Break from blogging

I think I've told everyone who should be told personally so I'll mention it on here now.

My brother died on Tuesday after a long battle against cancer, fought with courage and dignity by both him, his wife and their children.

Even though it has been expected for over two years, it still feels a massive shock to us all. I feel both emotionally and physically drained, so blogging will take a back seat for a few days.

My brother is now in glory.

Gambling Commission Failure

During a busy week without much time to post I note that someone else is getting the message that the Gambling Commission isn't up to the job.

It won't belong before this particular gravy train will come off the rails. Remember you read it hear first.

Europe united in song

As it is Europe Day I thought it appropriate to post the one song that really did unite Europe. I remember my Dad telling me how he and his mates, out somewhere in the North African dessert, not far from a place called Alemien, used to gather round the radio and hear the German version.

For just a few moments, soldiers of every nation were united in listening to this wonderful little song, Lillie Marlene.

Haunted by racist abuse

Last night I slept in what is reported to be one of the most haunted buildings in Britain. Any building with an 800 year history is bound to have one or two memories but I was a little disturbed to see documented evidence of the"goings on" around the place.

But what really haunted me last night was an awful spectacle just outside a supermarket in the high street of the small market town where I currently work.

As I was walking towards Tescos I became aware of two people heading towards me. One was a tall, but very drunk Anglo-Saxon, the other a small, completely sober member of the Tescos staff who was clearly on South Asian origin.

The Tesco staff member was challenging the man, asking for "it" back. Finally the man stopped, pulled out from amongst his newspapers a bottle of whiskey with the security tag still attached, and gave it to the Tesco worker who walked back in the direction of the store.

At this point the Anglo-Saxon lost it and came out with some of the foulest abuse I have ever heard. "You F***king, Paki, B*stard, go back to your own f***king country" is just a taster of abuse that was in reality far worse. Full of hatred and probably desperate for another drink, this man showered a conscientious, polite and clearly courageous employee with the worse sort of hatred.

I went into the store and suggested that the staff called the police and had the man arrested. The response was something like "this happens all the time".

Myself and many readers of this blog are several steps away from the sub-culture that makes it acceptable to come out with that sort of language in public. We probably know few who are subject to that abuse, and if we do, I suspect many keep it to themselves.

It came as a bit of a shock and as I lay in bed I prayed for both men and realised that we have much more to fear than ghosts.

Women and Islam

Even in the darkest days of Christian attitudes to women, possibly with the exception of the slave owning regimes, I don't think an article could be written that paints a bleaker picture than that portrayed by Yasmin Alibhal-Brown in today's Independent.

Pandemic flu preparations: draw up a church "business continuity" plan

I fully support the official advice issued by the British Methodist Church on Friday helping churches understand the role we as churches and Christians can play in handling the possible pandemic.

One area which isn't touched upon in the official advice is what is called "business continuity". How do local churches continue to function as a community and spiritual resource at the very moment of great need and diminished resources? An item in today's Observer shows how difficult it has been for the Catholic Church to respond in Mexico. It is worth reading, just to get a flavour of where we could be in a few months.

In my first unofficial advice, published last Monday, I tried to tackle that issue. I'll reiterate here some of the steps local churches should take.

My advice - given as someone who has been working on emergency planning for business continuity and disaster recovery for the last decade - is simple: start planning now. Make it a simple exercise. But have something in place within the next few days.

At the moment the numbers of confirmed cases are going up in ones and twos. In a week or so time we could face "the surge" when the confirmed cases double and triple each day. Currently there are 716 people in the UK who have been through the official process to determine whether they should have samples sent off for laboratory examination. This is not going to go away.

Your plan should include these issues:

1. Listen carefully to official advice about meetings and act accordingly. Investigate ways of keeping the spiritual life of the church going by electronic communications. A facebook group, a temporary blog or even a short 15 minute conference call may help keep the community alive and boost morale among those who are bedridden.
   

2. Ensure that address lists with telephone numbers and email addresses are up to date.

3. Ensure that information displayed on the church notice board and website is up-to-date. Offer at least two alternative contact people.

4. Discourage anyone who may be in the early stages of flu from attending church.

5. Support the campaigns to encourage hygiene – ban handshakes, hugging and encourage the use of tissues and handwashing.

6. Make flexible arrangements to enable the church’s work to continue. Have more than one key holder, have several alternative cheque signatories.

7. Make mutual aid arrangements with other nearby churches to assist with funerals, where possible including suitably qualified lay support.

Falsely claiming an enhanced degree

Bank Holiday Saturdays are traditionally a day when only the most committed bloggers read my posts. So I want to ask those committed bloggers, often good solid barrack room lawyers, if they would help solve a simple question.

Is it a criminal offence under UK law to list a degree that you don't actually have on official paperwork?

I know putting a fake degree on a job application can get you three months in prison.

But is falsely claiming a degree on a letter head, or personnel list, of a similar order?

For example I have a BA degree from the University of Sussex, of which I am very proud, being the first person in my family ever to hold such a qualification. But supposing someone without my standards of honesty decided that it would be more impressive to appear to have an enhanced qualification?

For example, were I to list myself on my business card - which I have absolutely no intention of doing - as Methodist Preacher MA(Sussex), would I be committing a criminal offence?

And even if I wasn't committing a criminal offence, what view should an employer or other organisation take of an individual employee or office holder who they discovered had massaged their claimed qualifications in this way over many years?

What view would external bodies such as the CRB, credit rating agencies and police and security services take of such a person? How would the disclosure of such a deception impact on child and vulnerable persons policies?

This is just a theoretical question.

Is the flu pandemic God's punishment for the US electing Obama?

Within hours of the first announcements that a serious health issue was developing in Mexico I wrote:

Others may claim that the pandemic is God’s punishment for a whole range of sin.

Well I really didn't expect to be proved right so quickly.

In recent days this blog has had a phenomenal number of hits because we almost alone offered advice, a checklist and prayers for Christians and churches as the flu pandemic came nearer.

However yesterday one clearly underworked official at the United States Department of Justice (IP address 149.101.1#) based at Potomac, Maryland, possibly having a late lunch, it being 2.47 pm UTC, put the following term into a search engine and found him or her self on this site:

flu pandemic god punishment obama

I just could not make this up! I was amazed to see a whole page of blog entries devoted to the subject. Clearly for some a hot topic.

Some people, especially it seems in the US, have a very strange idea of God's punishment.

I do believe He disciplines, rebukes and eventually punishes. But I certainly don't accept that a long expected outbreak of influenza in a poor country would be triggered as a punishment for the result of an election in the United States.

I find it terrifying that someone working in an organisation committed to justice could even think like that!

Update: The British Methodist Church has now issued its own official advice on how churches should respond to swine flu