jonnybaker

uneven cuts

i love richard passmore's embodied enactment of protest at the uneven cuts. not sure how long he will be sporting the new look?!

wake up call for 2012

i always like the end of year and start of the next as a moment to pause and reflect. in fact tonight as a family we'll do that together round the meal table. whilst sometimes i focus on moments, films, music and the like (and i may well yet do that) it's impossible to reflect on 2011 without the first thing that springs to mind being the global revolutions of the arab spring with the toppling of regimes with more yet to come, and the financial challenges and shake ups going on in so many countries.

for me 2011 has felt like a wake up call, a huge reminder that the paradigm of liberal capitalism or whatever you want to call it runs on a logic that turns out to be an illogic - an illogic that panders to the wealthy and big corporations and leaves the poor washed up. the injustices in the system have got so glaringly huge fueled by greed that the whole thing appears to be at some sort of breaking point. i feel like i have got angry this year about this in a way that i haven't for quite a while. i am ashamed to say i had got used to things as 'normal' and become numb and blind to my own co-optedness even though i've never thought deep down that capitalism is a good way to run a country.

let me give two examples of this illogic - one which i have raged about already is the whole huge bonus culture in business and banking - how can it be logical to pay an individual 8 million pounds or whatever - it's an illogic! another is the revelation recently that the amount corporations have been let off of paying taxes after having lunch with the tax man adds up to 25 billion pounds - yes you read that right - 6 billion for example for vodafone. welcome to corporation tax avoidance whilst paying big salries and bonuses - the illogic of our version of capitalism!!!

to be awoken, to grieve, to get angry and to begin to dream of other possibilities has to be a good start. thank you to those who have protested in the likes of the occupy movements and those who have laid down lives in regimes of oppression to say enough is enough! here's to the to the poets, prophets and dreamers. i have changed the banner of my blog for the first time in a few years. this is so that every time i look at the blog i am going to be reminded that another system, another paradigm, another worldview, another way, indeed another world is possible.

i have been reading adbusters big issues of 2012 magazine which i thoroughly recommend. there are several articles online but is really worth getting the whole edition. the editorial laments the way that there has been a conceptual drought and calls for imagination. it's the first edition i have read for a while and i found it refreshing. there are some excellent articles such as this one on democracy by hardt and negri where they reflect on democraic constitutions and why the foundations on which they are built are insufficient, and begin to suggest some ways forward. they conclude with this...

To confront these issues, we, along with many others, have proposed possible initial steps, such as establishing a guaranteed income, the right to global citizenship, and a process of the democratic reappropriation of the common. But we are under no illusion that we have all the answers. Instead we are encouraged by the fact that we are not alone asking the questions. We are confident, in fact, that those who are dissatisfied with the life offered by our contemporary neoliberal society, indignant about its injustices, rebellious against its powers of command and exploitation, and yearning for an alternative democratic form of life based on the common wealth we share – they, by posing these questions and pursuing their desires, will invent new solutions we cannot yet even imagine. Those are some of our best wishes for 2012.

i couldn't agree more. i am so glad there are people dreaming a different dream. it's interesting soaking myself into adbusters after a while away from it. one of the challenges with this kind of rhetoric when the world is actually shifting away from just protest to genuinely needing new paradigms, is where are they to be found?! what is a vision for running a society in a different way? i confess i was a bit surprised by a few articles suggesting a new sort of communism - i know zizek is all the rage in these circles - but really?!

the article that i found most interesting of all was fear of flying by darren fleet. in this he dares the left to take a look in the mirror and suggests a creeping truth that

activism has become a mask for spiritual and character rot, that we have erected a progressive facade to cover the worst of our denials... if behind closed doors we cannot be free what possibility do we have of offering anything to our world?

and later in the article...

We have all seen it. Maybe we are even these archetypes ourselves. The close-minded open-minded person. Well versed in emancipation and cutting edge lefty rhetoric but altogether intolerable, anal, pedantic, arrogant, rude and fully convinced they know what is best for society. Or the idealist who hops from cause to cause, virulently condemning a belief they wholeheartedly embraced only a short time ago, trying to convert you to direct your energy toward the latest paradigm. Or the usual suspect protesters manifesting a collective oppositional defiance disorder against anything and anyone representing vague concepts of power. Their own lives might be in shambles, without spiritual relief, entirely unable to define their action beyond a sentence, but that does not matter to their leaders. What has become tantamount in activism today is collective, organized action, however weak, regardless of the motivation or the emotional/spiritual source of that action. The left must have more to offer than this. It needs the righteous confidence of the right without the pride and arrogance. It needs the confidence of Evangelicals and the commitment of Islamists without the delusion and apologetics. It needs emancipation. It needs a newfound spiritualism that places a premium on personal enlightenment and monasticism. It needs, in a word, liberation.

wow - an article that looks to the power of transformation through attention to one's own soul - a new found spiritualism and monasticism even gets a mention! i really think there is some wisdom here. we need a new kind of leadership that has deep integrity at its heart.

where will you look for answers in 2012? i confess reading adbusters helped me realise i am more convinced than i have ever been in my life that a good place to start is with the astonshing person and prophet jesus christ. if only i can and i suggest we need communities who can (because individualism is part of our illogic) live and embody a life that follows in some measure the vision and values of another kingdom that he imagined, spoke and demonstrated. i still don't see too many other places to look.

if you want a take on jesus life to get you started for 2012 try luke johnson's commentary on luke-acts prophetic jesus prohetic church which is totally brilliant, one of about 20 books i have meant to review on the blog and not got round to! there's an excerpt here if you want a flavour.

may 2012 be a year in which you experience being woken up and your imagination enlivened to dream that new worlds are possible.

may you pursue that dreaming together with others in conversation, around meal tables, in bars and schools and workplaces and blogs and communities and churches.

may you create in response - a new life, new art, new community, new politic, new humanness, a new way to live.

and may you find friendship, kindness and inspiration from jesus the prophet

happy new year!

gordon's speech

this speech by gordon brown is really quite something...

back in action...

well it's been a quiet week on the blog. i've been on a week's holiday with the family which has been wonderful. made my first ever visit to italy which i loved. we usually go away in the summer but getting dates between us all was proving difficult and we have reached that stage where we are unsure if the boys will keep holidaying with us but if the offer's good enough and we are paying they seem to keep showing up!!! i actually didn't open the laptop for a whole week - yes i know impressive eh?!. i didn't want to advertise that i was away on the blog, twitter, facebook and all that. kind of seems a bit naive or maybe i'm just getting paranoid...

anyway i am straight back into a crazy week. but will endeavour to catch up with my digital self.

i apologise that all that has been on the blog has been a video of jesus with a fan - it wasn't meant to be some kind of statement - it just amused me! i also apologise if you follow the comments (which i suspect most of you don't) that there have been so many spam comments. it's kind of irritating. i really don't like putting a filter on comments as i hate encountering it on other peoples blogs. let me know if you have any bright ideas of what to do about it any typepad users.

so an election has been announced, malcolm maclaren and the polish president have died, i was sad to miss two graces - easter vigil and low, chelsea are in pole position for the premiership and in the fa cup final, yet another debate rages about the emerging church, spring has hopefully sprung and no doubt a million and one other things besides. hope you all had a good easter!

worldchanging

worldchanging - nice site (thanks bob)

those cartoons...

i've been trying to get some work done but we keep arguing at work about the danish cartoons and the response to them. i guess we are not alone in reflecting on the freedom of speech | blasphemy | deliberate provocation | embarassment to muslims | legitimate outrage (pick your angle). tom has some posts on the subject and the comments are building up. richard has also posted some thoughts which i appreciated. yesterday's leader in the gaurdian had some pretty strong opinions. but my favourite thought so far has been kester's with this stunning quote from brueggemann:

We are all created in the image of some God. And there is no more important theological investigation than to find out in whose image we are making ourselves.

yesterday's guardian also had a very interesting long feature worlds apart looking at the parallels between apartheid in south africa and israel's system of control over the arab people it governs. (the same thought occurred to me when i was there and inspired a couple of the songs on backbone.)

blair back for a third term

blair scures historic third term | who won what next?

off to vote

election day in the uk. like many people who voted labour last time round i feel frustrated about the war in iraq - as more evidence has come out it is very hard not to feel deceived... on the other hand i definitely won't be voting tory - their campaign against immigration is nothing short of racist in my humble opinion. and are the other options plausible? i have voted green before but until proportional representation comes in there isn't much point. lib dems are not really a serious challenge in ealing where i live so i think it will be labour again. maybe i'll take the guardian advice and vote labour with a clothes peg on my nose as an act of protest?...
i actually think on issues other than the small matter of the war - economy, debt cancellation, aid, education, health, labour have done pretty well (it would have been an easier choice if tony blair had stepped aside and we'd been voting for gordon brown).

every race, colour, nation and religion on earth

today's guardian has a fabulous section on london which it claims in 2005 can lay claim to being the most diverse city ever. there is a map(pdf) and key which shows the locations of various communities and cultures which it is worth getting the paper for in itself. there are also lots of articles and features that are gathered together at what is britain?

the editorial calls for diversity and not segregation. i have been thinking a lot about this in the last few months and was reminded of it again following richard's post. the editorial says

Such segregation is something which society and governments can change. True, a degree of "clustering" is helpful in consolidating a community's culture. But communities which do not overlap or have meaningful interchanges, breed fear, distrust and division...  ... ...There are all manner of small schemes that can provide bridges - school twinning, interfaith networks, cultural swap programmes.

the church is the body of christ of all nations and tribes and cultures down all the ages... the most globally diverse network possible. the vision of the future is of a global city. how well are we doing at providing a foretaste of the age to come in our churches and especially in our emerging churches? (it's interesting to change the first sentence of the quote by replacing the words society and governments with churches).

call it democracy

i heard tony blair and george bush giving a press conference last week on their commitment to establish democracy round the world. all sounded fair enough at one level but it also reminded me of these lyrics by bruce cockburn to call it democracy

Padded with power here they come International loan sharks backed by the guns Of market hungry military profiteers Whose word is a swamp and whose brow is smeared With the blood of the poor

Who rob life of its quality Who render rage a necessity By turning countries into labour camps Modern slavers in drag as champions of freedom

Sinister cynical instrument Who makes the gun into a sacrament -- The only response to the deification Of tyranny by so-called "developed" nations' Idolatry of ideology

North South East West Kill the best and buy the rest It's just spend a buck to make a buck You don't really give a flying f**k About the people in misery

IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get Always making certain that there's one thing left Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

See the paid-off local bottom feeders Passing themselves off as leaders Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows Open for business like a cheap bordello

And they call it democracy And they call it democracy And they call it democracy And they call it democracy

See the loaded eyes of the children too Trying to make the best of it the way kids do One day you're going to rise from your habitual feast To find yourself staring down the throat of the beast They call the revolution

IMF dirty MF Takes away everything it can get Always making certain that there's one thing left Keep them on the hook with insupportable debt

the case for kerry

this was the lead comment in the guardian on saturday - the case for kerry. strong stuff eh?! a couple of quotes...

plenty of americans believe it is none of our busines whom they elect as their leader on tuesday. but there are two underlying reasons why any presidential election matters to the rest of the world. the first concerns america's power. there is no other nation in the history of the planet whose strength and actions more directly affect the whole human race than the united states...

....to adapt the words of the talleyrand, the bush presidency has been not merely a crime but a mistake. mr bush has proved a terrifying failure in the world's most powerful office. he has made the world more angry, more dangerous, and more divided - not less. this above all is why it matters to us, as it should to all americans, that john kerry is elected on tuesday. a safer world requires not just the example of american power but the power of american example. mr bush has done more to destroy america's good name in the world than any president in memory. mr kerry provides an opportunity to begin to repair the damage. it is as simple - and as important - as that.

the mystery explained

the mystery of bush's bulge explained at last... via boing boing

war

war - good animation on war. see flashplayer.com for a whole host of flash animations... let me know if you spot any good ones

sunday bloody sunday

sunday bloody sunday sung by george bush! (thanks marko)

test your political leanings

take the test (thanks gavin)