Short Good Friday Message from Tokaut Tokstret

There are two kinds of people in the world: The Judases and the Peters.

On the night of His arrest both Judas and Peter betrayed Jesus. Perhaps one's betrayal was deadlier than the other, but they were both betrayals by Jesus's most "loyal" friends. After realizing their acts of treason, one went and hung himself, thinking his sin was beyond forgiveness. The other went and repented in shame, and became the Rock on which the church is being built.

Peter understood and received God's forgiveness. Judas thought God could never forgive him. I'm convinced if he repented like Peter, God would have forgiven him. Although Judas was born to betray Jesus, he wasn't outside of God's infinite grace and mercy. He only needed to believe and receive it.

You and I betray Jesus everyday, for we all sin and fall short of His glory.

Question is: Do you return like Peter, or are you slowly "hanging" yourself like Judas?

No matter how grave a sin you think you've committed, God's grace abounds above it.

Don't hang yourself...

I guess that's why it's called "Good" Friday. Despite all the bad things that happened, good triumphs above it all. That can even go for our soul.

Heavenise Good Friday

Ganjiki

A Confused World

By GDW

“You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you free.”

~Jesus

We live in a morally confused world. Where philosophers tell us even the notion of morality is an irrelevant consideration in the makeup of society. "What you believe in private doesn't matter in public". So keep your  morality at home.

In the book of Genesis, in the Garden of Eden the Devil, through a serpent, tried to convince man he didn't need God to know good from bad, right from wrong. That we could be like God. Nothing has changed except the form of the devil’s messenger. The message is still the same. Now he just uses secular philosophers, high-powered media, politicians, and "special interest" groups to push this agenda, not mentioning Hollywood and the entertainment industry. They're excellent salesmen for a very bad product. And the world is totally buying it.

Meanwhile, the people who do have the best product to sell to the world are the most miserable salespeople. Christians are selling the Gospel short, through their lack of assertive communication and of course their (our) blatant hypocrisy. In fact they're even buying that dangerous product dished out by its aggressive salesmen.

The world thinks it can fix this itself without God. And people who believe in God are starting to believe that to be true too. We somehow think that by walking away from faith in the one who gives us a choice to believe in Him, we're becoming liberated, and somehow more advanced in our humanness.

But look around. See how lost we are. By being our own "god" we've almost blasted morality into oblivion, and inserted our own preferences for determining what's right and wrong. And we’re getting “loster”. We don't know what's right or wrong anymore. We go by the majority and by the loudest philosopher, like Oprah or Chopra. And grasp the air for some longer-lasting point of reference from which we can know what's right is really right. Because our private preferences are wearing thin. We say things like:

•   It’s ok if it feels good
•  As long as you aren’t hurting anybody else
• As long as the person you’re doing it to/with consents to it, it’s ok
• You have the power and freedom over your own body
•  Be yourself!
• Don’t be held down by religion. Be free.
•  Look out for yourself, your happiness is all that matters
•  If it makes sense to do it, do it!
•  God is what you say it is.
•  God only thinks it’s wrong if you hurt others

If you push those statements to their logical end, you’ll find a world of contradictions, inconsistencies, clashes and lies. Let’s talk through a few of them.  

“If it feels good it’s ok”. But for some people it feels good to kill others. It feels good to rape and taunt others. It feels good to hurt themselves. It doesn't work. So enter another assertion: “As long as you don’t hurt others”. But hurting others feels good. And besides, the other consents to it. So here he is, killing because he feels good, and the other consents, but the world doesn't know so the world prosecutes him. “Be yourself!” But he was being himself when he was raping the kids. He can’t reconcile that need to be himself with the need to not hurt others without their consent. “You have the power and freedom over your own body”, so kill that child in your body before it has a chance to breathe on its own. But then why are we concerned that people should live healthy lives? Or why do we try to discourage them from using drugs and wasting their lives? And when they want to commit suicide—which means consenting to your own death, and executing yourself, because you just want to be yourself and people won’t let you—we tell them no please call us on this hotline and we’ll talk about it first. And when they call we tell them “don’t do it!” Aren’t they entitled to do whatever they want with their live and just “be themselves”? Aren’t they being themselves? Maybe not existing anymore is better for them than existing miserably? They’re not “hurting” others right? And finally, God thinks it’s wrong only if you hurt others. But if God cares about not hurting others, how could He not care about you hurting yourself. Contradictions abound!

Back to the earliest line that’s supposed to dismiss even this kind of essay: “What you believe in private shouldn’t be shared in public!” So moral convictions should not be brought in to the public discussions about how society is shaped. Morality shouldn’t be a major factor in politics and social re-programming. But think about that statement; a self-contradictory statement: It is itself a private belief being shared publicly, in the attempt to discourage the public sharing of private beliefs, by private individuals. You might as well say “my opinion matters and not yours. My word is truth and not yours.”  

Secular teachings can get us into deep deep trouble. It cannot provide a coherent set of answers to life and society’s moral dilemmas.  You’ll have to amend the principles every time a situation changes.

One time at the crowded bus stop at Waigani a man had a carpenter’s saw sticking out of his back pack, bare and ready to slice an unaware commuter. I asked the man kindly to be careful about his saw as it may cut the others when we all rushed for a bus. His arrogant answer was “wari blong ol!” He couldn’t care less if someone got hurt by his equipment. But you wonder how his response would be if he was another commuter who did get hurt by the saw sticking out of someone else’s back pack. He would probably retaliate in anger at the person’s carelessness. He would have amended his “wari blo ol!” principle. In fact he would have completely about-faced on it.

And that’s what the secular world tells us: to amend every time the situation or some other variable (e.g. popular belief) changes.

Sure we can be "good", do "good" things and generally not do anything considered "evil" in this world. Even in a god-less state of mind. But if we push our self-induced morality to its ends, we'd likely find a whole heap of contradictions, and ultimate a weak foundation. Like houses built on sand instead of on rock.

And oh how we try to redefine God according to our preferences. Maybe He cares about this and not that. Maybe He thinks this way and not that. As if His nature is dependent on our beliefs. Like if I believed strong enough a stone will turn to bread. Some things can't be altered no matter what or how strongly we believe. Same for truth. We don't like it so we change its very definition, making it malleable.  We want "truth" that's amenable and subjective and relative...and of course convenient. But that isn't truth. Truth (a translation of reality into information), isn't dependent on our beliefs. It can't be changed. 

Ray Boltz, a Christian musician responsible for some of Christendom’s most popular songs such as “I Pledge Allegiance” and “Thank You (For giving to the Lord)”, came out publicly declaring that he was gay. Then he said, “If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I'm going to live." So he divorced his wife and pursued his homosexual practice. But did God really “make” him that way? Does God want Him to stay that way? He seems to have amended God’s character without God’s consent, only to suit his sexual proclivities. It would have been better if he said clearly that “there is no God”.

The question "Is there a God?" can only be answered "yes" or "no". We can't ever say "it depends!" Yet the most intelligent people and nations in the world would say "it depends". If yes, does He give us our moral code? Did He write them in the deepest crevices of our souls that we can know it without knowing Him? If no He doesn’t exist, then no problem. Everything is permissible. And anything that is not permissible must be explained to be not permissible. If it depends, then morality is just a matter of “it depends”. It depends on anything: feelings, gains, science, security, happiness, selfishness, pleasure, pain, etc. etc. etc. 

A moral code keeps people from freedoms they think they must have to be happy. Renowned atheist Aldous Huxley said it himself, betraying that the true reason for people like him rejecting a God-ordained morality is their selfish lusts. “We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom.” (in Ends and Means).

That kind of world, Papua New Guinea, can get as confusing as confusion can get. Yet it seems to be what the world wants. As a nation we would do well to steer clear of it.

Heavenise day!

Ganjiki

Akwinamak

Akwinamak

27/02/13

This day o'er two decades ago

While I was just learning to talk

Looking softly and tenderly

The infinite God He spoke 

"I shall make for this son a helper

A companion, his steady staff

A pillar of strength

His prime care giver"

And so she arrived

To tend with me this garden

Bred in central modesty

Guided by His Majesty

She waltzed into my vision

With a brethren's acute description

"Talk to the hand" said she

First attempt, oh poor me!

But love and curiosity grew

So much so that she consented

To hear me pledge allegiance

"Forsaking all others" I commented

This bride, me she dazzled

This man of many words 

I am left baffled

That God would give me this masterpiece

Carved by Mercy

She forgives my faults

Seasoned by truth

She affirms belief

Endowed with strength 

Steadies a shaky pace

Gives pause for wisdom's embrace

With drops of compassion

She points to vital burden

With wings of peace

She steadies my storm 

Her way of love

Never lets me starve

As St. Paul said before

She is my glory, my pride and more 

That Maker His mercy knows no end

His love it knows no limit

His faithfulness I can't comprehend

Amazing grace I do understand 

And I trust you see it too

All because He gave me you...

(c) Ganjiki D Wayne

27/02/13

AND THEN? AND THEN?

AND THEN? AND THEN?

By GDW 

They say they'd look into it

And so we waited...

And crossed our feet

That crook who was a politician

Those missing millions

Those laws broken

Those lives that sank

Those jaws broken

By cops who were smoking

That plane that came crashing

Those ladies who were raped

By what couldn't have been apes

Those ladies burnt

By villagers vigilante

Those aliens that take our bread

Those fugitives who bought citizenships

From crooked selfish Ministerships

They said they'd investigate

They set up an inquiry shop

Then they enquired

They tasked the force to sweep

Sweep em clean

Block a sewer leak

They commissioned the Ombudsman

To go get em

Put em in jail

So they went to get em

And we waited

For thieves to be caught

For money to be brought

Back from dirty hands

To restore cheaply sold lands

For that reckless shipman

To pay for dead family man

For those stoned murderers

Of suspected sorcerers

They said they'd catch them

That justice would be served

They'd put them in jail

But alas

The justice league it failed

Still we stand and watch

And cry time and again

To them we cry

“And then? And then?....”

© Tokaut Tokstret

On Police Brutality and Police Theft

By Ganjiki

Multiple reports surface every week of some rogue police activity in our country. Accidental driver gets shot in the foot.  Arbitrary "confiscation" and consumption of informal vendors' property. Theft of wallets and personal property. Receiving "fines" for made-up traffic offences (such as driving too slow in a car park). Private armed escort for politicians, foreign businessmen, and corrupt bureaucrats. And of course the regular brutal beatings (and sometimes slaying) of innocent citizens and surrendered crime suspects. It seems endless what abuses our "law-enforcers-slash-disciplined-force" can cook up. More than half of all of the Solicitor General's defence of claims against the State are police brutality claims.

These are men and women (just keeping feminists and gender equality people happy) who seem to have lost all moral restraint. There's a vacuum in their mindset and conscience. They lack the ability to put themselves in the shoes of their prey. They have no concern for their own and their victims' dignity. Nor for the respectability and the integrity of the office and uniform they occupy. Nor loyalty to their Commissioner (who only last week spoke strongly against such rogue behaviour), the Constabulary, or the Nation. They have no fear of God. No regard for their code of ethics. How they sleep at night I don't know. I suspect they drink themselves to sleep; to shut out the voices of conviction that keep ringing in those heads.

They got into the Uniform for all the wrong reasons (it's just bread and butter). These are toddlers in adult bodies. Worse, the State (WE THE PEOPLE) clothed these toddlers with the vicarious authority to pull-up any vehicle or person simply by waving their colours and displaying their arms. And WE THE PEOPLE agreed to subject ourselves to their authority. We get more than we bargained for.

Toddlers. Babies. Whose world revolve around "ME". They cry for milk, you must give. They hunger, you feed. They thirst, you give water. They hurt, you comfort. They freeze, you warm. They soil their diapers, you must clean them up. They cry, you soothe. They take, you give. That is the nature of infants. Despite adult bodies we lack the emotional intelligence to subject ourselves to codes that should provide restraint. We are a nation of toddlers. And a lot of them wear blue and carry not-toy guns. (A hundred or so sit in Parliament accusing each other of wetting their diapers.)

The problem isn't the training (or lack of) that they get, or a lack of understanding of the law and human rights. That's a scratch above the surface. The real lack is the loss of moral consciousness. And so the real challenge is to "refill" those gaps. The crimes committed are completely identifiable as crimes (theft, assault, unlawful use of firearm, murder), and as blatant evil deeds. Any sane person should be able to tell that the unlawful use of his authority to steal wallets and personal effects is an immoral deed; an attack on basic human decency; even an undermining of his own human dignity as the perpetrator. But it takes a person of exceptional moral strength to resist committing those crimes.

These are men and women who have lost that moral strength. And many involved in talking about social correction wouldn't want the work that's needed to restore such a loss. We'd rather not go that deep. We'd rather a social correction (a fleeting band-aid solution). Or a legal one (guess who will enforce!). Or an academic one (with never-ending papers and opinions). Or a training one (where we try to squeeze a lifetime of lessons into 6 months!). Or a governmental one (where we assume the Minister can flick his fingers for a solution).

We agree that wrong is wrong. It's mostly our solutions to those wrongs that take diverging paths. Maybe they're frustrated with the meagre pay they get. Perhaps coupled with the pressures of life they're driven to such measures for survival? It's understandable. Is it? Lack of training perhaps? Lack of knowledge of human rights? Ever noticed how our behaviour is little affected by what we know? Ignorance of the law? Whatever reason we give, we'll have to settle that ultimately it's the loss of moral strength in these people's souls that gives them no pause against such crimes. And if there is to be any proper solution, it must begin at the core of their moral beliefs. We need to restrore that moral strenght. Everything else will be band-aid.

I know good cops. But for every good cop I know there's probably 50 not-so-good cops. We live in a nation where the sight of an armed policeman or a police land-cruiser with tinted-windows strikes more fear in an ordinary citizen than a lonely drive into a crime-prone suburb. Recall that crawl up your spine as you approach a tinted cop-car? The source of terror is reversed. No longer is it the local "terrorist". It's the law enforcers who are supposed to catch that "terrorist". Drivers don't trust police road checks anymore. Victims of crime dismiss the thought of contacting police as they contemplate how vain such an effort would be. Reports to the internal complaints unit might as well be lottery tickets for a zillion kina.

No. A restoration of proper morals is needed. But there are problems with a moral-restoration approach. It's hard work. And post-modern philosophy would disagree. Post-modern philosophies that subscribe to an amoral universe would say that we should just fix society and these people will adjust with society. But to fix society you have to fix these people. A catch-22. We would have to take the discussion all the way back to the nature of morality and who would give such guidance. And there lies our problem. I could suggest get the Church to counsel these cops. But then the debate will turn to the delusional question of separation of church and State. And of course people would argue that the Church has obviously failed because these cops probably attend church every week and have gotten nowhere. So let's leave it at bandaid level.

So you would suggest get the shrinks and mental disorder experts to counsel them. Bring in the social scientists. Impose the name tags. Name and shame. Step up police discipline. Extend training. Informing human rights. Up their pay. Dock their pay. Demote. Transfer. Recruit smarter people. Remove silly people. Take away the guns. Give them Tramontinas. Take away the vehicles. Give them Landcruisers. Install CCTV everywhere. Bring the Aussies. Bring the Fijians. Send our people to Aussieland. Send them to Fiji. Send them to Iraq. Send them to college. Send them home. Don't send them at all.

Band-aids.

The best solution is usually the hardest.

Ganjiki

Saving Themselves More than Serving Us

By GANJIKI D WAYNE

A caveat: this is a very general statement. Not every expat is in this boat.

It's possible that people from developed nations (like Australia), who work in developing countries like ours are here because it gives them some sense of meaning and significance. Especially those who serve in the public and charity/community service arena.

Their countries seem to have nothing left to offer them in terms of fulfilling, meaningful, make-a-difference jobs. Because they've generally got it all already. And when you have it all it's easy to become disillusioned and bored with life. Even if they make so much money it cannot satisfy the need to be appreciated for really making the world a better place. The world in their nations is already as "better" as "better" can be.

You'll have a clue about the famine in gratified lives by seeing the massive charity-industry that goes on in developed nations. A TV commercial break is dominated with ads by charity organizations trying to convince people to donate and make a difference. It seems like they have to do some charity if they are to truly live fulfilled lives (and I have no problems with that).

Maybe calling their world "developed" is not such a good thing. Not mentioning their sets of problems, the term possibly gives them a sense of having "arrived". And there seems nothing left to do. Except maintain the status quo. Who was it that said "The only other direction left to take once you've reached the top, is down"? So you just have to maintain. And maintaining can get pretty boring.

Unlike us they don't have as many bridges to build or roads to construct. Nor Aid posts and health centres. Nor airstrips. Nor water supply or electrify or sanitary needs. Half the population probably doesn't care what happens in government because their lives are sufficient. They (though not all) only occasionally respond to highly controversial matters. Life is good there it seems.

I even heard an expatriate say it in front of me. "Being in PNG gives me a sense of significance." I thought "how sad!" And he was a very successful partner in a business in his home country. Before he came to PNG he spent some time in another foreign country where he felt a significant "loss of status" because no one knew him and no one seemed to appreciate him.

We all long for a meaningful life. And we pursue it in different ways. Many think to be professionally successful will satisfy them. I heard of a wealthy man once saying "If I knew that even at this place I'd be this empty, I wouldn't have walked this path." And here we are trying to reach the rich-and-famous status when everywhere around there's evidence that it's really a very empty place. Perhaps at the top there's nothing there.

Maybe that vacuum in people's hearts is filled somewhat when they come and "serve" in our country. If so then maybe it's countries like PNG that's actually saving people from developed nations who are sliding into depression because what they do there doesn't really count anymore. Maybe they carry themselves around with such importance here because back home they're not important anymore. Someone has replaced them. Or they've outjobbed themselves. Or the fruits just don't bear anymore. And their governments must send them to countries like ours otherwise they'll have a depressed workforce at home.

Being in countries like ours is possibly a lifesaver. They might say they like being here because it's a great country. But maybe they're just here because it makes them feel great.

Of course as I said not all expatriates are here because of this reason. But those who are fall in possibly two categories. First those who recognize that reality and will admit it (like my expatriate acquaintance). Secondly those who don't recognize it and might deny it. They haven't really asked themselves yet why they're here.

Anyway if that's the reason you're here in PNG then on behalf of my forever-developing but very meaningful nation: "You're welcome!".

And for us at home. Let's be grateful that we do have a long way to go.

Heavenise day!

GDW

What is time?

What is time?
Mere measure of the length of each our stays
In our brackets in eternity
The length of each our songs
playing at different tempos
To different melodies
With different lyrics
The clock has fooled us
Time doesn't restart, won't refresh
It doesn't do laps, but marathons and sprints
These few minutes of my song,
In which I pen these words,
I'll never recover...ever
My song has no pause, no fast forward
Worse still, no rewind
It started, and soon it will end
Alas I shall find, there's no replay
I find us celebrating a mere progress of our song
If time was not made easier to tell
By clocks and calendars
Would we notice its progress?
Would we give reflection
And make resolutions?
What is time?
But mere reminder of our mortality
The tester of our values
Revealer of vulnerabilities
Screamer of our delays
Permitter of our growth and decay
The salt of our longings and nostalgias
We wade through our song
Oblivious to time's ultimate closure
What is time?
A seeker of the end
Its own end
Our song's end...

Ganjiki D Wayne
1/1/13




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