WildOx Blog

The Blog of John K. Baw - Gibraltar

Prayer for Peace - from a Jewish Prayer Book

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Photo credit: MojoBaer.


Source of Peace.  Ruler of Peace.
Grant peace to your people Israel
And let peace spread among all Your creatures,
So that there may be no hatred, jealousy,
competition or victory among people.
Let there be only great love and peace among us all,
So that we may gather together,
Each with their fellow,
Speaking to each other,
Learning the truth from each other.

(Arabic:) Allahumma anta Salaam, wa minkas Salaam.
O God, You are Peace.  Peace is from You.

Adon ha-Shalom, barkheinu va-shalom, amen.
Source of Peace, bless us with Peace, amen.

-Based on a prayer by R. Nachman of Breslov (1772-1810)

Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land (Rev Dr Joseph E Lowery)

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Just finished reading Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land by Rev Dr Joseph E Lowery. This guy has spent his whole life fighting discrimination and racial inequality.  I really liked the book and it has stirred up the importance of fighting for justice, and for the healing of wounds and righting of wrongs. 

YET for all his accomplishments, I do confess that he will always be, in my mind, the "yella-will-be-mella" guy.  From President Barrack Obama's inauguration benediction:

Lord, in the memory of all the saints who from their labors rest, and in the joy of a new beginning, we ask you to help us work for that day when black will not be asked to get [in] back, when brown can stick around, when yellow will be mellow, when the red man can get ahead, man; and when white will embrace what is right. Let all those who do justice and love mercy say Amen! Say Amen! And Amen!


Highly recommended reading.

Aung San Suu Kyi - The strength of humility, compassion and non-violence

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Today I have been glued to my TV watching the release of Aung San Suu Kyi.  After spending years under house arrest, she spends the first day of freedom by immediately speaking out for democracy and freedom.  Her strength and bravery beggars belief.

She is a living witness to the courageous struggle for freedom in her nation.  Her movement is more than a political movement - many even see it as a religious movement given its heavy leaning on Buddhist principles, but a movement it is, galvanizing a groundswell of support among ordinary Burmese folk.

A true inspiration for all.  By advocating non-violence among her pro-democracy movement, she is proving that through the relentless pursuit of goodness, and compassion, a little lady can strike fear into the hearts of a ruthless ruling military junta.  A modern-day Mahatma Gandhi?  Probably.  Another example of the strength of moral authority over against injustice?  Definitely.

Lessons are sure to be learned.  If her life story interests you, be sure to read a “Biography” of sorts entitled “The Voice of Hope"


Seeking the Middle Voices

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In a pit of despair I endured another barrage of bad news emanating from the Middle East.  The killing of more innocent lives.  More blood drenched streets providing fodder for more rage and hate.  My Facebook and Twitter accounts came alive, buzzing with vitriol, slogans, sound bites and nasty hash-tags from all sides of this divide.  It was all about Islamic dogs killing people, or Jewish Nazis not wanting peace.  Sick to my stomach I sat down and wrote these words: "the middle voices have been ignored".

In our sensationalist driven media the extremes tend to get emphasised to such a degree that they become the norm for most.  It is always about the extremes - The Jewish settlers, or the suicide bombers, the anti-abortion activists or the secular militants, the big oil moguls or the Eco-warriors.  The "middle voices" have been ignored.

We seldom hear the story of the Palestinian Christian whose child has been killed by an IDF rocket's collateral damage.  The press never covers the story of the teenage girl who just got pregnant and is thinking of having an abortion because, only being 14 years old, she is really confused and under enormous pressure from family members.  We do not read about the CEO who would love to adopt more environmentally-friendly working practices but is facing unrelenting financial pressures in a tough economy and cannot afford to change her working practices just yet.

The middle voices are often the only voices calling for reconciliation, moderation, tolerance and forgiveness.  These are the non-fundamentalist voices, the non-extremist majority.  The ones who unfortunately bear the brunt of the pain, but who have no power, no choices, no ability to make a difference or to be heard.

Justice demands that we ask ourselves where these middle voices are.  I am increasingly challenging myself to hear these middle voices.  As a global village we need to find creative ways to "give a voice" to these middle people - the people with no choice.