El futuro del cristianismo está en la base, en las comunidades y no en en la jerarquía, no en Roma

La Virgen de de Guadalupe como una joven mujer chicana, segura de sí misma.

Un graffiti de la Virgen de Guadalupe como la Estatua de la Libertad. Como vemos la nueva iconografía de la Virgen de Guadalupe forma parte de un creciente movimiento de revitalización del cristianismo en Estados Unidos, y cada vez más en México y el resto del mundo. Y este nuevo imaginario es creado por la gente, por los y las fieles, y no por la jerarquía eclesial. El poder está cambiando de manos. Es la aparición de una nueva democracia religiosa en acción, una a la cual la burocracia eclesial no está preparada para enfrentar. O quizá como dice el viejo dicho romano, vox populi vox dei.

Brett McCracken tiene un gran blog espiritual que se llama muy apropiadamente The Search. Y anda analizando a esa tribu extraña que son los cristianos hipster, cool, medio alternativos y punks. Después de leer su descripción creo que mucha se me aplica a mí, para bien o para mal, jeje. No lo niego, me encanta el misticismo de las misas en latín, pero odio la jerarquía eclesial, amo las kermesses de la parroquía a la iba de niño (la francesa, en Polanco) y su sentido comunitario, pero odio la arrogancia de los sacerdotes con las familias que tienen padres divorciados o miembros que no son heterosexuales. Sí, lo sé, algo esquizofrénico mi espiritualidad, pero bueno, me gustan los extremos parece ser. Como que el promedio de las cosas me da flojera. Copio de su blog:

Well, first of all: it’s just a funny label, and we all know that hipsters hate labels. So if you are still reading this post, eager to know what it all means, chances are you are not a Christian hipster. Or maybe you are, and you’re just intrigued by the whole thing (like I am!). In any case, the following is an excerpt from the last chapter I completed (Ch. 5: “Christian Hipsters Today”), and perhaps it will give you a bit of a better sense as to what Christian hipsters are all about…

Christian Hipster Likes and Dislikes (By No Means Exhaustive… Just a Sampling)

Things they don’t like:

Christian hipsters don’t like megachurches, altar calls, and door-to-door evangelism. They don’t really like John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart or youth pastors who talk too much about Braveheart. In general, they tend not to like Mel Gibson and have come to really dislike The Passion for being overly bloody and maybe a little sadistic....

Things they like:

Christian hipsters like music, movies, and books that are well-respected by their respective artistic communities—Christian or not. They love books like Resident Aliens by Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger by Ron Sider, God’s Politics by Jim Wallis, and The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis. They tend to be fans of any number of the following authors: Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, Wendell Berry, Thomas Merton, John Howard Yoder, Walter Brueggemann, N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, Eugene Peterson, Anne Lamott, C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Henri Nouwen, Soren Kierkegaard, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robison, Chuck Klosterman, David Sedaris, or anything ancient and/or philosophically important.

Christian hipsters love thinking and acting Catholic, even if they are thoroughly Protestant... A lot of them love skateboarding and surfing, and many of them play in bands. They tend to get jobs working for churches, parachurch organizations, non-profits, or the government. They are, on the whole, a little more sincere and idealistic than their secular hipster counterparts.

La hipocresía japonesa sobre la caza "científica" de ballenas es revelada por dos activistas de Greenpeace que son arrestados sin cargos

Dos activistas japoneses de Greenpeace presentan pruebas en Tokio de que la supuesta pesca científica de ballenas es solo una forma disfrazada de cazar ballenas de forma comercial. Y en lugar de que la justicia castigue a los responsables, mete a los activistas en custodia por más de 20 días sin levantar cargos. Si esta es la forma en que trabaje la justicia en Japón, tengan cuidado cuando vayan... Una protesta mundial para liberar a los dos jóvenes activistas demostró la hipócrita forma en que el gobierno japonés encubre a la flota ballenera, y como la justicia nipona prefiere detener a inocentes que pedir cuentas a quienes diezman los océanos.

Los activistas pro Tibet trabajan contra su causa

Ya había criticado antes al Dalai Lama, ya que quizá será un santo, pero es un pésimo político, ya que entre otra cosas, no puede ni controlar a sus propias adherentes. Y sucedió lo que ya se veía menor: en Londres, en el recorrido de la llama olímpica, un grupo de activistas pro Tibet intentó apagar la misma llama. ¿Qué acaso no entienden que la llama olímpica no es suya, sino de la humanidad entera? Que vayan y protesten contra la embajada china, pero que dejen a la llama olímpica en paz, que los Juegos es de lo poco bueno que nos queda como especie. Solo se están ganando la antipatía de millones. Fueron arrestados al menos 30 activistas. Los tarugos hasta llevaban extintores!

Me recuerdan a López Obrador, que en aras de la "justicia", va y amuela la vida de la Ciudad de México con su plantón. ¿Por qué las buenas conciencias, los bañados en pureza se creen con el derecho de decidir por los demás? Y no me refiero solo a los activistas pro Tibet o a AMLO, sino también a los "iluminados" de la derecha.

Pero bueno, estos pro tibetanos no le hacen ningún bien a la causa del Dalai, y sí le ayudan al gobierno chino en su labor de argumentar mayor seguridad y vigilancia en los juegos. Que así sea, porque para que quiere uno amigos, cuando estos se portan como enemigos...

Día Mundial del Agua: Unicef y el Tap Water Project

Unicef ha reinventado la filantropía. Primero con sus legendarias postales, ahora con el Tap Water Project:

"On World Water Day, March 22, 2007, hundreds of restaurants in New York City invited customers to donate just $1 for the tap water they usually enjoy for free. All the money raised through the Tap Project helps UNICEF save lives by providing safe drinking water to children around the world. Thanks to every restaurant, customer, donor, and organization who contributed to the Tap Project and helped make the first year a success! The Tap Project will be in cities across the country in March 2008."

Unicef ganó en un solo día, en 2007, cien mil dólares, con un costo de inversión para Unicef de cero. La filantropía reinventada. Un ejemplo como el capitalismo, bien pensado, puede funcionar bien para todos. En 2009 se planea que el proyecto crezca a nivel global. Más información en:

www.tapproject.org

Jóvenes cubanos usan internet de forma secreta para luchar por su democracia

Un muy interesante artículo que aparece hoy en el NYT muestra que a pesar de medio siglo de dictadura, la libertad aún respira en Cuba:

Cyber-Rebels in Cuba Defy State’s Limits

Jose Goitia for The New York Times

At an e-mail center in Havana, customers work under an employee’s watchful eye. Old Havana has only one true Internet cafe, down from three a few years ago.

By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

Published: March 6, 2008

HAVANA — A growing underground network of young people armed with computer memory sticks, digital cameras and clandestine Internet hookups has been mounting some challenges to the Cuban government in recent months, spreading news that the official state media try to suppress.

Jose Goitia for The New York Times

Yoani Sánchez at her home in Havana, where she writes a blog about daily life that gently critiques Cuba’s government.

Last month, students at a prestigious computer science university videotaped an ugly confrontation they had with Ricardo Alarcón, the president of the National Assembly.

Mr. Alarcón seemed flummoxed when students grilled him on why they could not travel abroad, stay at hotels, earn better wages or use search engines like Google. The video spread like wildfire through Havana, passed from person to person, and seriously damaged Mr. Alarcón’s reputation in some circles.

Something similar happened in late January when officials tried to impose a tax on the tips and wages of employees of foreign companies. Workers erupted in jeers and shouts when told about the new tax, a moment caught on a cellphone camera and passed along by memory sticks.

“It passes from flash drive to flash drive,” said Ariel, 33, a computer programmer, who, like almost everyone else interviewed for this article, asked that his last name not be used for fear of political persecution. “This is going to get out of the government’s hands because the technology is moving so rapidly.”

Cuban officials have long limited the public’s access to the Internet and digital videos, tearing down unauthorized satellite dishes and keeping down the number of Internet cafes open to Cubans. Only one Internet cafe remains open in Old Havana, down from three a few years ago.

Hidden in a small room in the depths of the Capitol building, the state-owned cafe charges a third of the average Cuban’s monthly salary — about $5 — to use a computer for an hour. The other two former Internet cafes in central Havana have been converted into “postal services” that let Cubans send e-mail messages over a closed network on the island with no links to the Internet.

“It’s a sort of telegraph service,” said one young man, shrugging as he waited in line to use the computers at a former Internet cafe on O’Reilly Street.

Yet the government’s attempts to control access are increasingly ineffective. Young people here say there is a thriving black market giving thousands of people an underground connection to the world outside the Communist country.

Premio a los peores productos del 2007

Consumers International, la principal organización de defensa de los consumidores a nivel mundial, presentó en su congreso internacional los premios a los peores productos del año.

¿Puede una película cambiar al mundo?

Los organizadores del Día de Pangea creen que quizá sí. Si sabes usar una cámara, y tienes una historia de esperanza que quieres compartir sobre tu mundo con el mundo probablemente debas participar.

Lo que comes es lo que impactas al medio ambiente

¿Qué tiene ver lo que comes con el cambio climático global? Mucho, afirma una creciente coalición entre grupos ambientalistas y por los derechos de los animales, que hoy perfila el New York Times en su sección de negocios. Y parecen tener argumentos. Un estudio reciente de la FAO (Organización de Naciones Unidas para la Alimentación y la Agricultura) encontró que la industria agroalimentaria que cria y procesa animales produce más gases invernadero que la industria de transportes. La Human Society de Estados Unidos afirma en un anuncio (que puse arriba) que el reducir el consumo de carne, huevo y productos lacteos (especialmente en países ricos) en la dieta personal es la mayor forma de reducir la emisión de este tipo de gases a la atmósfera.



PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) es un poco más atrevida y reta a Al Gore a apoyar el activismo a favor del vegetarianismo. En muchos temas no coincido con PETA (¿porqué no usar piel de animales que no están en peligro de extinción? Muchas comunidades indígenas andinas viven de vender abrigos de vicuña por ejemplo) pero creo llevar una vida no tan carnivoca no sólo es buena para la salud, sino para la Tierra.

WiserEarth: cambio social desde internet

Paul Hawken, es de esas personas que logra sintetizar lo que 10 años sucederá. La actual ola de negocios ambientalmente responsables, ya la veía él hace 15 años, por lo que fue uno de mis héroes intelectuales desde la universidad. Ahora ha sacado un nuevo libro y debido a él ha producido un increíble websitel: WiserEarth. Lo entrevista AlterNet, y así lo introduce: "Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From multimillion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise a movement that has no name, no leader, no location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up.

Hawken's new book, Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming, explores the diversity of the movement, its ideas, strategies and hidden history."

Y afirma Paul Hawken: I estimate today that there are between one and two million organizations in the world that are addressing social justice and the environment, human rights and ecological restoration. It's not only the largest movement in the world, it is so large compared to any other thing that exists or has existed, that there is really no second place. And I think the reason we don't see it as a movement is because it is so different from anything we've seen before. We see movements as ideological, as starting in some center and spreading out from that place, as having leaders that we look to for inspiration, and who then manage and guide.

At the same time, most movements have wanted to amalgamate power to themselves in some form or another. They've looked at concentrations of power and said, "We want some." But this movement is very different. It's not ideological, it's based on ideas. Ideologies constrain and dictate what you can and cannot do.

Terrence McNally: Right, they choose a certain set of ideas and declare, "This is us," and outside is outside.

Paul Hawken: For instance, there's Catholic theology, but then there's also liberation theology, and "woops - oh no, you've stepped out of bounds," and the Vatican's going to come down on you. Well, that's an ideology. You call it religion, but it's an ideology.

This movement is about ideas, and ideas open and liberate, they evolve. When ideas don't work, you throw them away and try new ones. No one's the worse for it, or the better for it, and no one's attached to it, because it's about process. It's about making things work, as opposed to holding on to something as a belief.

The intention of this movement is to disperse the pathological concentrations of power. That doesn't mean that it wants to take power for itself, and so it's seen as powerless. It's not powerless at all: It takes a great amount of courage and fierceness and dedication. To me this is the most powerful movement in the world - not in terms of gunships and fighters and helicopters, but in the sense of people's hearts and their stamina and endurance..."

¿Cómo facilitar toda esta sinergia? Paul Hawken ideó WiserEarth, un website/portal para hacer más inteligente a este movimiento sin nombre que está trabajando por un cambio social en todo el mundo, sea en medio ambiente, derechos humanos, paz, género, salud.... Continúa la entrevista:

Terrence McNally: What do you hope that this book can accomplish by pointing it out or naming it?

Paul Hawken: We've created a website - wiserearth.org - that allows organizations and people to enlist. It's a wiki, a relational database.

On the site, you can start to see this movement yourself. You can use the tools there - or create your own - to connect and to collaborate with people all over the world. In a sense, what we're trying to do is create an information commons for this movement. It isn't really owned by anybody. There are no ads; we are not benefiting from it. Wiserearth.org is a nonprofit, and you're as welcome as anyone else to become an editor and co-create it with the community itself. That's one of the goals.

A second goal of the book is to explore the history. It's so interesting to see how deep this movement goes. It's not really new, though it's growing very rapidly. The book tells its deep and honorable and ancient history.

The third goal is to hold a mirror up to the movement itself and say, "See."....

Visiten WiserEarth.