More than 100 uncontacted tribes

It's an amazing thought, in this internet century, that there are still uncontacted peoples on the face of the earth.

Just this week, a flight from the National Indian Foundation in Brazil photographed warriors living in six huts deep in the jungle by the border of Peru. Never before seen or photographed, they represent a first sight of one of the over 100 tribes still uncontacted by the rest of the world, most of them in Brazil and Peru.

May we tread carefully as we reach them. May they find the love of God and not the greed of man.

Coffee with Ahmed and Ali the Iranians

Another day, another coffee.

I first came across the Iranian freedom movement when I met an Iranian businessman in London, whose wife had been buried alive by the current regime. How can I not respond to that?

This week I had coffee with Ahmed and Ali (names changed). Ahmed had returned to Iran with his wife a few years back in order to try and help the country in any way they could. One day Ahmed’s wife was returning from school where she was a teacher. She saw a disturbance and went over to look. At that moment the police arrived and arrested everybody, including Ahmed’s wife.

It took him three months to get permission to see her. By the time he did, she had lost half her body weight and her face was blue from bruising. They were torturing her, as one of the ‘educated elite’, so despised by the authorities. They were trying to get her to admit to crimes she had not committed. She refused to do so. Ahmed’s father and mother-in-law tried to bribe the authorities in order to secure release. This seemed to have worked as after about six months, Ahmed got a call to ask him to collect his wife.

He was kept waiting in the prison reception a long time and was eventually shown in to a room. There were dead bodies across the floor. All had been executed. He had been contacted in order to collect his wife’s body.

Ahmed is now in the West, working for freedom in Iran. My money may help a little. I trust my prayers will help more.

Pancakes in Paris

I had a job interview in Paris this week and went over early to walk around, enjoying coffee and crepes in the sunshine, by the side of the Seine.

I also visited Notre Dame. It was full of tourists of course, all very noisy, but as I sat in the church and prayed, there was a real sense of God’s presence. Even though the school children around me were so loud, it was as if there was a silence you could listen to as well.

The Bible talks about God speaking with a still small voice.

We live in a noisy world, one full of pictures and images. But God still speaks for ‘those that have ears to hear’ (one of Jesus favourite sayings).

Coffee with Fred the Buddhist

I had a coffee with Fred the Buddhist this week. He was very helpful.

I call him Fred the Buddhist, though I’m not sure he’d agree. But he believes a lot of that stuff, reads the books and is going to see the Dalai Lama in a couple of weeks, so I think I can legitimately call him that.

Fred works in the pensions industry and has a tremendous number of connections- very useful to me at the moment when I’m looking for a new job.

He sent me a book not long ago, applying Buddhist teaching to the stresses and strains of the workplace. It was very good, a lot of good ideas and stress busters in there.

The problem is, I can’t do it- follow what the book says, I mean. I could try. I might manage one or two of the recommendations, but I’m doomed to failure. You see, that’s the difference between Buddhism and Christianity. Buddhism says you can do it. Christianity says you can’t.

For example, I might be able to slim for a while, go out running every morning, practice some good life disciplines. But in the end, because it depends on me, I will fail. Unlike any other ‘religion’, Christianity starts from the point of failure. I’ve done things my own way and it didn’t work. So I ask God through Jesus to forgive me and my efforts and to take over. Then I can succeed!

I look forward to many more cups of coffee with Fred the Buddhist. And maybe I should send him a book or two to read…..

Dear Gordon

Dear Gordon

I don't quite know how you have managed to do this, but in a few short months you appear to have made the Labour Party unelectable. I'm not sure it's any one thing- maybe a lack of style, lots of hesitation, a few gaffes such as the 10p tax rate....

I've been a labour supporter (with a few years over at the SDP) throughout my life but maybe- just maybe- I'm going to have to vote Tory next time. I don't think the Tories are being particularly clever though, other than keeping quiet and watching you fall lower in the ratings.

If you want to win the next election- a bit of a long shot after having seen the local election results- you will need a far more commanding manner in parliament and with the press. Iraq aside, I think your inability to lead is showing how good Tony Blair was- and maybe we now know why he hesitated so long in handing over the reins.

Yours sincerely......