I = Otherness

Otherness posits that there are large groups of people with whom you have nothing in common, not even a discernible shared humanity. Not only are these groups profoundly different from you, they are also, covertly, somehow less: Less worthy. Less moral. Less good. This sense of otherness is the single most pernicious force in American discourse. The not-like-us ethos makes so much bigotry possible: Racism, sexism, homophobia. - Anna Quindlen  

How do you communicate in otherness?
Your are surrounded in a world of otherness. Or is the otherness is you?
If all the world is otherness is otherness even 'otherness' anymore?
Is it possible to adaptable communcators?
To commincate well with all the otherness in you world?

 There is so much otherness in New Zealand. Until i moved to Auckland id never heard so many negative things about otherness. Asian drivers, Asians taking over the world, Indians and their curry smelling houses and dairy's all over the place, homeless bums, Maori's and islanders- 'lock your cars and take your goods out of your car in this neighbourhood', gays,  solo teen mums living on WINZ sucking up our taxes and many more. Then add on top the social structures of the country; man vs. woman, what is means to be successful, what a kiwi man is, what a kiwi woman is, class system etc. THEN add on physicality's; too fat, too skinny, too black/brown, blind, deaf, paralyzed and so on.

New Zealand is FULL of otherness! To communicate in New Zealand  takes huge acceptance of otherness and adaptability.
We SUCK at it

My otherness to the other gets in the way and vise-verse. WHY?!  

I remember being in Cambodia having a conversation with two women there from the bible college. We were talking about beauty. These two women were beautiful but were convinced that they were ugly and worthless because they were not white! My otherness of white meant they instantly felt i was better then them, that it meant beauty and privilege!

I have a friend who is from Sri Lanka, he brakes down the brariers of otherness by joking about his blackness. We were out to coffee the other day and when the cashier told him how much he gave her a big smile and said "plus a discount coz I'm black?". Ice was broken she smile and relaxed. Because New Zealand women generally feel uncomfortable around Indian looking men.

I recently meet a guy from India who speaks his fluent origin tongue and fluent English with kiwi accent. He explained  to me that sometimes he feels like he is outcast in both contexts. When his is with kiwi people he knows the stigma that comes with being Indian so he has a kiwi accent and jokes about being Indian before they do to break down the barriers. Then when he is with the Indian people they cast him off thinking he is just a kiwi Indian until he speaks his language to show his is fully Indian too so he will be accepted.

A few months ago i had dinner with a homeless person. (Notice how they are not normal people in New Zealand, we dehumanise them to 'homeless person'). We chatted about what they had been reading but I still found it hard to talk to them like they were a fellow person. I didn't want to and hopefully it will pass. But none the less I am learning to communicate with the otherness of a person being homeless.

In the world of teenagers
where the otherness run wild.
In the form of who and how and where
of communication it is the only reason for living,
school, malls, party's or youth group
are the training ground for communication for otherness.
In the World of teenagers
it is Otherness Vs. Communication

Uniquely this isn't an issue for my youth group. The more otherness the better for them. It is hugely fascinating to watch and learn from them. There is one girl in particular the will go up to anyone and be able to communicate with them.

So are you adaptable, are you willing, can you embrace, can you look beyond, can you learn from and can you change for the otherness in your world?

Would you? could you? should you?

What you say, what you think, how you act all effect communication.

Lastly i think to ignore or pass off someone's otherness is to  ignore or pass off a part on them. Avoiding it doesn't make better communication.

And sometimes it's the very otherness of a stranger, someone who doesn't belong to our ethnic or ideological or religious group, an otherness that can repel us initially, but which can jerk us out of our habitual selfishness, and give us intonations of that sacred otherness, which is God.
-Karen Armstrong



What a Gag!

So there happens to be a show on TV3 called WANNA- BEn. Anyone whose watched it knows it is all for laughs and is full of pranks. Well one apperntly went too far and embarassed the victims enough to get WANNA- BEn presenters arrested. WOOPS! Its like whose the biggest bully on the play ground at school again.

A practical joke is a mischievous trick played on a person/ people, especially one that causes the victim to experience embarrassment, indignity, or discomfort. The practical joke they were playing was one they frequently do called "Blaggin' Bryce". Byrce tries and talk his way into somewhere where they should be and for free. He goes all dressed up and wheather they get in or not is up to the people who let them in so the joke is on them! For example get into the movies dresses as buz light year, a fashion show dressed as fashion police , a Warriors game as a tee boy, a Hip Hop concert dressed as noise control, a Wiggles concert dressed a Dorthory the Dinosaur, a rock concert dressed as emergency hair dresser, the Comedy Gala dressed as a parrot and tries to get into a rugby match selling tes dressed as Mr T. He Doesnt always get in but none the less the prank is funny and no harm done.

In this case he tried to get into the pilots area dressed up as a pilot. Maybe an airport was a bit much, but when the TV satation wants to to keep the good veiwer numbers and the audience loves it and wants more, what else are you to do bigger and better. hmm why was the TV company arrested then? They allow much worse don't they?  (actually if we pulled them up for everything they allowed on air  then there might not be anything left to play on TV) what MADNESS! If they were arested for impersonating a piolt the should probably take it up with the costume shop. They didnt get in- so they cant arrest them for trespassing, They could thank them for proving their secuirty is tight, they can complian the no every Tom Dick and harry will try it becuase they have seen you do it but they will soon see on TV it didnt work. What they should really do is admitt "you got us" lets have a luagh.

They facing upto 12 months imprisonment and up to a $10,000 fine under the Civial Aviation Act

56A Security check offences

(1) Every person commits an offence who, in relation to a security check of that person,—

(a) provides information that the person knows is false or misleading in a material

particular; or

(b) fails to disclose, without reasonable excuse, information that the person knows

to be materially relevant.

(2) Every person who commits an offence under subsection (1) is liable to imprisonment

for a term not exceeding 12 months or a fine not exceeding $10,000.

Considering no damage was done and seem pretty obvious he didnt look the slightest like a pilot, this is a bit much and silly. A warning was more warrented i think. How could you take it seriously.

 Ben Boyce told 3 News
“He [Casey]  look like a pilot, he’s unshaven, he’s got tattoos, we didn’t have any ID, he just went up and said ‘I’m flying the next plane out of here,’ and they pick holes through the story because he had no ID and he had no idea what gate or what flight he was on,”  And as soon as the knew they were looking for this person owned up.

It should be noted that they did apologise publically:

"We want to apologise for any alarm that was caused by our "pilot" skit. We’ve been doing skits for over nine years, but this time we crossed the line and we fully accept that.
"There was never any intention to cause trouble at the airport. Nor was it our intention for Bryce to breach security. On Sunday when we saw that the police were looking for us we called them immediately. "Obviously we have learnt from this incident and will put more thought into the skits that we are going to film.

I think it was GENIOUS. NZ is becoming too serious.

                                                   

 

Bloody Hell, just a Sherk in a Fock! the lot of you!

(Shrek in a Frock -  British Slang term from one of their famous exports, Mr. Gordon Ramsay. Simply translated it means someone who is acting out of control and being loud and obnoxious - screaming and shouting)

The british government seem to be twiddling their thumbs saying woops what do we do now.
Mean while the police are unleashing suppressed anger






And most of the world like the roitors dont really understand what is happening just that it is happening.And comedians are having a blast:

AND everyone looks a little shocked that civilised Westerners have degraded them selves to roiting and looting:

But there is really no suprise or shock.
How long do they really think people would just sit back and take it for?

People have always protested and fought for what they beleive is best. But only when peole are ignored, belittled, under valued, and not taken serious then things start to get out of control.
did everyone note that thess riots actually stated from a protest. A way that people for years have made there problem visible and literately a 'scene'. Until a man was shoot and it became clearer, they really don't care.

I read a fabulous article by a law teacher at Waikato University. I didn't agree with all of it, but he does shed some light on the underlying issues no one want to talk about. ( burning buildings, fighting rioters and police make better new items). worth a read.

"Every generation likes to riot or react against the status quo. It almost seems an innate human characteristic.
The question is why do they revolt?
The peoples of Egypt, Libya and Syria are fighting to throw off tyrants.
These are revolutions based upon identity as citizens, under the mantra of freedom.
The temptation will be for those who are currently wearing the mask of liberators, once they have achieved regime change, not to seize the reigns of power for themselves.
To align the principle of freedom with the values of equality, liberty and the rule of law is a process which took the Western world 200 years to achieve since the onset of our Enlightenment......
The difference now is that the riots in the West are more about identity as consumers than the riots and revolutions of the past, which were about identity as citizens.
The shallowness of those who already possess the rights and liberties that others are fighting for is even displayed in New Zealand where we prefer to give more of our attention to our identity as consumers and the price of a rugby jersey than our identity as citizens and the fact that many of the children in this country, which provides food for the world, are too hungry to function in schools."

I did a quick survey of my facebook friends to see who would riot, why and would they loot (in the context of home countries).
Every person under 50 basically said they wouldnt never riot or loot because it is voilent, its just plain stealing and they just couldnt come up with a reason we would ever need to. But everyone would protest which was what orignaally the london roits were, funny that.
but then came my Nana a very vise profound person and commented this: "We all think we are "real cool" can stand back ,not be involved BUT in certain circumstances we have a button which can be activated in a flash, we identify with a cause, injustice,inequality, whatever ! and we are part of it. A crowd with a purpose becomes a living, moving mass, without thought of consequences,the thrust coming from people who are free to circulate, gathering momentum as excitement grows others join in. There were always two of us ."

EVERYBODY fits into this category.
When group becomes a living moving mass, when it becomes unified. it only take something to happened to ONE person for the mass to react. Like the the young man who got shot and sent this mass into an uncontrolable frenzy.

We are not immuned to it. New Zealand also has a widening gap between the poor and rich. We have Brown Poverty which is aparently a bomb ready to blow!.
So what do you think NZ next in line for out of control masses?

McDonalds! KFC! Subway! BK! Burger fuel!

Wouldn’t it be great if we could merge all our favourite food stores into one and call it food court. Oh wait we already do that. Or merge all our favourite clothes stores: Jayjays, surf stores, Helensteins, Glassons, farmers, warehouse and cal it a mall. Oh wait us already do that! So why not do it for the churches I propose something like this:


And what about our schools shall we join the private schools and state schools together have them in the same building too? or GP’s and hospitals shall we put them all in the same building and join the hospitals into one? Well how far do we want to go? If we are going to take this man seriously we should consider other areas of our society they could benefit from pooling their money together and being in one building.
 The name of my blog fits so nicely as a response to Martin Van Beynen's article. He gets a merit for his madness. He proposes that churches (Christians) not rebuild their facilities but pool all their money together and build an all-in-one building they share. If you read this article you can soon see he is just stirring people up, starting with insulting churches and then moving on to what he proposes they should do. We'll just put all the religious things we like in one building and walk into each like a mall store.  So God is just to be another consumer product?

the way poeple think

This blogg is set up for a communcition paper at Carey Baptist College. Yes, we are a bunch of christans. We are meant to write a blog and effectivily communcate about a different topic in the news every two weeks. As much as it is about how we communcate i can see it is als about what we communcate. (This is not a negative reflection on my classmates just an observation on how people think). To be honest I feel a little uncomfortable reading some classmates post as they seem to focus on the actions of this man (see post below). I dont remember or have a experienced a Jesus who saw people for who they had been. I know and  have expeirced the Jesus who saw people for who they could be through him.
I can see we have been given this topic in the news, told tocommunicate about it and without thought, thought our opinions, perceptions and judgments on this topic were the ones to share. Well, this makes us no better then the common media. Some how, there needs to be a change. I dont know how but I need to view theses topics as a person who is part of a group that has a relationship with Jesus and has God's spirit who can help us see it how God does.

What people really think is always on facebook ;-)

click to make bigger.

The face of a mad man happens to be a brother in Christ?

This man is said to be a right winged fundamentalist Christian who had a belief so strong about something that it lead him to inhumane and outrageous acts. This was a premeditated act and a long time in the making. This  blogger believes the most dangerous people are the ones who think God is one their side. Take away right winged and fundamentalist this man claimed to be a Christian. Where was his Christian community before this event surely they would have noticed this man becoming obsessed and dangerous. Why is western church culture so slow and hesitant to intervene?
On a island on the other side of the world we can and have easily fallen into saying and believing what we and whatever the news has depicted to us about this man. But if you were face to face with this man and very ware God is with you, there is no room for these judgemental attitudes. The fact is this is the same type of person Saul was before he became Paul.  Change stoning for guns and Christians for Politian’s.

 I know that my part is only to pray and know this man can still encounter God, still repent and change, and still be used by God to bring others to Christ

Out of curiosity I wanted to see just where my social circle stands in this issue. If you are on my face book you can see the conversations or I will post some responses on this blog.

By the way, while we are all indulging in this man’s craziness and deep down are entertained by the fact someone else failed and Yes! They will be punished. Did anyone take notice of the thousands dying in the drought in Somalia a poverty stricken country? How sick our world is that we take more notice of the inhumane acts of people, the stories that are over and we can do anything about but watch, then to take note of the story where we can be a part of stopping the inhumane act of MILLIONS ( no exaggeration)  people starving to death.(a reflection of culture not this class) http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14328774