Micah Challenge Australia Blog

 

The Micah Challenge blog is a space for discussion and debate about the issues of global poverty, faith, advocacy and justice and the Millennium Development Goals. This blog aims to provoke thought and challenge you to learn more about the issues discussed. We welcome your comments.

Micah Challenge is a global campaign of Christians speaking out against poverty and injustice. Click here to visit the Micah Challenge website.

  • Our daily bread

    Posted by Amanda

    12 December, 2011

    There was a good reason food was mentioned in the Lord’s Prayer – give us this day our daily bread - we do need to regularly remember that food is a blessing from God, to be appreciated. But our gratitude is being swamped by our wastefulness – too often we take food for granted. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in a recent report estimates that 1.3 billion tones of food is wasted every year – a staggering 33% of all food produced! My country of residence, the UK, throws away 8.3 million tonnes of food every year. That means the average family throws away over £50 (AU$76) a month in wasted food. It’s the same in the EU, the US, Australia and other countries where food has a strict Use-By date and where access to cheap food means we prepare too much and throw too much away. Food is also wasted in developing countries but for different reasons: things like poor packing and storage facilities and inadequate infrastructure. But Western economies remain the champions of food waste. The FAO Report stated, “We... read more

    Comment on this post

  • Who are the 'Joneses'?

    Posted by Micah Challenge

    29 November, 2011

    Like so many of our friends and neighbours, we sometimes find ourselves comparing our lives to those of others. And most often, we look at those who make more and have more than we do. As the old adage says, we look to “the Joneses.” But who are the Joneses really? Consider this: If you make $43,500 a year, you’re in the top 12% of earners in the world.That’s right. The world. So maybe we should turn this whole Jones thing around. 88% of the world is comparing itself to you … and me. WE are “the Joneses” to 88% of people on this planet. And yet, where do we most often look for comparison? The other 11%! I’m not saying we should compare at all. We shouldn’t. Life is about much more than material things. But, just for a moment, let’s entertain this thought of keeping up with the proverbial family. •If you make more than $2 a day, you are the Joneses to 1.2 billion people. •If you have a warm bed to sleep in at night, you are the Joneses to the billions who are sleeping on... read more

    Comment on this post

  • Hope for Creation

    Posted by Micah Challenge

    2 November, 2011

    By Cath James, Environmental Project Officer at Justice & International Mission Recently I read that The Bureau of Meteorology recorded some of the highest temperatures on record for September. I was shocked. Not because it surprised me, but because I realised I had stopped thinking about the fact that our world is still warming and this will have all sorts of consequences for how we live our lives. I can’t cope with bad news all the time, none of us can. It is only natural that we develop some form of coping mechanism to deal with such a huge threat as climate change. Some people choose to discount the risk or choose to be sceptical, others go into denial. At times this has been my response. Sometimes I stop reading newspaper articles that will tell me about another report with further scientific evidence of human induced climate change, or about the impact on people in the Pacific who are struggling to grow food because their croplands are now salty with increased flooding and kingtides. Instead I have found myself thinking, ‘Surely if it... read more

    Comment on this post

  • Child of the 80s

    Posted by Elissa

    25 October, 2011

    I’ll admit it: I’m a child of the 80s. I’ve got fond memories of Expo 88, and I can still sing the theme songs of She-Ra, Inspector Gadget, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Smurfs. Punky Brewster was my hero. I owned a hypercolour t-shirt, and I wore it tucked into my “happy pants”—think everything you’ve ever seen of MC Hammer, but on a five-year-old. It’s funny how the 80s legacy lives on, for better or worse. I got more than a little bit excited when Cold Chisel announced their comeback tour this year, and I’ll always have be fascinated by Rubik’s Cubes. And it seems my mum was right when she told me that fashions always go in cycles—although I just can’t bring myself to embrace high-waisted jeans a second time. But it’s not just clothes that seem to have cycled around again. One of the defining characteristics of the 80s was the “greed is good” mantra that infiltrated consumer psyches across the Western world. It’s no coincidence that one of the most... read more

    Comment on this post

Page 1 of 6
1  2  3  4  5 
Archived Blog entries