The Motion Picture Of Slums.

On the day we left to visit our good friends in the Huruma slum, Nairobi, Kenya, we heard of an oil spill in a neighbouring slum called Mukuru Sinai (rather ironic that a slum is called after a mountain filled with God's presence). With oil spilled, hundreds of the residents of Mukuru Sinai saw the chance for some free oil - but tragically the oil caught fire and over 100 people died.

Some journalists blamed the residents greed for the disaster.

On the day we left Nairobi Rasna Warah a Nairobi based writer answered the journalists accusations with an insightful article. I copy it here to help people understand the reality of 4.1 billion people living in extreme poverty:

"For people who live in the nicer parts of Nairobi, where electricity is available at the touch of a switch and bathrooms have flush toilets, the behaviour of Sinai residents may appear bizarre, if not downright stupid. Surely residents must know that petrol is dangerous? Have they not heard of the recent tragedies where people died because they were scooping oil from overturned tankers? Only an idiot would rush to get a bit of free petrol even if it meant exposing oneself to grave danger.
But imagine, for once, that you live in Sinai slum or one of the many slums that people call home in the city of Nairobi. Imagine that you share a tin or mud shack with six to eight family members, all of whom sleep on a middy floor, and who share a pit latrine with dozens of neighbors. Imagine dinner time in that shack. A highly polluting kerosene or charcoal jiko is cooking and heating increasingly scarce meals. Outside, criminals and drunkards are on their nightly prowl and girls are selling their bodies for KSH50 (70c) to buy unga for their families. Stray dogs and pigs are adding to the noise and chaos.
For people living in slums, or "urban villages" as we like to call them, daily life is like being on death row or committing a slow form of suicide. Here, one is exposed to hundreds of hazards daily. If one does not die from preventable diseases such as TB or Aids, one dies from a stray bullet from a policeman's or criminals gun.
The daily grind of living can be so soul-destroying that the only way people living in these hell holes can forget about it is by drowning themselves in illicit brews or reckless sexual encounters. And because we live in an unequal society where wealth and opportunities tend to accrue to those who are well-connected and privileged, the chances of escaping this death sentence are bleak indeed, particularly in an environment where patronage, corruption, and extremely low wages ensure that the poor will always remain poor.
Now imagine that oil from a pipe leaks right into your slum neighborhood. Would you call the chief and the police to alert them about it or would you think, "Hey, life is unpredictable, I can die any time. Why not grab some oil to light my stove tonight? I'll be saving money on kerosene and maybe it will mean that my family will sleep on a full stomach tonight."
If I lived in Sinai, I might have thought the same way. So let us not blame the poor for being stupid and ignorant; let us ask ourselves why we live in a society that forces people to grab spilt oil even if it means dying in the process."


The motion picture of slums is only available for those inspired to wander down twisted, slippery, narrow aisles, jump over open sewers, take in the smells of one-year old garbage, taste stewed chicken beaks or roasted fish gills, and share in the fear of being bulldozed in the middle of the night.

Stand with us and others to do your part in kicking extreme poverty off the face of the planet in our generation.
www.whenigrowup-global.com

9/11 ten year reflection ....borrowed.

With the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 nearing, Christianity Today published the thoughts of eleven senior Christian leaders on how they have changed since 9/11.
I write below the thoughts of Will Willimon, the presiding Bishop of the North Alabama Conference of the United Methodist Church.
His thoughts and reflection so resonated with me .....although the ending sentence of Philip Yancey's thoughts are also so striking.

Yancey concluded "we dare not do to Muslims what we have, to our shame, done to Jews."

But read Willimon's complete comments:

"On 9/11 thought, For the most powerful militarized nation in the world also to think of itself as an innocent victim is deadly.
It was a rare prophetic moment for me, considering Presidents Bush and Obama have spent billions asking the military to rectify the crime of a small band of lawless individuals, destroying a couple of nations who had little to do with it, in the costliest, longest series of wars in the history of the United States.
The silence of most Christians and the giddy enthusiasm of a few, as well as the ubiquity of flags and patriotic extravaganzas in allegedly evangelical churches, says to me that American Christians may look back upon our response to 9/11 as our greatest Christological defeat. It was shattering to admit that we had lost the theological means to distinguish between the United States and the Kingdom of God. The criminals who perpetrated 9/11 and the flag-waving boosters of our almost exclusive martial response were of one mind: that the nonviolent way of Jesus is stupid. All of us preachers share the shame; when our people felt vulnerable, they reached for the flag, not the Cross.
September 11 has changed me. I'm going to preach as never before about Christ crucified as the answer to the questions of what's wrong with the world. I have also resolved to relentlessly reiterate from the pulpit that the worst day in history was not a Tuesday in New York, but a Friday in Jerusalem when a consortium of clergy and politicians colluded to run the world on our terms by crucifying God's own Son. "

Thank you Will for your insight and poignant thoughts.

As Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference wrote "the only authentic, transformative solution to cultural challenges stems not from the donkey or the elephant but rather from the glorious intersection known as the agenda of the Lamb."