the dj paine show ::: blog and podcast

the boys

November 9, 2008 // Comments

6th november 2008 - scary times with drummond & galvin from djp on Vimeo.

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Congrats Barack Obama {patriotism}

November 6, 2008 // Comments

some people thought that because of my last post that i was “pro mccain” - again let me just state: i am incredibly NON political, and i’m australian! i strongly believe all politicians are liars and will say anything to please people. a USA election only holds fascination for me because i loved the west wing tv show!
on a spiritual level i do believe strongly that as a christian politics are something that i should be aware of/ educated about but not overly concerned with. i know Who really is in control.
so, as far as i go in such matters, i am happy for Barack Obama and the american people who voted for him. i was moved by the Big Picture’s coverage on him - some amazing pictures!
but i get very bewildered by super Patriotism. no matter if it’s here in Australia, over in the USA, in Germany, China, South Africa, wherever, that flag waving fervour just get’s me a little worried. i mean, i am proud to be an Australian, i love this country and wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. but i get suspicious of people who have to australian flags all over them to feel as if they have some sort of “identity”… and americans are the kings of such super patriotism, but they mix it all in with some weird version of christianity and it’s just plan scary to me.

so… anyway… all the best to Barack, i hope he really digs into the true faith in this job. i hope he does well. i just hope he doesn’t start believing his own hype and i hope the american people settle down and realise he is just a man, by all accounts a very smart dude and someone who should be able to do the job well…. but he’s not the saviour and he’s not the antichrist. he’s just a president. who gives a flying fig about the amount and type of melanin he has. it does not matter. it’s all about the job he does. after all being a politician is just a job. a dirty dirty job that usually only insane power crazy people might want….

here’s to the future, we’ll see what happens.

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voting in the USA {obama v mccain}

November 4, 2008 // Comments

i am not a political type person…. but i am interested in the results of the election in the USA today. it seems the americans have a choice of two christians:
a} seriously insane old, war loving, white dude who actually has a sense of humour and a lifetime of experience, and would look and feel right at home in Dr Stranglove.
b} seriously super intelligent middle aged black dude, who is just crazy for killing babies, has very little experience, and obviously believes his own righteous hype.

or as i keep it in the shorthand of my mind: that crazy funny old guy or that unfunny uber nerd….

wow…. this is the best that you can spew forth america?

coming from someone on the other side of the planet, who has no vested interest… coming at it purely as someone who wants some good laughs, i’m sorta rooting for the underdog, the insane old dude. at least he makes me laugh. can you imagine how earnest and contrite it will become with brainiac at the helm?

i miss President Jed Bartlett…

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HOW to RESPOND to POVERTY. part two.

October 15, 2008 // Comments

today is Blog Action Day 2008, and this year the theme is POVERTY…. and so here is my story in two parts:
part one is my working for World Vision as a display coordinator. part two is the amazing “co-incidence” of receiving the first letter from Xolo our sponsor child on the 15th of October 2008: the very date of “Blog Action Day 2008: Poverty”.

part two: the positive.

as i already mentioned in my last post, we signed up to sponsor a child thru world vision australia. we did what is called a special request, we asked for a boy the same age as our oldest son Drummond, give or take a month and we also wanted him to be from South Africa {my wife Benita is South African coloured}. so after a few weeks we got XOLO in the mail….

you can see a bigger version of that here
it isn’t the world’s greatest picture of XOLO, it’s a janky pixelated washed out picture of an unhappy looking little guy, as a photographer i long to go over and take pics of a lot of the kids i see come through our displays… anyway inside the XOLO’s picture folder it has his stats:

you can see a bigger, readable version of his stats here

So we have had little XOLO’s picture folder in the kitchen with us, Drummond has been learning all about him and has gotten with the programme straight away, he has been putting aside part of his pocket money for XOLO and he even get’s a mention every now and then in Drum’s bedtime prayers.

We’ve been meaning to write to him, have the boys draw him a picture, take a picture, etc etc, but things have been busy over the last month.

Today on the 15th October, it is the actual day of Blog Action Day on Poverty, so this morning i was thinking about whether i will blog anything about the subject… and then in today’s mail there is a cool looking envelope:

my mind was seriously on everything else under the sun and i had no idea who could be sending us a letter from SA, it must be Benita’s relatives or something… and then we opened it and was knocked out that it was a letter from our sponsor child XOLO!

Well XOLO is about to turn 5 so it’s not written by him of course, it’s actually written by one of the WV co-ordinators there in SA, the hand writing is a little tricky, but we now know that he lives with his 72 year old grandma who has bad eyesight. he lives in a little village with a well that is about 20km’s from the closest town, XOLO’s mum is away in Durban looking for work, no mention of XOLO’s father.

talk about timing, God has a great sense of comedic timing. on the actual day i receive the letter from my sponsor child. classic. so of course that has moved me to write today. and come to the conclusion of what i think we should do about poverty…
HOW DO WE RESPOND TO POVERTY?
by doing something!
something tangible, personal, and ongoing. and the most common sense thing i can see to do is make a difference in one child’s life.
it costs about $1.50 a day.
$10 a week.
you blow more than $10 a week on crappy take away food, coffees and drinks that are killing you. i don’t care who you are, you can afford $10 a week to save the life of a child.

if you want to save a child’s life with your spare change please contact me. i can help you make it happen today. don’t just blog links to resources or read the thousands of blogs out there posting about the problem, and though it’s helpful i think just giving a one time donation is not as powerful as actually connecting with an actual child in need personally.
do something. sponsor a child. i’d love to help you make that happen. there is nothing in it for me, i get no commissions, i get no gold stars, i get nothing out of it other than joy of making it happen.