Despite what we read in certain tabloids, most of our communities usually do a good job of being a nice neighbourhood. Things do get dealt with, given time, and where there are people or places in real need help does arrive from one place or another. We have charities addressing all kinds of local social ills, hospitals with an increasingly patient focused ethos, schools, benefit payments and all kinds of other means by which things really do hold together.

In another part of your neighbourhood

I can say this with absolute certainty. These people are in your neighbourhood, you just need to open your eyes and understand that the boundaries of your neighbourhood are not geographic but moral. Our duty to be a good neighbour is summed up in the simple words of Moses “you shall love your neighbour as yourself” ^{Lev 19:18}.

Jesus explained it, much later, in answer to question. Someone asked him “who is my neighour?”. In response, a story was told ^{Luke 10:29-37}, and like all good stories it has a moral behind it.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.
Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’

The question Jesus asked in order to illustrate the moral of the story was: “Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbour to the man who fell among the robbers?”. The man answered him “The one who showed him mercy.” Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

We can all learn a lot from this, today especially. Our modern societies are increasingly divided and subdivided; not only do we have very little awareness of those some distance away, but we often don’t know those who live just a few paces from our door. We may never look outside our class, club and profession – whole communities can live in the same town with almost no interaction.

Everyone here on Earth today is your neighbour, and my neighbour; and the entire globe is our common neighbourhood. Remember what St. Paul writes: “Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor.” ^{1 Cor 10:24} — let’s try to improve parts of our global neighbourhood that don’t directly improve our own quality of life or property value.

Comments welcome

Let’s ask a searching question about EU membership by comparing two past applicants. One of them was accepted, the other was not.

	Applicant A	Applicant B
Distance to Maastricht treaty member	19km	210km
Inflation rate	2.32%	7.71%
Unemployment rate	2.1%	3.6%
Median age	24.7	37.3
Population density	71	93.1
Free market reform since	1976	1989
Democracy since	1956	1989
Religious freedom since	1912	1960
Colour of people	???	???

Which would you have chosen, given those statistics? Naturally, B, the one with rampant inflation, an aging population, high unemployment, relative overcrowding and which is a long way from any core EU country?

Foreground: Spain (EU); Background: Morocco (denied membership)

What does that really mean? To me, that is pure racial discrimination. Remember that Turkey and large parts of southern Spain have far closer cultural ties with Morocco than they have with Germany.

Is there a real reason other than disguised racism for denying Morocco entry whilst allowing Serbia, Romania and Turkey?

Could it really be that the racist leaders of EU member states are unwilling to allow Moroccans to benefit from the EU purely because they are not white? Could the EU which is happy to admit people from so many states really not want to allow this country with mostly non-white people in it to gain the freedom to live, move and work in EU member states?

Do you agree and feel that the EU is institutionally racist? Have I got the wrong end of the stick?

Comments particularly welcome!

At least now when the joke election comes the world will have this latest abuse fresh in its mind. Whether the Junta believe that they have silenced the opposition through this I do not know, but I am certain that nobody outside Burma will give them any credit whatsoever when the joke democracy comes to pass.

Aung San Suu Kyi

Now, let us hope that the situation does not erupt into violence but instead that the cry of the people will be heard by God who will certainly repay them for their loss and bring those responsible to justice in this world or the next.

Let us all pray that all those who flee the repressive conditions in Burma are given a chance to make a new life outside of the country by the nations to which they escape. It is bad enough to be abused and persecuted in your own country, but to then have the same treatment where you flee for refuge is truly terrible.

Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor
will himself call out and not be answered.
(Proverbs 21:13)