.

What would Jesus drive? - a take on the motto "What would Jesus do?" - was a question posed to 4,000 church leaders and members by Congregational and General Insurance ahead of the recent National Christian Resources Exhibition.

Read more: http://www.anglicanjournal.com/132/06/world06.html

E-rations with a Smile for June 6

Ecclesiastes 1-3 and Psalm 45 and Ephesians 2 

Subscribe /  Unsubscribe / Comments: info@havelock-viha.com

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More Rations: http://www.havelock-viha.com/journal.htm  

More Comics: http://www.drwas.blogspot.com/

The poor's champions will not go unrewarded...Praise God

Bolivian president wins support with land reforms

Last Updated Sun, 04 Jun 2006 00:24:33 EDT

CBC News

Bolivia's populist new president, Evo Morales, defied his country's wealthy landowners Saturday when he handed 7.8 million acres of government-owned land to the poor.

Bolivian President Evo Morales has pledged to reform his country. (Canadian Press)

"The historical enemies of the poor must accept this land revolution," said Morales, a former coca farmer from a peasant background.

Morales originally planned to hand 12 million acres of state property and idle land to indigenous groups. But he recently raised his target to 48 million acres, or one-fifth of Bolivia's entire territory, within five years.

Morales, who was elected in January on a platform of reform, has already nationalized the Bolivian oil industry, sparking hope that he will become another Hugo Chavez

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/04/bolivia-sat.html

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From Firecrest

Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Education in Crisis

I am more convinced all the time that we need to infiltrate the education
system with righteousness. I actually was brought to tears reading today's
paper, mainly because the article was much closer to my soul that when in
print.

The high school in our neighborhood passes 37.1 % of kids, and the state is
preparing to close it all together. This school was the " pride of
Charlotte," from the 1940's through the 1960's and became a "national
showcase for successful desegregation." ...

" But racial tension flared in the mid-1990's. White families and teachers
began to abandon the school."

The school started this year with 35 new teachers, and 20 will not be back
this September. This West Charlotte school has begun offering a $10,000
signing bonus for any experienced teachers that will come teach in West
Charlotte, and as to date has paid out nothing as not even one experienced
teacher has applied to come.

The current teachers say that " tests don't measure the heartbreaking lives
of these kid's."

It is disturbing here when you ask a kid, " What do you want to do after you
finish school?" and they stare back at you with a blank look saying " Do ?
What do you mean?"

There is so much we can do as the Body of Christ. It is a lie that the
school system is closed to the gospel, in fact our experience is that the
system is crying out for good news. We have school counselors calling us to
work out career days and make-up tests with the kids in our neighborhoods.

Later this week we will take a kid to DHQ for a career exploration day in
the IT department. The principal is letting us take kids out of school for
discipleship; see the IT department is not only a door plaque to this
student, his friend and cell leader works there.

We called his principal and made a covenant stating that if our friend goes
to school for 5 days straight then he could come and spend a day with his
Jesus Mentor hanging out. We are bringing him on Thursday, and that week he
went to school every day will be the only one he completed this year.

He will be given natural lessons in IT installation and web design alongside
supernatural deposits of love and hope.

There is so much we can do if only we will.

Read more of what the LORD is doing in Charlotte
http://614firecrest.blogspot.com/

Canadian Environment Week

www.salvationarmy.ca

June 4, 2006 at 1:52 pm

The 35th celebration of Canadian Environment Week is June 4-10 and coincides each year with World Environment Day (June 5). Its goal is to reinforce the importance of individual actions to protect and conserve the environment. (Read more)

Temptation: America's churches make a fortune and scandals multiply.

The Sunday Times June 04, 2006

US 'robber Revs' raid funds of wealthy churches
Tony Allen-Mills

GOD has been kind to the millionaire residents of Darien, Connecticut, a secluded commuter enclave an hour by limousine from midtown Manhattan. Beautiful houses sprawl through the woods along the shores of Long Island Sound. Yachts and speedboats lie at anchor in private coves.

Many residents show their gratitude by attending church each Sunday and dropping cheques of £5,000 or more into the collection plate. Nobody seems to have imagined that the extravagant sums flowing each week into the coffers of St John's Roman Catholic church might prove too tempting for the parish priest.

A criminal investigation into the finances of one of Connecticut's wealthiest churches has stunned the Wall Street titans and other donors...

read more from the Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2209789,00.html

 

Letter to the PM from The Salvation Army and others

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A2

Fax: 613-941-6900

Dear Prime Minister Harper:

As national leaders of Canadian Churches and members of the Canadian Council of Churches, we are extremely concerned about the human impact of the global AIDS pandemic. Currently more than 40 million people are infected with HIV. Last year, over 3 million people died as a result of AIDS. There are 15 million child orphans because of AIDS. These statistics speak powerfully to the human cost.

 

Read the rest of the letter: http://www.ccc-cce.ca/english/home/2006/may8_2006.htm

 

Read related from the United Church of Canada: http://www.united-church.ca/action/canada/060418.shtm

Pakistan puts Christ before 'freedom of the press'

'Da Vinci Code' film banned in Pakistan, parts of India

Last Updated Sat, 03 Jun 2006 17:18:04 EDT

CBC Arts

Pakistan has joined seven of India's 29 states in banning the movie The Da Vinci Code saying it is insulting to Christians.

Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou in the Da Vinci Code

Pakistan's Minister of Culture Ghulam Jamal announced Saturday that the film would not be shown in the country out of respect for Pakistan's Christian minority, which comprises three per cent of the 150 million population.

"The Da Vinci Code is a sacrilegious act in the guise of freedom of expression and fiction," said Shahbaz Bhatti, a Christian leader in Pakistan.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/06/03/davincicode-india.html

more blog stuff

Reminder, if you go to http://www.havelock-viha.com/sheepspeak.htm , you can view our blog in its entirety

Church launches 'Shrinking The Footprint' campaign

2 June 2006

The Church of England will be marking World Environment Day (Monday 5 June) by taking a further step forward in the campaign to 'green' the Church.  All parish churches are being invited to carry out an audit of current energy uses so that a benchmark can be established.  Once the size of the current 'carbon footprint' of the Church has been assessed, the campaign will roll out initiatives to shrink that footprint.

Read more: http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr5606.html

Vatican's message to Buddhists for the Feast of Vesakh 2006

PONTIFICAL COUNCIL
FOR INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
MESSAGE TO BUDDHISTS FOR THE FEAST OF VESAKH 2006

Buddhists and Christians at the Service of Humanity

Click HERE to read message.

Click HERE to Comment

Sacramental Lives (Salvationist.ca)

Sacramental Living

by Major Ray Harris / June 2, 2006 at 6:00 am /

William Booth's decision to stop practising the sacraments has become a mark of Salvationist identity. What does it mean for us today?

Salvationists continue to debate their relationship to sacraments, but not the sacramental. It is widely agreed that when Salvationists help to rebuild villages after a tsunami or offer clean water after a hurricane, we are doing something sacramental. But the relationship of these sacramental acts to Christian sacraments is not always addressed. Let me offer some reflections on the Army's historic position and engage it with contemporary questions, limiting my focus to what is often named the Lord's Supper. (Read more)

Any comments: ramsay@havelock-viha.com

Our government should keep our promises

Martin urges Tories to support Kelowna accord
Last Updated Fri, 02 Jun 2006 16:47:17 EDT
CBC News

Former prime minister Paul Martin is demanding that the Conservative
government make a clear commitment to the aboriginal community by living up
to the agreements made in the Kelowna accord.

'We have consulted long enough. We have studied enough. The time has come
for the government to act.'
-Liberal MP Paul Martin

Read more:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2006/06/02/martin-kelowna.htm

The new PM started off by breaking the promises that he and his party have
made, now he is breaking promises that our country has made...surely this
can't all be legal.

Pray for us and our government...we need it.

Our children, our environment, our responsibility

Children polluted with chemicals: report
CTV.ca News Staff

Flame retardants, mercury and lead were just some of the toxic chemicals
found in the bodies of children and their parents in a cross-Canada study of
pollution in people.

"It makes me angry," Amy Robertson, a volunteer in the study, told CTV News.
"I feel victimized by the air that I am breathing and the things I have no
control over."

The report by Environmental Defence, entitled Polluted Children, Toxic
Nation: A Report on Pollution in Canadian Families, tested the blood and
urine of 13 people from communities across Canada.

Read more:
http://sympaticomsn.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20060601/pollut
ed_bodies_060601

The Conservative government voted against an NDP bill that would have banned toxic pesticides again as recently as two weeks ago.

Environmental Defence Press Release:
http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/pressroom/releases/2006/20060601.htm
Health Canada (PCBs): http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/iyh-vsv/environ/pcb-bpc_e.html

Faith Night - the NY Times

Richard Perry/The New York Times

'Faith Night' at the Ballpark

Faith Nights, a spiritual twist on Frisbee Nights and Bat Days, are becoming popular ballpark promotions.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/sports/02faith.html?hp&ex=1149220800&en=a3d44512c857dd8e&ei=5094&partner=homepage

The new Journal of Aggressive Christianity is out: here's a taste.

JAC Online
How many children will that cost me?
by Andrew Bale

How would we react if the currency we had to use every day didn't consist of pounds and pence (or dollars and cents) but consisted of small children. How would we feel if every time we bought a bottle of Coke it cost us three small children? Every time we bought a computer magazine we had to hand over 9 children and every visit to the movies (popcorn included) meant the execution of another 10. I wonder how we would feel about the following potential purchases?:

. Annual cable TV subscription (with movies and sports) = 1000 children
. A ride on a London bus = 2 children
. A high definition TV set = 4000 children
. A music CD = 30 children
. An iPod = 140 children
. A recently released DVD = 25 children
. A small family car = 25,000 children
. A middle of the road BMW = 60,000 children
. A newspaper = 1 child
. A cappuccino = 3 children
. A big Mac = 2 children ('Super size me' for an extra child!)

Imagine also that the deaths sanctioned by our purchases weren't quick and painless but were slow, lonely and agonising. In such a world how reluctant would we be to buy anything other than the very essentials? Yet impossible though it seems this is the world in which we live.

Read more: http://www.armybarmy.com/article10.html
Index of this issue: http://www.armybarmy.com/jac.html
 

Poverty

"There is no greater problem facing Canada and the world than the elimination of poverty. This very large task is within our abilities because there is more than enough wealth and production ability in the world to accomplish it. In 1989 the 3 main political parties in Canada agreed to alleviate poverty in Canada by the year 2000. Today (16 years later) poverty has increased by 20%"

from CAP: http://www.canadianactionparty.ca/temp/policies/Social_Policy.asp

Canadian Action Party

I've recently been directed to the Canadian Action Party's site; what do you think?

www.canadianactionparty.ca

Batwoman out of the closet?

Batwoman comes out in comeback
LARRY MCSHANE
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is
coming out of the closet.

DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian,
unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that
began this year. The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair,
knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit.

“We decided to give her a different point of view,”

Read more:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20060531.wbatwoman0531/BN
Story/Entertainment/home