I was reading a really interesting article today by Jeffrey Sachs, an economist I admire. His article talks about the need to recognise the positive work of governments in combating poverty in our world. He suggests it is too easy to get disheartened by the negative news in our world. He states that, “The point [...]

Today I came across a heap of challenging quotes whilst doing some preparation (sorry all my followers on Twitter & Facebook). The two that followed on nicely from yesterday’s post were: “I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have [...]

Paris Hilton was in Melbourne today and it made the evening new bulletin. The comment from the newsreader was “the person who is famous for being famous.” People who were out in Chapel street to catch a glimpse of Paris out shopping were interviewed. One, in response to the question “Why do you like Paris [...]

We all have perceptions, good or bad, about the world around us. If you ask a non-sports fan their perception of cricket fans they would probably say old and boring, just like the game. If you asked the same person their perception of ‘soccer’ fans, they would probably answer hooligan. The Age had an interesting [...]

The postmodern world is littered with contradictions and people are happy to hold two conflicting views at the same time. This idea is called cognitive dissonance and I promise this will be my last post on a big word for a little while. A classic example of cognitive dissonance is the idea that a smoker [...]

I thought today, after a long break, I would tackle the idea of constructivism. Constructivism is a theory of how people learn and construct meaning. I think it is an important aspect for us to understand because it conceptualises how we learn new ideas and concepts. The basic tenet of constructivism is that when we [...]

Yet another huge topic, but one that I think is a bit easier to explore in 300 words. I think the standard definition of poverty as a lack of material wealth is one of the grossest understatements of all time. One of the best explorations of poverty that I have come across is Bryant Myers’ [...]

Faith is another of these huge subjects and today I want to focus specifically on two aspects of faith. 1) Faith is a belief beyond all evidence. Faith cannot be compelled upon anybody, either by explanation, witnessing a miracle, scientific argument or any other means. If you can ‘prove’ to someone that God exists or [...]

Discipleship is a key framework through which I understand both my spiritual journey and that of those around me. Discipleship in a Christian sense means being a follower of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was a Jewish guy who’s birthday we celebrate in a week and a bits time (who knows why its the 25th of [...]

Firstly, when I said I would add blogging to my daily routine I meant weekdays. I thought that I would resume my blogging journey by looking at some of the building blocks of the framework that shapes my world view. The first one I want to touch on is Community Development. Community Development at its [...]