I was listening to Nova (96.9) last Friday where Merrick & Rosso interviewed the now Australian of the year, Tim Flannery. Tim is a global warming activist and got quiet heated himself when talking about the way governments act irresponsibly refusing to take ownership when it comes to pollution and other environmental issues.

Towards the end of the interview Merrick said something that has played on my mind since. He said he wonders if the people who choose to ignore environmental issues will become the criminals of the future. In 20, 30, 40 years those of us who continue to act recklessly will one day be held responsible for our actions. Think Merrick might be onto something here…I wonder…could I be a criminal of the future

“update + whats been going on + why isnt any one around”

This was the subject line of an email I received recently. It was a rather long email attempting to explain why my then web hosting company had been offline, silent and un-contactable for the past 2 months. Yes two months.

Having accepted another annual hosting payment from me, and I imagine many others, the hosting company seemed to disappear from the face of the earth, well Australia anyway, with servers offline and helpdesk email and phones unattended. After two weeks of trying to speak with someone, anyone, I received an email from a third party support person who had permission to view helpdesk calls, but had no access to fix anything on the system. I was told that the owner hadn’t been heard from for at least a further two weeks and I was encouraged to check out this third part support persons own hosting company – sounded like a sales pitch. But at least he made the effort to let me know something.

So – I moved on. I called my bank and started the process of trying to redeem my money, I found another hosting company, who to date have been very good, and I began trying to restore data from old backups.

This whole situation got me thinking. One of the dangers of blogging and using a hosting company is that my data, public and private, is now sitting on a server hard drive somewhere. I have no idea whether the data is retrievable or not. I have no control over what happens to the hard drive it is stored on. What if the server is still working and sold onto another company? What if it is dismantled and sold of for parts? Some pimple faced teenager buys the hard now has my personal information!

I guess I’m not so much upset with the fact that this company went out of business – it happens. And I’m really not that upset that they took my money. What really upsets me is that they took my trust and threw it away. I trusted this company with my information and they really have not given me anything in return. One email of explanation in over three months. One email and then more silence.

So who is this hosting company that broke my trust, yes I am going to tell you – only because a warning needs to go out to other would-be customers, a warning that this company may not be a wise and trustworthy choice.
The infamous company – Host Web Live (Perth, Australia) - http://www.hostweblive.com.au/

Finally! The site is back up again….so what happened?
In short – LOTS.
The last post I made to this blog was back in October 2006. One day I may share some of the reasons why I stopped blogging at that time – but not yet. For those who are observant you will have noticed that the last blog entry is dated august 10th 2006. This is because the web hosting company that I was dealing with has had lots of problems over the past year (more on that later) and managed to loose mine and I assume a lot of other people’s data from their Perth server(s). So August to October is gone and sadly that contained the blogs that covered our mission’s trip to Tonga. I managed to get the other blogs when I found a backup I had done in august. The lesson here is make sure you always backup on a regular basis – something I always stress to my students –but obviously don’t put into practice.

Phil over at Signposts has made some interesting comments about the ongoing Israeli/ Lebanon conflict. In referring to the article “The new war in the Middle East” by Jim Rice (editor of sojourners), Phil shares how he finds the whole thing too hard and is paralyzed by the complexity of the beast.

The article and Phil’s comments are definitely worth a read (free article registration). While the essential message is one of peace and the Christians role peacemaker, I really like Jim’s practical application at the end of the article.

What can be done?

1. Be consistent in denouncing the violence of both sides - especially when it is deliberately aimed at civilians (or targets where great civilian “collateral damage” will be the result).
2. Pray for the emergence of new political leadership on both sides - both of which seem bereft of creative, courageous, moral, or even pragmatic leadership.
3. Challenge any religious voices that seem utterly one-sided, completely neglecting the suffering and legitimate grievances of both sides.
4. Pray for new ways for Christians and our churches to join our Jewish and Muslim brothers and sisters in finding real and practical solutions for a just peace in the Middle East where two states can live with security and democracy.
5. And pray for better solutions than endless war to solve the real threats of terrorism in our world, because if we fail, all of our children will be at risk.

Think about it for a minute. I’m sure each of us can come up with a name of somebody affected by the conflict in Lebanon. Even if we don’t know of someone firsthand, we probably know someone who knows someone.

One of my students was planning to fly home to Lebanon with her husband and two boys today. Obviously this won’t happen given the current climate. After sending a text message (SMS) to see if they were safe, she responded with mixed emotion. Joy over being safe from the bombs that are ripping apart southern cities, Sadness over extended family innocently trapped in a conflict they didn’t ask for. In her words, “It’s so sad, Lebanon is getting destroyed and we can’t do anything…”

Maybe we can – do something…

Maybe I can make a difference to this situation. Maybe I can talk about peace while others around me talk up war. Maybe I can emphasize the areas of agreement, rather than focus on the differences. Maybe I can become an advocate of peace in this and other situations. Maybe I can pray for peace to the King of peace.

God, bring your peace, the peace that surpasses all other peace into this situation. I pray this for the glory of your name and for the sake of the innocent. Amen.

‘I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, “George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.” And I did, and then God would tell me, “George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq …” And I did. And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, “Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East.” And by God I’m gonna do it.’”

orginal post at jordoncooper.com
link to orginal article