By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
In our city I have been increasingly aware of the importance of the workforce. Many people I know, including good friends have been laid off from work or struggle to find jobs. There have been many businesses that have opened and closed. The workforce is struggling with “labor pains”. According to a recent news article,…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
No guts… No Glory… This was the phrase used by Jack Hoffman in the season opener of “Gold Rush”, Discovery Channels number one rated reality show over the past three years. Three years ago my family and I decided to watch the pilot episode of six down on their luck family men from the Pacific…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Every year the World Economic Forum (WEF) meets in Davos Switzerland to discuss the global economy and business. This year’s theme was “Dynamism and Resilience” and they sought to listen to young business entrepreneurs, the future of the world economy. But it’s last year’s theme that I find more interesting, particularly in view of this…
By: gfesadmin on January 31, 2013
Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation presses the idea that market economy is reliant upon the social dynamics of politics, religion, and social relations. In fact, he contends that if the market economy were really free that labor and indeed humans would become commodiities and would self destruct. The book takes these basic ideas and sets them…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
Karl Polanyi, in his book The Great Transformation, theorizes that market economy is never autonomous but is influenced, if not driven, by a nation’s politics, religion, and social relations. He calls this his concept of “embeddedness.” He contends that if the economy were autonomous that humans would become commodities which would assure their destruction. So powerful…
By: gfesadmin on January 30, 2013
In 1944 economy historian Karl Polanyi published his book “Great Transformation” dealing with the social, political and economical changes that led to the increasing development of a market economy in England and Polanyi’s analysis concerning market liberation. In a journey through time, starting from the early 16th century on, Polanyi portraits the immediate circumstances that…
By: gfesadmin on January 26, 2013
Despite the obvious poverty that wreaks havoc in the lives of millions of rural Indians, conglomerates along with the India government rationalize that consumption by the poor will result in the much-needed redemption from scarcity and need. “Buy more to get the economy moving because more consumption means more jobs; via the miracle of the…
By: gfesadmin on January 26, 2013
William Cavanaugh in Being Consumed challenges the contemporary Christian’s values on how they spend their money. He argues that Christians are a part of a global community of individuals in the Christian Church and that our resources should be focused on providing for the larger community (Cavanaugh, 2008). I was impressed by the example Cavanaugh…
By: gfesadmin on January 25, 2013
A news article in one of India’s leading dailies this past week along with my reading of Cavenaugh’s Being Consumed – Economics and Christian Desire, has driven me to a lot of Introspection, pushing me to answer questions such as: ‘How much is enough?’ What extents will my consumerism reach? When and where will the…
By: Joy Mindo on January 25, 2013
Being consumed is a book written for a western audience and he allows me to peer into the lives and thinking patterns of citizens who have operate in capitalism systems and are driven by consumerism. The realities of the west are minimal in my context. We have very few shopping malls that are visited by…
By: gfesadmin on January 25, 2013
“Someone else has it worse than you do.” The jolt of these words paints an ugly reality that many overseas laborers endure daily in various factories. It causes me to think twice about where my products are made and how the workers are treated. We are a global community impacted by consumerism, and our buying…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Consumerism is a term many would use to describe much of American and Western culture. However, the term is rarely unpacked and understood from a theological framework. William Cavanaugh in Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire begins to unpack the intermingling of Christian life amidst the complexity and ambiguity of capitalism, specifically focusing on the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
In this writing I will analyze two concepts within William T. Cavanaugh’s book, Economics and Christian Desire. One I agree with and the other I hold in question. The first idea is the relentless quest for goods that we as consumers have and the second involves his ideas regarding multiculturalism. Cavanaugh explains that it is…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Famous documentary filmer Hubert Sauper was working in Ruanda 1997. While being on an airfield in Mwanza, Tanzania he witnesses the loading and unloading of two huge cargo planes. One plane with UN food donations for Tanzania and the starving refugees from Ruanda is being unloaded. At the same time a huge cargo plane with…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
What do you do with the poor? They are often at the center of heartfelt concern in the church. But mostly they are disempowered either by their own efforts or something larger. In our local church we have been attempting to help a couple that have continually been short on rent, had tickets from past…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
I barely passed my course in economics at Kent State University. Perhaps it was because I sat next to the leader of students for a democratic society (SDS) who constantly poured forth his communist theory and seemed to have a special rapport with the professor. Or, perhaps it was because I did not see the…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
Throw a Load of Coal on the Fire Every three hours the furnace required someone to get up, trudge outside in the snow and load precisely three heaping shovels of black coal into its gaping door, or as some would say, its insatiable mouth! Because of these heroic efforts, Mike and I slept in comfort…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
For almost four years the family and I lived in the city of Lancaster. Like most city living, we tried to get outside in the fresh air as much as possible. During that season of life one of my weekly traditions was taking Grace and Eli on a Sunday afternoon bike ride for a daddy…
By: gfesadmin on January 24, 2013
This week’s reading was, Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire by William Cavanaugh. This might be my favorite book I’ve read in my D.Min. program. There are so many things I like about this book it’s hard to narrow a blog post down to just one or two thoughts. So if I ramble a bit,…
By: gfesadmin on January 21, 2013
With the liberalization of trade policies in 1991, new doors of opportunity opened and a new India was born. Private and free enterprise was a welcome relief from the previously assumed socialist ‘regime’. With all of the growth and progress, India, many would say can now be listed as a capitalist nation. While this maybe…
