God, AIDS, Africa & HOPE

Reflections / Gedanken

06/29/2012 • 11:08 am 1

The burden of travelling

Most people like traveling and I have to admit, most times I also like traveling too. The airport controls can be unnerving – but having no cell and no internet for a couple of hours is relaxing – well it seems that it is all coming back into the cabin of new airplanes. Traveling brings you in touch with other traditions and cultures, simply with other realities which might sometimes be strange, sometimes funny, but always good to know. And here the burden starts: Who at home to share the new knowledge and experience with? How to implement it into daily life? Does really anybody in the closer vicinity wants to know how things have changed for you? Does it really fit into the settings you are living in? And when it comes to my church – it is even worse as the word “relativism” is very quick used to bring downfall to different perspectives and their approaches. How much do I wish sometimes that all people could share in the diversity of the world and yes, how relative the way is, we are living in our small little world and that there as so many alternatives which have the same value than our solutions and habits..  Sometimes it is a burden to think broad and diverse…

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

06/06/2012 • 11:57 am Comments Off on Osnabrueck

Osnabrueck

Time is flying and the weekend sees me flying again, first to Osnabrueck attending the “Afrika-Festival” – giving a talk in the evening about my work and experience in South Africa and then the next morning visiting of the diocesan schools to discuss matters with the students and teachers. Then to Hamburg to board the AMADEA for a 14 days cruise. The last time, which was the first time I did the chaplain-to-sea-duty, I realised how important it is to engage with those on board of such huge ships and to bridge many times the living realities of those being the guests and those who are visited in different countries. What an eye opener for some to realise that the way, Germans live in Germany is not the standard – and that the reality seen on TV behind protective glass is so much different when we see, touch, smell it.
So all my travel is about bridging the gap – trying to bring worlds apart together – and at the same time reflecting on my own inner conflict between the two worlds or even more I am living in and have to deal with every day. All living in those world have the obligation to make themselves understandable to others and what could be a more suitable vehicle for that than the church as an international and truly world-wide organisation with the feet so often on the ground through the people working in the fields. And how much chance is given away in the Eurocentric and autocratic way the church is run – additional being so Rome and pope centered that so many voices might never be heard in their life time. We need to have the “German dialogue” expanded in a much bigger fashion if we want to have a future as real brothers and sisters.

Filed under: General, HOPE Cape Town Trust, Networking, Reflection, Society and living environment, Uncategorized, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

10/17/2010 • 10:13 pm Comments Off on 17.10.2010 Travel..

17.10.2010 Travel..

To travel is not easy in our days, and the amount of data given to the travel agent and finally to the airline is much more than one can bargain for. The same applies when one wants to transfer some money from one country into another. Amounts of questions why, to whom, where….. and so on.

An orgy of data collection again and again – it seems that government and institutions which should serve the people rather have decided to rule the people. Sometimes there comes the glimmer of an idea that we are indeed running into an Orwell’s imagination and that we have to take care, that our civil rights, the freedom generations fought for, are not sacrificed on the altar of fear, even state organised fear to justify the control over every individual.

Great Britain is surely an example for observation a la paranoia – in London, one cannot move without being followed by a camera. It is amazing that the context of some men in the mountains of Pakistan are the pretext to scale back freedom of movement and much more. It becomes indeed scary.

All this also contributes to keep the world as it is – to justify that those on the sunny side of life make sure it stays like this while others will never have a chance in life. It denies people at the end human rights, it condemns countries to stay on the not so splendid site of life. It is a welcome reason for keeping people in poverty and dependency and darkness, where all the shiny words of political meetings and summits taste as shallow as they are.

In our global world everything is interconnected – one only never has time to think carefully about it.

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

10/14/2010 • 3:33 pm Comments Off on 14.10.2010 Days flying…

14.10.2010 Days flying…

This week, time is flying because days are somehow booked out and between morning and evening lies one meeting after the other. I sometimes wonder how much one can take on different faces, different approaches, different worries, different joys until one mixes all up and is oneself mixed up – somehow..

But there is also success: the new HOPE Cape Town feature is done and on the way to Dresden – at the HOPE Gala in Dresden the feature will meet for the first time an interested audience.  HOPE Cape Town management meeting is gone and many issues solved, discussed, put onto the right track. The re-structuring of the organization to be more professional in its efforts to combine grass root and research is on the right path to realisation. My trip to Europe becomes more and more a detailed one with lots of interesting meetings and presentations, and in between two galas, one in Dresden (HOPE Gala Dresden) and one in Berlin (AIDS Gala Berlin). I will meet old friends and hopefully new future supporters of HOPE Cape Town. The expectations are always high and time will tell whether I am able to match my own ones..  🙂

And a big birthday celebration is in waiting: Brother Joachim – Joachim Franz – is turning 50 years in November and I am looking forward to a great evening full of laughter and joy. And at the same time some serious discussion for the World AIDS Awareness Campaign 2011 – beginning in April next year. A real challenge, watch the space. This block will report on every detail of this indeed challenging campaign.

This week saw also discussions about the future of CAN, the Catholic AIDS Network of the Archdiocese of Cape Town as well as the  future of POZ, the initiative of pastoral care for priests and religious living with the virus… Nothing is easy, nothing is set in stone, all developing and obviously at the end should stand nothing more than a meaningful service for fellow men.

Filed under: HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Society and living environment, , , , , , , , ,

09/30/2010 • 1:00 pm Comments Off on 30.09.2010 Diversity

30.09.2010 Diversity

Diversity has always driven my life, and also this week it is not different:

The death of Fr Roland continues to give reason for many talks about life and death, but also normal life is going on: The new HOPE Cape Town feature is ready now for post production and tomorrow I will sit with the chairperson to see the footage and to decide on the “red line” for the feature.
Premier Seehofer from Bavaria together with Premier Zille and Mayor Plato plus a delegation met in Kalksteenfontain to hear from NGO’s connected with Bavaria what they are doing here in the Western Cape. It was an interesting gathering and it is always also good for the NGO’s to see that they have neighbours they could relate too. But I guess it is also important for the politicians to see what is happening on the ground.And it is good to see the partnership between the Western Cape and Bavaria so lively; it is good to meet the same people again and again to  know that we are indeed on the same page in developing this partnership.

Senior staff meeting, a preparation meeting for a farewell next week, dinner with friends and a meeting with the Archbishop of Cape Town – never a dull moment and all is important – but I guess the most important part is really the meeting of hearts and minds, the exchange of ideas and the openness for a frank discussion, where everybody is listening to everybody. This human aspect of a business meeting becomes for me more and more important, because it is the base for good cooperation and a successful development in whatever stands on the agenda.

Next week will see me again in Johannesburg for 1,5 days and then directly afterward to Durban for the same amount of time. And then it is not far before I am leaving for Europe again with lots of meetings and talks – my last big travel for this year. Such travel needs lots of preparation, not only logistic but also the contents of what I want to bring over to my audiences and meeting partners must be well prepared.  3/4 of the year is gone – I am looking forward to the rest of the year and I know I will meet exciting people, new ideas and enough food for thoughts for the years to come.

Filed under: General, HIV and AIDS, HOPE Cape Town Association & Trust, Networking, Politics and Society, Reflection, , , , , , , ,

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