Monday, July 31

Purpose Driven Political Tool?


Apparently, oft-criticised megachurch pastor Rick Warren (of Purpose Driven fame) has been invited by the N Korean authorities to preach to 15,000 koreans next spring.

If - and that is a fairly large if - this happens it may be the first time the Gospel has been publicly preached in the nation since 1945.
Late Korean dictator Kim Il Sung is widely acknowledged to have presided over perhaps the most thorough cleansing of Christianity from with a nation in the 20th Centruy.

I must admit, my initial reaction was one more of confusion than excitement.
There are plenty of interesting thoughts out there to look at on the web, but for what it's worth here are my 2 cents.

Unfortunately, and I hope he is prepared for this, Warren is cooperating with N Korean authorities, and in doing so is dealing with a bunch of ruthlessly skilled manipulators who have carefully honed their craft over many, many years.
This government has bartered for decades using millions of citizens (malnouished and starving), and nuclear technology as chips in a game useful only to prop up their own grip on power.

On the face of it, using words like "manipulators" may seem harsh, but the fact is that this is a society that has not been established on traditional western Judeo-Chritian ethics.
Truth is not considered a desirable trait, rather one of weakness.
Therefore, many levels of society do not operate within the same perameters that ours does. Sometimes to the extreme.

And so my first and main question is: "What on earth does the N Korean government stand to gain from inviting Warren to do this?"
Is it any coincidence that this invitation happens to coincide with rising nuclear tensions and an increasing urgency to see recent US economic sanctions lifted?
Me thinky so.

When I was there myself, there were only 2 official churches in the country - one has since been demolished.
The church that I regularly visited consisted of about 40 OAPs, of which nobody was really sure how free their choice was to attend.
Freedom of Religion status brings with it large potential aid donations from several international sources, of that there is no doubt the government has been eager to project it's own brand of "freedom".

My other thought is this: Is the government using Warren as some sort of trick in worming out any potentially hidden Christians/Soon to be prison camp labourers?
It's no secret that the NK Government routinely tops persection watchlists with ease - whisking a new batch of potential threats to the regime off to secluded spots in the northeast would not take a great deal of organising, of that I am of no doubt.

Which, all being said, leads me to this cynical state of mind - is this actually a good thing?

When asked if Warren was worried whether he was being used, he replied: "I know they're going to use me, so I'm going to use them."

I truly hope he's not walking in his own strength.

Friday, July 28

downtown.


The rise of the buildings.

Thursday, July 27

Watch those mossies


The Nexia team sample their first taste of mosquito infestation at The 60th Parallel.
(Cross posted at Nexia blog).

Sunday, July 23

Timmy's


Well, here I am sitting in one of the most audacious temples ever dedicated to consumerism - West Edmonton Mall.
And I am bored out of my crust.

We drove here from Yellowknife through the day, bypassing our original stop at Peace River.
Arriving in Edmonton late last night, we received quite a shock to find out the there was some sort of Grande Prix going on here, and that all of the rooms in the city were booked out.

Thankfully, Randy managed to hustle us a couple of rooms for the night to lay our weary heads, and with a few goodbyes this morning I have parted ways with my team.
Paul and Stu are tying things up in Yellowknife, I'm here in Edmonton and Randy, Nam-Su and Luc are winging their way back to Vancouver as I write this.

Over the course of this two week road trip, I have covered approximately 7,500 kms, consumed around 30 cups of coffee, stayed in 6 different locations and experienced 3 sugar highs. Maybe 3.5

I have also observed that possibly the only time and place that Canadians resemble any semblance of "Jerk-ism" or "all-out-bitchage" appears to be in the lineup for Tim Horton's.
And that's all I will say.

Monday, July 17

I got served.

Well, the sun didnt set till about 1am today.
It's almost 2am now, I think. It'll be back in a couple of hours.
It leaves you with a heavy and impending sense of jetlag. Which according to Randy, doesnt exist.
To help me while away the night-hours, I popped in a couple of videos this evening.

I watched "You got served!", and "Barbershop" with Queen Latifah.

"You got served!" has, without a doubt, set the bar for worst film ever commited to tape within my movie-watching paradigm.

Friday, July 14

whitehorse

Made it.

Not much time to post, but 3 day drive, in Whitehorse, incredible scenery, great people, missing vancouver.

Check nexia blog for team-y updates.

laters potaters.

Monday, July 10

laters

Taken in Vancover a couple of weeks ago.

Well, I think this will be my last post for a while. Possibly, although you never know.

So we leave for Prince Gerorge, then Fort Nelson and onto Whitehorse for our first destination stop.
After a few days it'll be back to Fort Nelson, over to Hi Level and then up to Yellowknife for stop no.2. I'm hoping to persevere and complete the tour with Iqaluit, although getting airline seats has proved quite difficult.

If you're wondering how we're doing - well, I can only speak to myself. As of now, I have a myriad of applications in process. Long distance phone calls to make. Luggage to pack, and belongings to store. I spent the best part of half a morning packed into Souvlaki's like a sardine to watch the world cup final. Great game, too. But now I'm paying for it as I feel like an old lady.

I did manage to go out and get a travel towel.
But I forgot to get mosquito stuff.

I can only say I look forward to God meeting me halfway on this.
Cause I dont know what the heck I am doing.
And I just seemed to have developed a toothache and weird mouth ulcers.
Yet life goes on.
And I realise how bloomin fortunate I am.

Laters potaters.

Saturday, July 8

fisheye 2.0


A while back I won a little photo competition; the prize was a new Fisheye 2 camera with a selection of film. I think the shots will be used to promote the new camera - pretty fun.

Well today the little fella finally decided to show up - just in the nick of time. Although I'm a complete beginner, I've really enjoyed experimenting with photography and what not. Looking forward to seeing what this camera can do.

Friday, July 7

not again.

Taken from BBC news.

You may or may not have seen a lot of recent reports on N Korea in the news recently.
North Korea has recently test fired a range of missiles, some of which may or may not be capable of hitting the N American peripherary.
Perhaps more alarming however, is South Korea's reaction to the missile test - they have decided to suspend food aid and fertiliser donations.

South Korea is the single largest donor towards the North, providing it with huge quantities of food and aid every year.
Last year North Korea decided to remove all western NGO organisations that monitored aid and depend more heavily on Asian/S Korean donations.

This time of year, most of the population is gearing up for rice planting season - a critical time of year that will bear heavily on harvest results for the coming year. There's little doubt that aid restrictions will bring any significant impact upon the Government party cadres, but possible impact upon the general population could be devastating.

The one positive in the whole situation is that missile mess is bringing more and more attention to the plight of the starved and forgotten population.
But for how much longer will this drag on?

Thursday, July 6

Canadian yonder


Come monday I'll be jumping into another vehicle and heading up North into Canadian yonder.
Updates to come, I suppose.
At this stage, I've been too busy to contemplate another mamoth road trip. There's still a wedding to do in between.
The picture was taken on my last road trip somewhere in the Albertan tundra.

Wednesday, July 5

hmmmn

It's seems as though it has been a long and exhausting week, although I must say I have enjoyed the movements.
The devastation of the England result has finally subsided, and I am comforted in my sorrows by seeing Germany go out as well.
We were playing a 10 man England against 11 Portugese and the ref - what were we to do? I thought we played our best football of the tournament, and Hargreaves nad Ashley Cole in particular were fantastic.

I also moved again on saturday, and after helping my roomates and Nick and Ryan move their stuff, we ended the night climbing onto the roof of the new place sipping wine into the sunset as the view of downtown Vancouver caressed our senses. That was a weird sentence.

North Korea also fired 7 missiles yesterday; it's almost heartbreaking to consider the government scraping together the meagre resources available and ploughing them into missile technology. Enough to make my blood boil.