I suprised myself when I realised I hadn't said anything about this year's hot topic, the very avoidable recession that is hitting europe. And what gets me is that it was very, very, avoidable - and still is, because Economics relies soley on you, the customer, and whether or not you want to purchase something. As a Business management student, I know a couple of things about economics, and so the basics are this: when consumers want to buy things, prices go up, which means that businesses can afford to pay bigger salaries, which mean that people can buy more, etc. when in a recession, the opposite happens - prices go down, businesses pay their wokers less so their workers cannot buy as much, which means prices have to go down further, etc. Such is the circle of business, becase it is not a case of "us the consumer" and "them the businesses" because most of us work and earn a wage out of those businesses incomes, because we are working for them. Yes, sad though it is, money really does make the world go round - without money we would live in a barter society - money just means we can exchange goods or services now for payment of goods and services at another time and place, exchange and trade will always happen.
But back to the point in hand, the growth or negative growth of the economy can be easily steered by consumers - if everyone decided not to worry about the recession and started spending what they were spending 2 years ago, then the economy would resurrect itself very quickly.
So who is to blame? Three sets of people are to blame - Bankers, Politicians, and Journalists. Or in other words Lehman Brothers, Gordon Brown, and Robert Peston.
Why are the bankers at fault? well they were the ones who lost our confidence in the first place. These were the guys that, once exposed about how they are all lending money to each other and really they didn't have our money, we immediately lost our trust and confidence in them, took out our money, and banks started going bust all over the place as other banks decided they wanted their money back too, to pay off their customers. This is how it all started, and this is where we lost our confidence in the banking system. Because we were unsure about the safety of our money, we decided it would be best to curb our spending to save what we had left of it.
Then I blame the politicians - Gordon Brown had a choice for ways to resurrect the economy, and he chose the wrong one - either the Government spend the money into our economy to start it all working again, with businesses producing more, so consumers spend more, etc, or they put it in the hands of the already worried public. They did the latter, and since the public weren't particularly happy about spending their money at the time, no matter how many tax cuts the government threw at them, the recession was certainly not going to be helped.
And finally I blame Robert Peston. Yes, this man has single-handedly nearly destroyed our economy simply by reporting how badly it is going, how steep the recession is, oh, doom and gloom - If we had had one, even one journalist in the public spotlight as much as peston was, who said that actually it wasn't so bad, we can actually put a positive spin on the recession - look consumers, prices are going down, so we can get more for our money - then the economic downturn would not be as down a turn as it has been.
I'm a blogger who get's only a few hits a week - but at least I can tell those people to go out shopping and bring this avoidable recession out of where it never needed to have gone...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
A Niggle
I have a niggle that really annoys me - and thankfully, it is supported by biblical verses, so I can have this grunt even at certain Christians.
This world is in the most darkest and dire situation. We refer to the "Third world", bt in reality it is almost two thirds - that is, out of 6 billion people, 4 billion are considered to be without the basic needs - Food, Water, Shelter, Health, and Education - once these 5 have been established, you are getting somewhere. And we sit at home, we see these advertised - some poor starving child in Ethiopia, whose ribcage is showing, who is so weak that he cannot be othered to bat the flies away from his face. It is saddening, but what is even more saddening is that we have become apathetic about the problem.
As a child, I had a dream - an actual daydream, a fantasy - and I also did some basic maths - there are 2billion people in the developed world - that's 2 billion people that theoretically, have the capability to help out the other 4 billion - that is a 1:2 ratio. say we needed a group of volunteers to build a school for 200 children - to satisfy the ratio, we would need only 100 people to build the school - that is more than enough! and this propogated a ream that I believed possible - right up until the day I became cynical, but sadly, realistic. It wouldn't happen because nobody could be bothered to do it. We simply would not get all 2 billion of us, around the world, getting out of our daily office jobs, out of the daily routine, and giving each other a hand - across race, creed, colour, nation.
My Niggle, however, does not just lie with those who are apathetic enough to not do anything - but it lies also with those who believe that "awareness raising" is a much more worthwhile thing to do than actual raising of money. we see so much of it, there is no point raising awareness of the fact that there are people living without clean water - everybody knows that, it is common fact - you would have to find somebody who is really clueless and out of it who does not know that there are billions of people who do not have access to clean water, or enough food, etc.
My deepest niggle is expressed best by James chapter 3 - A passage saying that faith without deeds is useless.
I believe in prayer - I believe that we can pray for these situations to get better - but Jesus left this earth with no physical presence left - he gave us his Holy Spirit to do his work for him - so whilst as we might pray for something to be done, ultimately it has to be done by us - it will only get done by Human hand - God is not going to simply hop down to Ethiopia and bring about some food - because we have the resources here on earth to be able to do it ourselves. This is what james was getting at - he gave the example of a homeless man begging for food - if a man comes up to you and begs for food, give him some! Do not turn around and say "I pray that you shall not go hungry tonight" and then leave him with nothing! Maybe God will hear your prayer and someone else will give him food - but you could've done it yourself.
God wants to use us! God wants to use our talents, our skills, our expertise, in a place that is perfect for us - in a situation where we can do the most good.
Sir Cliff Richard was onced interviewed by a charity, I think Tearfund, if I remember correctly, and they asked him what was he able to do: Can he build a school? No. Can he dig a well? No. Can he make a lot of money? Yes - fine then Sir Cliff should do what he is best at and give them money, whilst they got on with what they were best at.
I am basically saying that God has given you gifts and talents - and whether you believe in Him or not, it doesn't matter - you have gifts and talents - they are a gift to you - so use them to bring about a better world.
Please be intelligent about what you do with your life - one day, you will be lying on your deathbed and look back - and would you like to look back at a boring office job for 40 years, raising a family, and then having wondered where your life went spend your retirement jetting about all over the place? Or would you rather look back, and think of all the smiling children with new schools, all the women who can have medical care, and can safely give birth, all the rural farmers that now have water to irrigate their fields and produce a good harvest, to feed the whole villiage? Maybe you don't get to see those faces because you are best at an office Job - but maybe you might know the existence of those faces, if you use that job to earn money, because that is what you are best at - and you have helped them out monetarily?
Make a difference, do something with your life that you will be proud of, and please, for God's sake, use your gifts and talents with intelligence, wisdom, and to help bring about a better world.
Niggle over.
This world is in the most darkest and dire situation. We refer to the "Third world", bt in reality it is almost two thirds - that is, out of 6 billion people, 4 billion are considered to be without the basic needs - Food, Water, Shelter, Health, and Education - once these 5 have been established, you are getting somewhere. And we sit at home, we see these advertised - some poor starving child in Ethiopia, whose ribcage is showing, who is so weak that he cannot be othered to bat the flies away from his face. It is saddening, but what is even more saddening is that we have become apathetic about the problem.
As a child, I had a dream - an actual daydream, a fantasy - and I also did some basic maths - there are 2billion people in the developed world - that's 2 billion people that theoretically, have the capability to help out the other 4 billion - that is a 1:2 ratio. say we needed a group of volunteers to build a school for 200 children - to satisfy the ratio, we would need only 100 people to build the school - that is more than enough! and this propogated a ream that I believed possible - right up until the day I became cynical, but sadly, realistic. It wouldn't happen because nobody could be bothered to do it. We simply would not get all 2 billion of us, around the world, getting out of our daily office jobs, out of the daily routine, and giving each other a hand - across race, creed, colour, nation.
My Niggle, however, does not just lie with those who are apathetic enough to not do anything - but it lies also with those who believe that "awareness raising" is a much more worthwhile thing to do than actual raising of money. we see so much of it, there is no point raising awareness of the fact that there are people living without clean water - everybody knows that, it is common fact - you would have to find somebody who is really clueless and out of it who does not know that there are billions of people who do not have access to clean water, or enough food, etc.
My deepest niggle is expressed best by James chapter 3 - A passage saying that faith without deeds is useless.
I believe in prayer - I believe that we can pray for these situations to get better - but Jesus left this earth with no physical presence left - he gave us his Holy Spirit to do his work for him - so whilst as we might pray for something to be done, ultimately it has to be done by us - it will only get done by Human hand - God is not going to simply hop down to Ethiopia and bring about some food - because we have the resources here on earth to be able to do it ourselves. This is what james was getting at - he gave the example of a homeless man begging for food - if a man comes up to you and begs for food, give him some! Do not turn around and say "I pray that you shall not go hungry tonight" and then leave him with nothing! Maybe God will hear your prayer and someone else will give him food - but you could've done it yourself.
God wants to use us! God wants to use our talents, our skills, our expertise, in a place that is perfect for us - in a situation where we can do the most good.
Sir Cliff Richard was onced interviewed by a charity, I think Tearfund, if I remember correctly, and they asked him what was he able to do: Can he build a school? No. Can he dig a well? No. Can he make a lot of money? Yes - fine then Sir Cliff should do what he is best at and give them money, whilst they got on with what they were best at.
I am basically saying that God has given you gifts and talents - and whether you believe in Him or not, it doesn't matter - you have gifts and talents - they are a gift to you - so use them to bring about a better world.
Please be intelligent about what you do with your life - one day, you will be lying on your deathbed and look back - and would you like to look back at a boring office job for 40 years, raising a family, and then having wondered where your life went spend your retirement jetting about all over the place? Or would you rather look back, and think of all the smiling children with new schools, all the women who can have medical care, and can safely give birth, all the rural farmers that now have water to irrigate their fields and produce a good harvest, to feed the whole villiage? Maybe you don't get to see those faces because you are best at an office Job - but maybe you might know the existence of those faces, if you use that job to earn money, because that is what you are best at - and you have helped them out monetarily?
Make a difference, do something with your life that you will be proud of, and please, for God's sake, use your gifts and talents with intelligence, wisdom, and to help bring about a better world.
Niggle over.
Friday, February 13, 2009
A warning message
Dear fellow Christians, but non-Christians, please read as well for your own enlightenment, and especially you anti-theists, please read, as I have something to say to you too.
Beware of false teachers and prophets. They exist, they happen. I was recently shown a video of a guy named Todd Bentley, a man who in Florida is well known for his unusual method of healing. This man is not of God. He apparently cures people with violence and assault. In oe video, he is giving a speech documenting a few of these incidents. He tells of when he is brought a man who is suffering from stage 4 bowel cancer, and Todd "cures" him by kneeing him in the gut. He then describes how he then felt like God's presence was not there. He asks himself why? Why is God not here? (I do not wonder why God had decided to leave that particular meeting) - the answer came back, he claims from heaven, that it is because he has not kicked that old lady in the front row in the face. So he proceeds to do so. He describes that as his boot touched the old lady's nose, she fell down under the power of the Holy Spirit. he then goes on to describe, how the Spirit called him to run down the aisle, and punch someone straight in the gut! He also then described how he then asked how he could help out the Pastor who was leading the service. Apparently, the call came back that he should "leg drop" the pastor (for those of you who don't know, a "leg drop" is a move in WWF wrestling).
At another meeting, he stirs up the crowd into a frenzy by telling them that Jesus would be visiting them, in person, the following evening (he had just gained this knowledge down from Heaven, apparently). This is preaching that he knows about the second coming of Christ, which is directly against what the bible says! He whips the crowd into a further frenzy, yelling for angels to come down from heaven. Personally I'd prefer the Holy spirit, not angels- which to do what he was doing could be classified as worship of angels - another biblical no-no.
My warning is this - beware of false teachings. if something doesn't at first seem right, or biblical, then it probably isn't from God. Test any teaching you hear, and know your bible well. Because these false teachers and false prophets can fool you with their methods - this is how they become big in the first place - by giving you what you want, by telling you what you want to hear - this is how the Devil does his work! We need to be mindful, and think through everything. The Bible teaches us that we must not disobey the laws of the countries we live in (unless they go against the laws of God, such as in some nations where it is illegal to be a Christian). To kick someone in the face is assault, and this goes against the laws of the nation, and therefore the laws of God. Since there is no clause anywhere in the Bible that tells you you should kick people in the face to bring God into the room, then what this man did was to break the laws of God, under the supposed clling of the Holy Spirit. this meant that the Spirit ENCOURAGED HIM TO BREAK THE LAWS OF GOD. Either reject a God who contradicts himself, or accept that this man cannot possibly be of God. Please do not defend him by talking about the people who have come to Christ through him. whilst as they might have, the ends does not justify the means. God judges people on their motives, not on their eventual actions.
My Message to the Atheists is this - People like this misrepresent God. People like this do not represent God. People like this do not represent Religion on any matter - the same goes for other religions, and extremists of those faiths. they do not represent their religion, nor do they represent the beliefs of that religion or belief system. Please do not think that they do. As I said above, by this evidence we could reject God, if we accept that this man is a representative of Him who lives on High. Do not consider misrepresentations of faith, made by man, who is by nature a sinful being, but instead, focus on the Christ. Follow his example, his teaching, and find out for yourself if Jesus of Nazareth was who he said he was.
To the Anti-theists. This man is not an argument against religion. this man is an argument for it. Now let me explain why. Look at the people who Todd Bentley was talking to. They were completely taken in by a madman, a man who is so clearly not of God. Does this not say something about the sad state of the world? That people are so desperate, so longing for God, that they are willing to accept a conman for a prophet? That they were willing to accept someone so violent, abusive, and non-biblical as someone who has a direct conversation with the Almighty? What is this world coming to, that people like this can get anywhere in the Christian circle and gain a following, because they offer hope that is so blatantly false? wake up to the destruction that Atheism is doing to our planet. It leaves people without hope, without love, without purpose. It will only lead to destruction, as people try to cling on to anything that fills that great void in their lives.
I felt that void once too. For a short period of my life I felt like I was without God, I doubted his existence - and my life felt horrible - it felt like there was nothing there, a complete void of nothingness that would swallow me up - I thought I would be free, but i could see that I would just brunning from one thing to another, to distract me. It was a painful few weeks as I found my faith again, and found God. I had to cling on blindly, to something i wasn't even sure was there, because I did not know what I would do without my faith. That great void of nothingness is haunting, so people turn to anthing for acceptance, forgiveness, love, belonging - drugs, sex, violence, gambling, money, materialism. The thing to do is stop running away from a void that can be filled by God and the Holy Spirit, because God's love is exactly what this world needs.
Hmm, two opinions in one. makes up for not posting for a while I suppose...
Beware of false teachers and prophets. They exist, they happen. I was recently shown a video of a guy named Todd Bentley, a man who in Florida is well known for his unusual method of healing. This man is not of God. He apparently cures people with violence and assault. In oe video, he is giving a speech documenting a few of these incidents. He tells of when he is brought a man who is suffering from stage 4 bowel cancer, and Todd "cures" him by kneeing him in the gut. He then describes how he then felt like God's presence was not there. He asks himself why? Why is God not here? (I do not wonder why God had decided to leave that particular meeting) - the answer came back, he claims from heaven, that it is because he has not kicked that old lady in the front row in the face. So he proceeds to do so. He describes that as his boot touched the old lady's nose, she fell down under the power of the Holy Spirit. he then goes on to describe, how the Spirit called him to run down the aisle, and punch someone straight in the gut! He also then described how he then asked how he could help out the Pastor who was leading the service. Apparently, the call came back that he should "leg drop" the pastor (for those of you who don't know, a "leg drop" is a move in WWF wrestling).
At another meeting, he stirs up the crowd into a frenzy by telling them that Jesus would be visiting them, in person, the following evening (he had just gained this knowledge down from Heaven, apparently). This is preaching that he knows about the second coming of Christ, which is directly against what the bible says! He whips the crowd into a further frenzy, yelling for angels to come down from heaven. Personally I'd prefer the Holy spirit, not angels- which to do what he was doing could be classified as worship of angels - another biblical no-no.
My warning is this - beware of false teachings. if something doesn't at first seem right, or biblical, then it probably isn't from God. Test any teaching you hear, and know your bible well. Because these false teachers and false prophets can fool you with their methods - this is how they become big in the first place - by giving you what you want, by telling you what you want to hear - this is how the Devil does his work! We need to be mindful, and think through everything. The Bible teaches us that we must not disobey the laws of the countries we live in (unless they go against the laws of God, such as in some nations where it is illegal to be a Christian). To kick someone in the face is assault, and this goes against the laws of the nation, and therefore the laws of God. Since there is no clause anywhere in the Bible that tells you you should kick people in the face to bring God into the room, then what this man did was to break the laws of God, under the supposed clling of the Holy Spirit. this meant that the Spirit ENCOURAGED HIM TO BREAK THE LAWS OF GOD. Either reject a God who contradicts himself, or accept that this man cannot possibly be of God. Please do not defend him by talking about the people who have come to Christ through him. whilst as they might have, the ends does not justify the means. God judges people on their motives, not on their eventual actions.
My Message to the Atheists is this - People like this misrepresent God. People like this do not represent God. People like this do not represent Religion on any matter - the same goes for other religions, and extremists of those faiths. they do not represent their religion, nor do they represent the beliefs of that religion or belief system. Please do not think that they do. As I said above, by this evidence we could reject God, if we accept that this man is a representative of Him who lives on High. Do not consider misrepresentations of faith, made by man, who is by nature a sinful being, but instead, focus on the Christ. Follow his example, his teaching, and find out for yourself if Jesus of Nazareth was who he said he was.
To the Anti-theists. This man is not an argument against religion. this man is an argument for it. Now let me explain why. Look at the people who Todd Bentley was talking to. They were completely taken in by a madman, a man who is so clearly not of God. Does this not say something about the sad state of the world? That people are so desperate, so longing for God, that they are willing to accept a conman for a prophet? That they were willing to accept someone so violent, abusive, and non-biblical as someone who has a direct conversation with the Almighty? What is this world coming to, that people like this can get anywhere in the Christian circle and gain a following, because they offer hope that is so blatantly false? wake up to the destruction that Atheism is doing to our planet. It leaves people without hope, without love, without purpose. It will only lead to destruction, as people try to cling on to anything that fills that great void in their lives.
I felt that void once too. For a short period of my life I felt like I was without God, I doubted his existence - and my life felt horrible - it felt like there was nothing there, a complete void of nothingness that would swallow me up - I thought I would be free, but i could see that I would just brunning from one thing to another, to distract me. It was a painful few weeks as I found my faith again, and found God. I had to cling on blindly, to something i wasn't even sure was there, because I did not know what I would do without my faith. That great void of nothingness is haunting, so people turn to anthing for acceptance, forgiveness, love, belonging - drugs, sex, violence, gambling, money, materialism. The thing to do is stop running away from a void that can be filled by God and the Holy Spirit, because God's love is exactly what this world needs.
Hmm, two opinions in one. makes up for not posting for a while I suppose...
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