The Back in Times

This week, 3,000 pathfinders are gathered at Stevninghus in Denmark for the TED Camporee. I have been given the responsibility of editing the camp newspaper, “The Back in Times”. It’s a big task, but also a lot of fun. You can read the first issue online, if you’re interested.

Value-Added Politics

I read a lot of news. Often my reaction is a somewhat muted sense of “gee, that’s interesting”. Reports of tragedies around the world gain my sympathy, sure (the situation in Israel/Lebanon certainly needs our prayers, but it is obvious that there’s no easy solution).

But it is not quite as common that a news development really frustrates me. When that happens, it is usually because a person or entity in power chooses to do something that I believe to be a very wrong and backwards choice. Such a thing happened today.

President Bush has vetoed a bill to commit government funding to embryonic stem-cell research, claiming that it crosses a ‘moral boundary’ (Read CNN). This may potentially result in thousands of deaths which might be avoided given the right research into curing diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Several years ago, Congress itself had limited the federal funding, but this time around the bill passed in both chambers, with a substantial number of Republicans supporting it as well. Of course, in some ‘moral’ issues it is wise to tread carefully, but this is an area where the potential benefits are just too great to ignore any longer.

This is the president’s first veto, ever. Which is ironic, since hasn’t vetoed a single of the many costly bills passed until now, nor has he done anything to increase funding in order to pay for them. Recently, Professor Laurence Kotlikoff has argued that the US is on the verge of bankruptcy.

It is a good thing to have a goal. And it is good to have values. But for a politician, a sense of reality is also crucial. Bush gets a lot of criticism for his handling of the Middle East situation, some justified, some not. People might think that when this is arguably going so bad, it’s because he’s focusing on running the country, and that he’s doing a good job with that. Neither is the case.

One Year of Blogging

Today marks the first anniversary of this blog. This calls for revisiting what has been an interesting experience.

At the time I wasn’t sure exactly how it would turn out, as I guess is the case for most bloggers. The General Conference Session in St. Louis got me started writing, and this being my 51st post it comes to an average of nearly one per week.

No two blogs are the same. My style is probably not as personal as some; I don’t write about every little that happens in my life. It’s more like having my own column (since no magazines have offered me a real one). Focusing on, but not confined to, issues related to faith and the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

It’s not fun unless there’s someone to read it. And I have been positively surprised by the width of readership and the good comments posted by people from different parts of the world. Interacting with the blogosphere and getting to know people from many obscure places has been great. So to anyone out there reading: thanks so much for dropping by—your feedback is much appreciated.

Blogging is all the rage—you as a blog reader will, of course, agree. No one knows if the phenomenon in its current form will even survive this decade. But even then, something else will replace it. This is the early stage of a new way of communicating and interacting in a globalized world, and it’s fascinating to be a part of.

May we live in interesting times.