Apparently Prince Charles took a 5-day tour on the Royal Train throughout Britain. He wanted to raise awareness about sustainability. The price tag for British taxpayers? About $80,000.
You can read about
Charles' opulent eco-tour, the luxury of the Royal Train, and the "cost-cutting measures" put in place by Charles during a time of economic austerity, recessions, and layoffs.
Predictably, Charles takes the most heat from the environmental organizations he wants to help. From the article:
Benny Peiser, Director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation, dismissed the trip as "a clear case of double standards."
"Prince Charles and other super-rich people are not aware of the discrepancy between what they preach and what they do," he told the Daily Mail. "His lifestyle creates a carbon footprint which is 100 times that of any other person in the U.K."
"If he is really concerned about the environment, he should stop using cars, planes or in this case trains, and practice what he preaches."
I got a good laugh out of Peiser's zinger, but then some uncomfortable realities started to settle on me.
You and I are super-rich too.
Don't feel rich? Just go to the Global Rich List and type in your annual earnings.
If you make more than $50,000 per year, you are among the top 1% richest people on the planet.
Go back to Peiser's criticism of Charles. What if he was talking about Americans and global poverty, instead of Charles and the environment?
Earlier in the year I wrote
this post about shutting down
Craigslist's adult ads which were responsible for online prostitution and child trafficking. At that time, there were many heated debates regarding the right approach for bringing attention to this, including boycotting the site. Some people felt that boycotting was the wrong approach because it was the "Christian status quo." Instead we should "thank them for donating money to anti-trafficking organizations," (which was a PR trick and the organization sent the money back), etc.
At any rate, I'm happy to say that boycotts, lawsuits, and public outrage has paid off and Craigslist has been forced to shut down the adult services ads in the United States as stated by
this CNN report.
"This step is very much in the right direction," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who spearheaded a letter from 17 attorneys general who recently banded together to urge Craigslist to discontinue its adult services section.The embattled website has been under fire for allegations that it promotes prostitution."These prostitution ads enable human trafficking and assaults on women," said Blumenthal. "They are flagrant and rampant. Craigslist has lacked the wherewithal or will to effectively screen them out."
"The increasingly sharp public criticism of Craigslist's Adult Services section reflects a growing recognition that ads for prostitution -- including ads trafficking children -- are rampant on it," the attorneys general had said in an Aug. 24 letter to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and Founder Craig Newmark.
Unfortunately, these ads are still up in foreign countries, which continues to make it easy for sex traffickers to exploit women and children. If Craigslist is serious about this issue they will shut them down too.
Thanks for your work in being a voice, writing to your senators and congressmen/women, and boycotting. It has paid off.
I'm broken hearted as a read
this article on CNN international. At least 24 children were among the hundreds that were recently raped in the Congo.
"Attackers blocked roads and prevented villagers from reaching outside communications. Many homes were also looted.Many of the victims were raped by two to six men, according to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)."
This is a strong reminder for all of us that evil is at work in the world and it must be fought. Evil knows no bounds. It will destroy the weakest and the most innocent. If we don't fight it through prayer, through using our voices, and through intervention, who will?
Keep praying, keep blogging, keep adopting, keep going.
Sorry to mess up your Saturday. But we're in a war.
"There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch of the cosmos, every split second, is claimed by God and counter-claimed by Satan." - C.S. Lewis
Malcolm Muggeridge was a fascinating Englishman.
And while in Muggeridge's homeland, I thought it fitting to bring you a deep thought from him. (Actually, there are two Englishmen in today's deep thought, one building upon the observation of another...)
Muggeridge was, among other things, a journalist and writer. A media personality at the birth of television. A soldier in World War II (and reportedly a spy as well). Most fascinating, he brought worldwide attention to the work of Mother Teresa.
If you watched the AWAKEN sermon from yesterday's post, you'd have heard me introduce Muggeridge and refer to one of his favorite quotations taken from a William Blake poem:
This life's dim Windows of the Soul
Distorts the Heavens from Pole to Pole
And leads you to believe a Lie
When you see with, and not thro', the Eye.
It was that last bit about seeing seeing with the eye vs. seeing through it. I think there's more than poetry in those words. Muggeridge explains this further:
Jesus himself makes the same distinction as Blake between what is seen with and through the eye when he directs his teaching specifically to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. It is not enough, that is to say, just to look and listen; behind looking and listening there has to be the perspective of faith. Only seeing through the eye, and across this perspective, does the true significance of Jesus and his teaching become clear. ... It was those luminous words of his, sealed with his death on the Cross, that led to his being recognized as God. After all, who but God would have dared to ask of men what he asked of them? Demanding everything and enduring everything, he set in train a great creative wave of love and sacrifice such as the world had never before seen or dreamed of. [Seeing Through the Eye. pg. 11]
What do you think it means to see through the eye, instead of with the eye? What is the difference?
Whenever I come to a different country, I take these short video to help you transport you to the spot. My hope is that you'll see the beauty of the English countryside and majesty of old building and come visit...
This August, I kicked off the AWAKEN series at Woodmen Valley Chapel in Colorado Springs. Here is the video from that message. I gave this message in conjunction with a week-long showing of "In Their Shoes: An Orphan Experience." Designed...
When you first arrive in Oxford, England, what's the first thing you do?!...
Every one of us possess the desire to be unique, and to become more than we are today.In God's kingdom, we sacrifice those selfish desires for God's glory. Entering the kingdom and accepting the calling that God has placed in...
In three short weeks I will turn 40. This creates a number of internal dilemmas for me the least of which is the fact that I always thought 40 was old. Now I'm rethinking my whole idea of what "old"...
Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Add to Facebook
Add to StumbleUpon
Subscribe
