HOPE

Iam reading Peter Singer’s book at the moment.  It reinforces for me the conviction that we must live mindful of the hungry, the disposessed and future generations. With God gone and no one to ask us to give an account of ourselves our own inner truth has to motivate us to break out of our comfortable cocoon and reach out beyond the gates of our privledged lives to engage with those less lucky in life’s lottery.

The 1960’s experiment in which participants in an experiment continued to inflict what they thought were increasing electric shocks to ‘learners’ who made mistakes even up to lethal levels has been repeated with similar findings. It seems 60% of us would inflict shocks capable of injuring or even killing a person if we were told to do so by and authority figure who reinforced that is what we must do, what we had agreed to do, what we were paid to do. Blind obedience is not dead. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/opinion/29mon3.html?em

Since the book has been published I have been in email contact with Kieran Tapsell who has translated from Spanish the story of Hector Abad’s father, a Columbian doctor and Professor of medicine who was killed as a ‘communist’ for wanting to bring safe water to the favelas of Medellin and practice preventative medicine.

“I have shielded away from…all allegiances that could make me think not as an individual but as a group and to decide things not through personal reflection and assessment but from the weakness that comes from wanting to be part of a pack or a herd.”

El olvido que Seremous,  Hector Abad Faciolince (trans. Kieran Tapsell )

I will be appearing at the Perth Writers Festival, part of the Perth International Arts Festival taking place in the Western Australian capital from 13 February to 8 March.

The events in which I will participate have not yet been finalised: see www.perthfestival.com.au/perthwritersfestival/listing/hope_endures for details.

All Perth Writers Festival events are listed in the full program and on the website, released Wed 28 Jan.

Colette Livermore

The beautiful East Gosford Regional Art Gallery was filled with in excess of 200 visitors for the launch of local doctor, Colette Livermore’s book, Hope Endures published in Australia by Random House and in the USA by Free Press.

People travelled from all over New South Wales to attend the official launch of the book which was released in Australia on November 3rd 2008. It will also be translated into German.

At the sound of the Timorese gong which announced the beginning of proceedings Dr Paul Thorogood introduced Nobel Peace prize nominee, peace activist and environmentalist Dr Helen Caldicott.

She remarked that both she and Colette were inspired as young women to reach out to the world to make a difference. Dr Helen Caldicott worked on a more global scale at the level of government and policy whereas Colette sought out the poor and marginalized on the edge of society in the Philippines, India, Timor and elsewhere in the world.

Both women also embarked on their own spiritual quest to find a way to respond truthfully and compassionately to those they encountered.