God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

03/14/2010 • 9:56 pm 1

14.3.2010 Thailand or never peace?

Once again politics in Thailand brings the country on the brink to chaos, this time the so-called “red shirts” on the streets of Bangkok trying to bring down the government. Sometimes I wonder about a lot of things: About how people perceive their political view as the only valid once. About how people think their doing is so important for the development of this world. About how people perceive the  state of affairs as static. People murder for their political views, people die for their country, politicians negotiate in a way one could think the nation has exist since the beginning of the world.

I advise to go somewhere in the desert or in the bush where there is no artificial light and have a look at night at the stars, at the milky way and all its unlimited extensions… And then feel how small and tiny we are… A bit more being humble would help in most situations.

I also think that by the way when I observe religious leaders and gurus – how they insist to know the truth and only the truth. People of the cloth have killed for their conviction in the past, wars have been ignited by religious views, so-called witches burned, Jews hunted, crusaders send en mass to Jerusalem.

I advise to go somewhere in the desert or in the bush where there is no artificial light and have a look at night at the stars… and you suddenly realise how little you know about this world and its existence and where we are coming from and going to. We believe, but there are so many things we still have to learn about the meaning of life – even the holiest man is still far away from knowing it all. If he is wise, he knows that he doesn’t know – and he is humble. We need a lot of wise men in our days..

All this reflection does not prevent from preparing for the week. After 2 weeks with limited internet I spent this Sunday in answering emails and preparing for the coming week. A Bavarian delegation is arriving and visiting HOPE Cape Town, the Austrian TV wants to have an interview, there are several meetings with representatives of the health sector of the province and much more. Hope there is time to live in between.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

02/24/2010 • 12:28 am Comments Off on 24.02.2010 A crazy laptop and HCHW training

24.02.2010 A crazy laptop and HCHW training

It is always a delight when a laptop is starting to refuse working – especially when one is short before going on travel and there is a need to have this instrument of work with in the luggage. Well, lets hope that the technicians can find the mistake before leaving – at least there is a place in Cape Town where one can bring his computer for repair..

This morning a chat with all Hope Community Health worker of HOPE Cape Town – once in a while it is indeed necessary to bring some basics back into the mindset of the people. They are good and most really try very hard to perform as required. Sometimes I forget, that most of them never had a regular job before being employed by HOPE Cape Town – so lots of basic education is also needed besides all the HIV and TB training. Amongst others there is also computer training as most clinics start to work with computers and most libraries in the different township communities have computers and internet. We are thrilled to work together with the Bavarian Staatskanzlei, InWent and the Missionsaerztliche Institut in Würzburg / Germany on E-learning which means to get all the input also in digital form, so that at an ideal scenario, people can log themselves into the program from their own computer or the available computer and learn by themselves – still in a controlled way.  Digital revolution also in our sector, slowly but surely.

I reminded our HOPE Community Health Workers this morning that besides a decent salary the training and education is the most beneficial asset for them – it is not for no reasons, that most of our HOPE Community Health Workers who left us were offered good positions within the respective clinics because they were very well-trained.
I guess that this is one of the most problematic topics in South Africa, the lack of proper education. Lets face it: Bringing the previous disadvantage into good positions with BEE is a great idea, but without the proper training it can develop into a nightmare. South Africa has surely taken a big share on these nightmares. Proper education takes time, and that is unfortunately something, politics lacks in this point. People wanted to see an immediate change after the first free elections in 1994. One consequence of the lack of time is surely that the quality of training and education has suffered. And when one listens to people in the educational sector, one hears again and again that the qualification levels have been lowered to accommodate the quota.

I believe that we at HOPE Cape Town have a good mix of people from different backgrounds and as long as I was part of the interviewing process, skin color never played a role. Attitude and the will to learn and achieve something in life, an open mind and a good heart is what brings people to the point, where they can climb the career ladder.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , ,

02/22/2010 • 11:43 pm Comments Off on 22.02.2010 a new week

22.02.2010 a new week

A new week – and new challenges are ahead. The day starts with a meeting with one of the trustees of the HOPE Cape Town Trust and it is all about CSR and CSI and the involvement of HOPE Cape Town in tenders. Very complicated for a simple priest, but somehow also exciting how in South Africa commerce and social responsibility are going hand in hand.

Thereafter senior staff meeting at Tygerberg Hospital. It is amazing how much is needed to be discusses at such a meeting -28 employees means a lot of challenges and organising such an organisation means lots of fine tuning and consideration.

Afterwards meeting with a new diplomat from the German Embassy in Pretoria in preparation of the visit of an official delegation from Germany in March. Good to know that politicians have interest to hear about our struggles and small victories, about the situation in the health sector of South Africa.

In the evening then a meeting with two friends, both actors and it is good to talk about literature, art and culture and all the also important things in life, which is much more than work, eat and sleep.

A full day – the gaps filled with the usual attempt to empty the email box (without success) – and as I have a final look into my diary it seems there will be no dull moment. Good so.

Filed under: HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , ,

02/20/2010 • 10:17 pm Comments Off on 20.02.2010 Time is flying

20.02.2010 Time is flying

Saturday again – time is indeed flying and who says, that time is passing quicker when one gets older: that is correct. The time, I have felt in the earlier time for days, are now easy covering a months.
Yesterday I had my first meeting with the new Archbishop of Cape Town and we discussed some matters, amongst others the initiative of pastoral work for HIV positive priests and religious in our church. I hope to see in the next three weeks the chairperson of the Southern African Bishops Conference on this issue to move forward and to be able to report back in May, when I am in Rome.
HOPE Cape Town needed this week also some attention, sometimes there are times of multiple decision-making processes at the same time which binds all energies and needs lots of focus. At the same time I had to finalize the first planing of my next travels, which will bring me to Gauteng end of the month for two weeks, then in May to Italy and Germany and in July to Austria and Germany. In between a short break in SE Asia.

And when I thought that I don’t have to work during Holy week and on Easter – since Thursday I know that I will be busy and helping out on all those holy days. That will be the first time to celebrate all these mysteries in English; well as long as I don’t have to sing in English, I will survive. 🙂

It was a busy week and today I digged me into reading the white paper of renewal energy of the Western Cape to get a grip also on this topic. All the acronyms are a bit strange to me, but the material itself is not that difficult as I thought. Tomorrow then 2 church services which I will now prepare.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Reflection, , , , , , , , , , , ,

02/13/2010 • 10:45 pm 1

13.02.2010 Haiti…

4 weeks are gone in Haiti – and seeing some video clips and photos I am not sure we really understand what is going on there and how desperate people must feel having lost everything. All modern technology could not help to prevent this disaster and the first attempts of help, coordinated by the US has been – I almost would have said naturally – with lots of enthusiasm but also the typical sense of “we know it all”.  Haiti was a broken state and nature has proven to be able to add to the misery. I am not sure how so-called industrialised countries can coop with such a natural force, but hurricane “Katharina” has shown that they do not better, even worse as the expectations of the people are much higher.

Sometimes I ask myself how much compassion a person can show in our times or when the constant flood of misery through TV news, online news etc simply provokes a stop of such feelings because people are exhausted or getting used to it. I guess the same is to ask when one lives in a developing country and sees poverty and tragedy every day. It is in a certain sense true that one gets used to a situation – and when I go with visitors into a township, then I see rather the improvements since my last visit (if there are any) than the poverty. And it needs the art of a sort of balance of different feelings, being touched, but also accepting certain conditions for the time being as not changeable by oneself.

After almost 13 years South Africa, I am still sitting in the evenings after a day “out there” and reflect how I would feel living in a shack or without work or without mony depending on other people’s handout. I tell myself that this thoughts are useless because obviously alone the way I think is surely different as I would have thought if I would have been in that situation since birth. Sounds philosophically? Yes, I believe so, but in simple words: My realties would be a totally different ones grown up under different circumstances.

Nevertheless, alone that I am reflecting shows me, that I have not lost the sense of compassion and a sense that there is in front of my doorstep lots of injustice. I know that having founded HOPE Cape Town together with others helps people, but often I wish I could do so much more in less time. And then creeps in the feeling of being powerless.  Well, then there is only one thing to do: to believe my own sermons telling that nobody is powerless and that we are all called to change and better the world.  🙂

Filed under: General, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , ,

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