Today I was called a “misinformed redneck” when I stated that I disagree with some aspects of the Occupy movement. It was in the comments to the following photo:

My friend commented:

The point of this picture is that we who have two cars, a roof over our heads, free health care, food in the fridge, flat screen tv’s, computers, ipads etc. are a privelaged elite. We are in the top 3% of the world in terms of wealth. I’m not interested in listening to people complain about a mortgage when they’ve never gone hungry a day in their life or never had to choose which child to feed today. The citizens of the US and Canada are not entitled to a stress-free life.

My response to the photo was:

In the horn of Africa they are expecting about 750,000 to have died from the famine there by the end of the year. I seriously feel like slapping those guys down at Occupy Calgary and telling them to wake up!

After a bit more discussion on the topic one of the other commenters decided that I am a “Misinformed Redneck”. While the redneck part is quite possibly correct, I got a little irate at the full implication. Here was my response…

One of the things that the occupy people was proud of what that they don’t have solutions, but they know there is “something wrong”. They include people from the Arian Nations, to the Communists, (source) to everyone in between. I’ve some people say that if you support some of what they stand for, then you should stand with them! That’s rubbish.

I don’t disagree that something is wrong. Corporate influence in the Canadian government is too strong and unfortunately, even though I voted for them and would again, the current government is increasing the amount of influence private corporations have in government with the removal of public financing for parties based on number of votes. I was originally in favour of this move as it decreases government spending, but it allows greater influence of outside donors, and they are never bias, whether it’s the unions or it’s corporations. This was a bad move. (source)

I think that the occupy movement, as it has developed, is going about it the wrong. In the US it’s being co-opted by the democrats and Obama is doing his best to turn them into his foot soldiers. Obama is in bed with the corporations and will say anything he needs to in order to get re-elected, but he won’t change anything. This supposed “jobs bill” is a farce! If read in it’s entirety the majority of it has little to do with jobs for the people and will, as usual, benefit Obama’s major donors (source).

As for solutions for Africa…

How about we change our spending habits? In 2010 Christmas related spending in the US was $584.3 billion (source)! That is more than the GDP of 197 of the worlds countries (source). US AID to the Horn of Africa for 2011 is $650 million (source), or about 0.1% of the Christmas spending, can we see how messed up priorities are there?

In our household we are talking about where we want to donate money to this year for Christmas rather than spending it all on ourselves. Our kids are looking forward to it and our 9-year old son talks about it quite a bit. If people decided to make the choice to put their money where their mouth was it could make a big difference in the world, and to people like those starving in Africa…

When a Passion Becomes a Job

Recently I’ve actually started to do some paid freelance writing in the areas of social media, web-site development and marketing. These are areas that I am quite active in with my full-time volunteer role in Youth With A Mission. They are things that I am passionate about because I can see how they can be used to communicate what God is doing in and through the mission, and how people can get involved.

Writing about it though is hard…

Most times when I sit down to write it feels like I have permanent writers block. Articulating things in written form has never been something I’m strong at (just ask any of my high-school English teachers). I remember when I went to do a communication school in YWAM in 1999 one of my students laughed at the thought of me doing “communication” ministry.

Writing for this blog is relatively easy compared to the freelance writing that I do (even though I am approaching the 2-hour mark for this article). A lot of what I write about is similar, but getting the motivation for the freelance writing is much more difficult than for my own sites. I can still get it done, but it certainly takes a lot more effort do it…

Why is it harder?

When I write for this site I try to write from the heart, usually about something that I’ve been thinking about or mulling over for a while. Often it’s something I’m passionate about, like my using what you know in missions series and personal finance in missions, or topics that have come up in my YWAM work, like how to connect with potential missionaries. Sometimes, like this article, it has to do with experiences that are going on in my personal life.

Of course, my struggle to do paid writing could also be a sign of my own lack of maturity! Nah, that can’t be it…

How about you?

Are you motivated by passion or by external rewards?

How do you respond to external motivation?

This guy makes a good point about why the original Occupy Wall Street started and what the original people were protesting.

The fact that no one was prosecuted for the bank failures (in fact most bank CEOs got huge bonuses from the bailout money) and that both political parties are in the pockets of the banks and corporations (Ron Paul being one of the few exceptions) should frustrate Americans. There needs to be changes to the system (bring back Glass-Steagall so that a bank is a bank, not an investment engine?), but very little has changed, which again should frustrate Americans.

Since the protests started though they are looking much more left wing (socialist) in their leaning. They have been co-opted from their original intent and looks like the socialist uprisings we saw in the US in the early and mid 1940s. All we need is to see the unions start to strike and it could dramatically change the direction the government is taking in the US. (listen to this episode of the hardcore history show to hear more about “the Red Scare”).

Occupy Canada

Given that Canada has largely avoided the financial and banking crisis that is hitting the US though I am a bit confused about the Occupy Calgary protests that are happening today. Alberta has an unemployment rate of only 5.4% and plenty of opportunity.

Photo by freestylee