Sell-out?

Of course it is, no doubt at all. That’s exactly what it is.

Security treaty to include Papua clause.

The Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, says Australia would be happy to recognise Indonesia’s sovereignty over Papua in a planned security treaty.

Indonesia is pushing for a formal declaration from Australia that it rejects Papuan claims for independence.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda says Australia and Indonesia had been discussing a new security pact that would replace one torn up amid the bloody turmoil of East Timor seven years ago, and formalise ties that had been steadily warming before the impasse.

The new pact has been expected to guarantee Australia will not interfere in Indonesian affairs, a move aimed at reassuring Indonesia that Australia will not support provincial independence movements…

Personal updates

1) Lord Malcolm is out of hospital after a bit over forty days this time; we’re meeting at Chinese Whispers later today.

2) M has set off for two weeks in Central Australia.

A good book on the Good Book

Much less combative than Bishop Spong, and more up-to-date in its philosophy of textuality, is Marcus J. Borg, Reading the Bible Again for the First Time: Taking the Bible Seriously But Not Literally (2001). There’s an excerpt at that link.

The key word in the title of this book–Reading the Bible Again for the First Time–is “again.” It points to my central claim. Over the past century an older way of reading the Bible has ceased to be persuasive for millions of people, and thus one of the most imperative needs in our time is a way of reading the Bible anew.

Reading and seeing go together. On the one hand, what we read can affect how we see. On the other hand, and more important for my immediate purpose, how we see affects how we read. What we bring to our reading of a text or document affects how we read it. All of us, whether we use reading glasses or not, read through lenses.

Positive moves welcome

Look, I know it isn’t the whole answer, but one must welcome this progressive move by St Andrews Cathedral school principal Phillip Heath, even if he is still calling himself a “headmaster”.

A college of dreams

ONE of Australia’s oldest private schools plans to establish a school for Aborigines to try to raise education standards among indigenous children.

The school will be built in Redfern or Waterloo, with assistance and guidance from St Andrew’s Cathedral School.

The curriculum will be designed for Aborigines but the co-educational school, which could begin operating as early as the start of the 2007 school year, will be open to all students.