If evil is the opposite of good, there is a durable evil in Myanmar, where a totalitarian government does not appear to serve its people, a horrible Hurricane Nargis took the lives of 140,000 less than a year ago (made worse by the paranoid malpractice of the isolationist government) and most prospects for the future are bleak.

Here's NPR's Myanmar story from a below-the-radar personal visit by journalist Michael Sullivan.

What if we were to pray for Myanmar over the long haul? What if we were to pray for change, to insist that God bring change and hope to the people of this suffering nation? If we were to pray such a thing, it would need to allow for the fact that God has always gone before our prayers and is already advocating for people in need, made in God's image but suffering. God's already working before we arrive, before we care. The biggest sacrifice has been already spent, and even God's Spirit groans deeply in prayer wherever there is need for transformation and restoration.

But such prayers also need to acknowledge if they're honest that the all powerful God has not prevented calamity which could have been prevented, and loss which has been suffered. God has some purposes beyond the eradication of selfish behavior and its consequences; beyond the seemingly random selection of natural disasters and extreme weather, or even the whims of tyrants.

I don't understand it, but I do believe God's purposes are threaded through all of this. And even so, I pray against the suffering of people who I believe God deeply loves, every one. I pray for light, for the church of Myanmar to not only survive but to thrive with good news and abundant life and fruit.

How Long, Lord? When will your righteousness come?

A 19-year-old woman rocks a 3-month-old baby in the temporary shelter... blue plastic sheeting wrapped around four poles, topped with a crude thatch roof...

When asked how much it would cost to build a new house, she responds, about $500. And how long will it take to come up with that amount? About 10 years, maybe more, she says.

Even the global accolades and financial success of the hit film don't so easily translate into actual transformation out of a life of poverty for kids that were selected and paid to star in the film.

This AP article, "`Slumdog Millionaire' kid stars face uphill battle" is worth a read, it hints at many realities that make poverty a difficult nut to crack.

Not that anyone expected hollywood or bollywood to offer sustainable solutions to poverty. A few good intentions aside, the entertainment industry exists to make profits, not to help people or tackle global problems.

 Ten-year-old Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail lives in a lean-to made of tarpaulins and blankets. Nine-year-old Rubina Ali's home is a tiny bubble-gum pink shack. A murky open sewer runs down her narrow lane...

Here's a powerful audio visual summary of several years of turmoil in Congo's recent history of struggling for peace.

(Warning, I wouldn't watch this with kids, until you've seen it and can decide for yourself whether it's appropriate.)

Seeing and hearing about such difficult, prolonged struggles, one of my responses is honest prayer to God.

Why, God, are we who are made in your image also capable of the evil things we do to one another? How can we become so blind and so desperate that we do unthinkable acts? Why do we so often abuse power when we have it? Why are we so selfish? Why are we indifferent? Why do we intervene in areas we should not, and refrain from intervention that would seem to be just and righteous?

As of last year, more people live in cities than rural places.

A billion of the world's people live in slums. The UN expects this number to double in 25 years.

The Places We Live presents 16 stories from four of today's huge city slums.

These stories are worth taking in, it only takes about a half hour of your time. There are voices of despair and resignation but also hope and resilience.

The panoramic VR images are powerful glimpses of the tiny living spaces in these slums. The narrator voices (though not always natural translations read in English) tell stories that are informative and real.

I find that without regular exposure to real stories of people who live in poverty, I am more likely to become numb to the reality of poverty in our world. I'd prefer to regularly be confronted, by choice, with the realities of the human struggle, because many of the choices I make and the economics of my own north American society have threads of influence interwoven with those who live in poverty half a world away.

My suggestion is to not just take this in and then move on with life as usual; but rather, after taking this in, choose one action you will take to respond to extreme poverty. It doesn't have to be a big action. Choose something small and achievable. Write it here in the comments, to help others.

"If we tell people about our house, will anyone believe us?" - Nagamma Shilpiri, Mumbai

This BBC piece says that due to the global financial crisis, poverty may soar in Latin America by as much as 15% this year, according to a senior UN official.

That's pretty huge. 2.4 million Latin Americans could lose their jobs.

The smallest and medium sized governments and economies may suffer the most, without the means to inject needed funds into their economies. There's a possibility of widespread unemployment in countries like Panama and the Dominican Republic. Even major oil exporting countries like Ecuador and Venezuela feel the pinch of the big drop in the price of oil. Brazil feels the pinch too.

On the one hand, a person could perhaps sit in some safe place over a latte and analyze the causes of the global financial crisis. Much of the cause is human greed and abuse of power. Some of the cause is malpractice, by citizens and experts and leaders alike.

On the other hand, when there are poor people, whether the number of poor people expands or contracts, what are those who follow Jesus called to do? Serve the poor, in season and out of season; in the boom and in the bust. It doesn't matter why they are poor, or how recently they fell into poverty.

What can be difficult for me as a midwesterner American is how do I help to serve the growing number of people living in poverty in Latin America during this crisis? One way is through my church's partnership with a congregation in Mexico. Another way is through giving to an organization like LAM.org or World Vision who have established, experienced workers on the ground, extending the reach of the global church.

Another way is through fervent prayer, which (I'm confounded to explain why or how but it) makes a difference. Another way is through listening, learning, and being not only informed but trying to become educated so that when I vote, when I write letters to the editor, when I talk to friends, when I form opinions, there can be some wisdom and understanding in the mix.

God, please help the almost 600 million people in Latin America, too many of whom live in poverty. Things are going to be worse for a while before they get better. Help the church in Latin America to rise to this occasion. Help the church in the rest of the world also rise to this occasion.

McDonalds shared something in common with the Internet in December 2008. Both served more than a billion people last month. (CNET)

Yet another reminder: if you access the internet (and therefore are reading this blog), you and I are among the top 20% of the wealthiest people in the world. 4 out of 5 people have less means than you and I have. (Users of broadband are in the top 10% wealthiest global citizens.)

What does this mean? Feel guilty about it? No. Stop using it? Naw.

More will be expected from those who have been given more? Yes.

Access to information, education, power, advantage, luxury, benefit, comfort, priviledge... access to all these things also comes with responsibility, accountability, and some day, judgement.

How well are we using the things we don't deserve but have been given? How well are we sharing? How far out of our way are we going?

The good news is that there are at least two things which God prefers more than sacrifice. Who among us is that crazy about sacrifice to begin with? But two things God likes from us even better than sacrifice? Surely that's good news.

To do righteousness and justice
is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
- Proverbs 21:3

The bad news is that the two things... are "to do righteousness and justice."

These sound like positive enough things, but when it comes down to it they are messy, difficult, costly in their own right. Smack in the middle of the "doing righteousness and justice" footpath there are many obstacles, inhospitable people, uncooperative structures, selfish motives, uncomfortable situations, and big risks.

Sacrifice can be a difficult term for us New Covenant people to wrap our minds around, since we've long ago ceased spilling the blood of innocent animals as a tangible and painful substitute for the consequences of our sin.

For people who will accept it, Jesus was the once-for-all sacrifice to replace that old prescription; but Jesus also redefines sacrifice. "Take my yoke on your shoulders," and "learn from me" and "take up your cross and follow me." These are the new sacrifices Jesus calls us to.

As we follow Jesus, what do we find him teaching and doing? No surprise, we find him doing righteousness and justice, down in the alleys and slums and brothels; doing righteousness and justice in the neighborhood gang's own turf, among the thieves and powermongering politicians; at the watering hole; in the kitchen and in the morgue.

Jesus' style of doing righteousness and justice is not to merely vote for someone who supposedly will appoint adequate Supreme Court Justices, then go back to watching our prime time TV in our dens.

Jesus' style of sacrifice IS for us to mimick his exercise of righteousness and justice, and it involves our incarnation into the communities near which God has placed us, where there will always be pockets of unrighteousness and injustice.

In the cost-benefit analysis, following Jesus is still good news even though it involves cost. The benefit is greater than the cost.

The extra good news is that when we do go out of our way to do righteousness and justice, we find that Jesus is already there, already working, and we are simply coming alongside.
 

I wondered about the word inauguration so I looked it up.

Inauguration is not for the birds, but it used to be.

Starting 2.5 millenia ago in the Roman Republic, the Latin verb inaugurare meant to take omens from bird flight, or to consecrate a significant event or action after consulting the gurus of bird flight. An augur is a seer, soothsayer, or prophet, relied on to interpret the will of the gods by observing the flight patterns of birds.

For us today, inauguration means the formal induction into office, or a formal beginning or introduction. Today we rely a lot less on avian whims to make our bigger decisions and officially commit our democratically elected leaders into public office.

This week's inauguration may have had some minor blemishes (a supreme court justice so conservative he hadn't completely memorized how to swear properly; world class musicians who needed to finger-synch due to the cold) but in several ways this event had the aura of unprecedented significance.

On Tuesday, there we were, watching ourselves in slow motion... one of the most culturally and racially diverse nations in the world; yet with a not so distant history of practicing slavery and blatant racial segregation; and with an ongoing struggle today for racial and economic justice; and having undertaken some recent and highly dubious activities in our small world; and to top it off, our economic portrait was taken just weeks ago and as it turns out, our greed and instant gratification was showing.

In this context, there we were (in slow motion), following the election of 43 consecutive white male presidents by electing and inaugurating a black male president for the first time.

And not just any black male president, no token national act of penance here; this is a young, intelligent, articulate, approachable, creative, focused, inspiring, and highly energetic president who politically speaking came almost out of nowhere.

I know not everyone voted for Obama or agrees with all his persuasions. While we shouldn't supress the significance of his election and inauguration, the time will come for Obamaphoria to rightfully subside as some of the hardest challenges facing our nation are tackled by our two flawed parties. Obama will make mistakes. Along the road, we all will hopefully learn some big lessons and accomplish some important things under his leadership.

Any way you cut it, Tuesday was quite a day. The birds were watching us do the right thing without consulting them.

Last thought for today: I also was thinking, after the Inauguration, about oaths. Oaths seem good on one hand, making a solemn pledge to something, with accountability. On the other hand, Jesus said, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one."

Is taking an oath wrong? Or does it have its place?

Korea Growing Corn in Madagascar (BBC)
Corn kernels. Ya gotta know where to grow em. If you're Korea, in (far) east Asia, how about growing your corn in a place that many Americans probably have only heard of because of the animated movie? Can you point to Madagascar on a map? Pop quiz: in what continent is Madagascar located? Did you know corn (a Native American food) can grow there? Times are strange.

Missionary Ashes in China (NYT)
Finally laid to rest at home.

Will Machines Ever Have Souls? (Ray Kurzweil)
This guy is brilliant and has a track record, so do not too quickly write off the things he says or the questions he asks.

The Dead Tell Tales in China (NYT)
The Tarim mummies have become protagonists in a political dispute over who should control the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

Snubbed Are the Peacemakers (BBC)
Jimmy Carter is by any definition a peacemaker. Along with Peacemakers Kofi Annan and Graca Machel Mandela from South Africa, the trio of "Elders" were informed before they left South Africa for Zimbabwe that they would not be granted visas. The Z govt. denies barring their entry, while acknowledging they may not (yet) enter) to assess the humanitarian situation and need for food aid by about half the population within 1-2 months. Mugabe... is there a single good thing he contributes to the people he supposedly leads? If according to Jesus peacemakers are blessed, what is the status of their opposite?

A new and hopefully weekly feature.. seven speedlinks today, from seven parts of the plant, er, galaxy...

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