Beijing Punks

The Beijing punks spend their afternoons smoking and drinking in the alley before they get ready to perform at the Scream Bar. In the spring of 1998, a handful of youngsters teamed up to unofficially rebel against conformist Chinese life. They shaved their heads and founded bands with names like ìBrain Failureî and "Anarchy Boys". Although majority of the punks came from wealthy families, they preferred to live in self-imposed poverty. The Scream Bar and its surrounding dusty alleyways became the centre of youthful rebellion until it was finally closed in 2000.

(Text & photo: Asian Geographic)

P R A Y:
For the youth of today to hear the call of God on their lives and surrender to an all-knowing Lord and King.
For redeemed passions to transform this world for their King.
For truth to take seed in their hearts and transform their worldviews.
Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."

The Global Food Crisis

The Global Food Crisis Is The Result of Many Factors -
With No Easy Solution In Sight
TEXT Valerie Gee

On a sun-baked street in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, men and women jostle in separate queues leading to a sheet-metal shed, awaiting their turn to buy rice at the subsidised price of 25 taka (US 36cents) a kilogram.

It has come with little warning, but its effects have been overwhelming. Since January 2008, the price of the worldís basic foodstuffs - rice, wheat and corn, among others - have increased sharply on the international commodity market. Figures from the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) show that for 2007/2008, world cereal stocks will have fallen to a 25-year low of 405 million tonnes, even as global food stockpiles are at historically low levels, with reserves having dropped by half since 2000.

PRAY :
A supernatural solution to a natural problem.
"My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory." - Philippians 4:19

South Asian Cinema

For almost two decades, new Asian cinema has been making headlines.

It is in these films that cultural content, attitudes and values are passed on.

Take Singapore, for example. Local filmmakers broach subjects like teenage gangsterism, economics and family relationships telling of our history and responses.

Will films be used to integrate kingdom values or spiral local viewers into a fascination with horror, darkness and entrapment in their past strife? Let us pray for each nation:


THAI CINEMA
A taste for horror exists in the films.
PRAY : PEACE

VIETNAM CINEMA
The Travelling Circus (Ganh xiec rong, 1988), directed by Viet Linh, was a tale about a small troupe of itinerant players who convince naive, starving villagers that they can conjure rice out of nothing.
In 2003, Le Hoang's Bar Girls (Gai nhay, 2003), with its realistic portrait of the sleazy nightlife in Ho Chi Minh City smashed all box-office records.
PRAY : TRUTH

INDONESIAN CINEMA
Folklore tales are common, like one about a creature endowed with magical powers, The Monkey Kasaroeng (Loetoeng kasaroeng), made by two Dutch directors, G. Kruger and L. Heuveldorp, in 1926.
PRAY : REDEMPTION

Photo credits: Asian Geographic. Text adapted from here

More Than Mission Trips

Volunteer trips are just a start; think long term to effect real change
By Cassandra Chew in The Straits Times, 20th April 2009

Overseas service learning projects, or 'voluntourism', have become increasingly popular among secondary school and junior college students. School groups generally visit sites in nearby countries to build homes, dig wells, paint murals and interact with the people - activities that make for the 'real' way to see a country, as some put it.

... no doubt the work these volunteers do in the few days does make a difference to lives of the people there. But I am also aware poverty is a result of systemic problems in a country, like corruption and weak governance; something a happy mural will not change.

... we should think of these 'sampler' trips as launch pads for thought and action in the long term about what we can do to effect positive change.

One model I have come across is a small Singaporean-owned social enterprise called Changiville, a guesthouse in Phnom Penh where girls from Riverkids learn hospitality through a vocational skills programme. This enables them to find steady jobs that pay at least US$65 (S$98) a month after they graduate.

Having job skills means they do not need to turn to prostitution for a living.

... While Changiville's programmes do not sound as glamorous as roughing it out in slums and brothels for months, they address the gaps that desperately need to be filled. In some ways, Changiville's strategic use of resources and understanding of the community's needs can bring about change more effectively than any short trip to an orphanage would.

The difference is in their end goal: to make the community self-sufficient.

All I ask is that on your next voluntourist trip, consider your volunteer site's long-term goals and find out how you can be an effective part of them.

Stuffed toys and tubs of Play-Doh are fun for a while, but when the dust settles, would you have left behind a legacy?

PRAY :
For yourself, your church, your organisations - to take transformation of society a step further than annual mission trips.

Advocate a cause. Bring lifestyle change. Educate through training. Equip with skills.

Ask God to help you start something concrete and viable in a country.

Singapore's Migrant Workers

We are to be a CITY OF REFUGE to the foreigners, blessing them instead of alienating. I was talking to a friend's dad about the plight of migrant workers in Singapore yesterday, how we can be so blind to their cross-cultural struggles, personal troubles and plights, and make shallow judgements on them.

But we are called to be a blessing.... not to cheat, underpay, mistreat, frown on, withhold hospitality. TODAY, this article appeared in The Straits Times.


COOKING UP A STORM: It's all hands to the pump to get meals ready for the Bangladeshi and Indian residents. Four men, with blue plastic bags tied round their feet, chop meat into small pieces on the floor of the open area behind the canteen, as blood trickles into the drain. Breakfast and lunch are prepared throughout the night and delivered to bedsides before 5am. Dinner is ready by the time the men return from work. Residents pay about $130 a month for the service. Breakfast is usually a few pieces of chapatti and curry; the other meals are rice with curry, meat and vegetables. Workers complain about the quality and quantity of meat but many continue to patronize the caterers because cooking is not allowed on hostel premises and paying less than $2 for a full name is too good a deal to turn down. Bangladeshi factory worker Sohel, 28, who has been in the hostel for four years, recalls seeing newly arrived workers cry when they open their food packets. 'The first meal they will eat halfway and stop,' he said. However, they have no choice but to adapt, he said, because food elsewhere is too expensive.

Workers listen to a fuzzy broadcast about the Bangladesh elections last December. Mr Akter Hossain, 35, tunes in to BBC Bangladesh, which can be received only on the third-storey ledge of Kaki Bukit Hospital. -- ST PHOTOS: SAMUEL HE

This photojournalist spent a month staying with the migrant workers in their hostel, experiencing the dirt, cramped quarters, yet gleaning insight into their personal lives and stories.

"It would give foreign workers here an identity and allow people to see that they are no different than us".

"I surprised myself that I could spend so many nights sleeping in such conditions and my temporary stay in their world taught me that we could really be friends.

I hope that Singaporean readers who hold negative views of migrant workers will reconsider them after seeing these images."
(Read more here.)

PRAY :
- For a change of attitude in Singaporeans towards foreigners working in our land. For us to see them as equals, albeit a different expression, but with human needs, emotions and struggles too.

- For protection over those who have been cheated of wages, encountering problems with employers/fellow colleagues, homesickness and family issues, health issues, difficulty adapting to our culture, racial discrimination and loneliness. Pray for them to find God's grace in their lives.

- That many will hear God and turn to Him. He will be their Helper, Friend and Advocate. Coming to Singapore upps the probability of them hearing the gospel. God led them here for a reason.

The Lun Bawang of Ba'Kelalan

Nestled in in an idyllic valley in the Kelabit Highlands, Ba'Kelalan is the spiritual home to the Lun Bawang, a Dayak tribe once believed to be the most ferocious headhunters in Sarawak. "Lun Bawang" means "People of the Place" in the tribe's native language, a dialect that is part of the Lundayeh language group. The Lun Bawang have abandoned old superstitions and animistic practices, but they continue to maintain their strong community ties and fierce independence. Touted as the most authentic tribal experience in the state, the Lun Bawang of Ba'Kelalan are well-known for their generous hospitality and a culture of giving and sharing. A returning visitor is often remembered by name and a single traveller is never lonely.

PRAY : The Holy Spirit to continue his redemption in the Lun Bawang. The kingdom values they already hold to reap fruit as more Truth is revealed to them. That they will hear God calling them by name.

TEXT Serina Rahman
PHOTOS Andy Paul
(Asian Geographic)

Asia's largest red light district

In the alleys of Sonagachi, Asia's largest red light district featured in the documentary ‘Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids’, a putrid cocktail of alcohol, drugs, and vomit hung in the air. Dirty sheets put out by hundreds of makeshift brothels in the area, in the darkness of the dimly lit district, reigned. Long lines of young girls stood in a single file in the back alleys, some not looking a day over 15. A few tugged at my sleeves. Men – pimps, and customers, you had no way of knowing – hobbled about, many partially or severely intoxicated, and openly picked their wares.

Adapted from Asian Geographic.

PRAY :
That the Saviour will come to restore his princesses, give them a new life and a new message.
For the volunteers reaching out to these girls - to be blessed to heal, protect and love.
For a future for these girls, educational opportunities, restoration of their homes and families, protection of their self-worth, emotional healing.

Suicides on the Japan Rail

Tokyo’s Shinjuku train station is the world’s busiest, with approximately 3.3 million people passing through the station everyday; during rush hour, Shinjuku is the ultimate overwhelming experience.
(text & photo: Asian Geographic)
Shinjuku Station is well connected – it’s on the JR Yamanote Line, the JR Chuo Line, the JR Chuo-Sobu Line, the JR Saikyo Line, the JR Shonan-Shinjuku Line, Odakyu Electric Railway’s Odawara Line, Keio Corporation’s Keio Line, and Keio New Line. Tokyo Metro’s Marunouchi Line and Toei Subway’s Toei Shinjuku Line and Toei Oedo Line all serve Shinjuku too. Throw into the mix a major bus terminal and another train line that opened in the summer of 2008, and you have the mayhem that is Shinjuku: 38 tracks servicing the station, some of which are five levels below the ground.

Over the last 10 years, over 1,200 people have committed suicide on Japan's railway lines (the Chuo Line between Tokyo and Shinjuku being the most popular). Due to the alarming number of suicides, train companies now run advertisements within the trains that promote the beauty and joy of life. To deter other contemplating suicide on the tracks, train companies have even made huge compensation claims against the next-of-kin for the disruption of the rail network.

PRAY:
- For God to make a connection with those Japanese in despair, depression and crisis.
- For the Holy Spirit to show up on the tracks, knock at their hearts, turn their hopelessness into hope, change their minds, tell them their value.
- For God to stop them divinely and meet them in their lowest moments.