I’ve been subscribed to the Pictures for Sad Children blog for a while.
I like it’s slightly dark and off-beat humour.

This particular strip reminds me how easy it is to get into cycles of worry.
Sometimes worrying can become even more comfortable than taking the risk of dealing with our junk and learning to rest.

I’m trying to take that less travelled path – the one that takes Jesus seriously when he says things like:

Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?
And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.

peoplemovin is an amazing website that visualises population movements throughout the world.

One of my favourite blog finds of 2011 was Jamie, The Very Worst Missionary.

It’s written by Jamie Wright, who lives, works and raises a family in Costa Rica along with her husband Steve. Unlike the badly written, sugar coated pap of your average missionary website, her blog is funny, real, self depreciating, and sometimes even a little crass.

Read it here

I don’t normally post here about education (“you don’t normally post,” I hear you quip) but I thought that these 26 Amazing Facts About Finland’s Unorthodox Education System were fascinating.

For a long time I’ve wondered if the UK is really doing a good job at educating it’s young: the pressure is on from the age of 7 when they have their first exams; pupils are divided up based on performance (regardless of the fact that performance can ebb and flow throughout development); and there’s such a heavy emphasis on traditional subjects that may form a child’s academic understanding, but doesn’t prepare them for the multifaceted and fast-changing world of adulthood.

In the face of this, Finland appears to be doing something right:

• Kids don’t start school until they’re 7
• They’re not put through formal assessments for the first 6 years of school
• There’s less performance-based division
• Educational performance is among the highest in the world

Read more here

Here’s a trailer to a documentary, The Finland Phenomenon, that gives an overview of this intriguing school system…

Be warned, however, that it doesn’t offer any explanations for their dodgy death metal scene!

As a white guy (well, off-white) living in South Africa I often get called “sir” by people of colour. “How are you, sir?” at the shopping mall, “hello, Sir, can you spare 5 rand?” and so on.
Every time I hear this I feel sad and angry.
I feel even more frustrated when it’s someone who is my father’s age or older.

I might be hyper-sensitive, but it reminds me of the awful relationship that the people of South Africa have had with Europeans during the past 200 years. It upsets me that someone would feel the need to subjugate themselves, to not accept that they are equal to me.

Our interactions don’t have to have this awkward, undesired power structure built into them, but thanks to decades of inequality, of “putting them in their place,” I’m supposed to live with it.
Or I find myself getting angry at someone who also didn’t choose it.