Author Archives: Brian

Polio vaccination and the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a polio survivor myself, I have long been interested in the international campaign to eradicate the disease through vaccinations. Much of the world is now polio-free. But in Pakistan and Afghanistan, last strongholds of wild polio virus, cases increased from 33 in 2018 to 176 in 2019. So far this year, the two countries have confirmed 87 wild polio cases, compared with 64 at this time last year. The real number is likely higher. The vaccination program has been inhibited by Covid-19 precautions and the fears of local populations. Restoration of the Pakistan and Afghanistan vaccination programs will have to overcome the suspicions and refusals that blocked them last year.

Africa is free of the wild virus, but is battling against vaccine-derived virus. So far this year, Africa has reported 133 type 2 cases in 14 countries, up from 47 at this time last year. Hot spots include Ivory Coast and parts of Chad, Mali, Ghana, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

Oral polio vaccine contains an attenuated vaccine-virus, activating an immune response in the body. When a child is immunized, the weakened vaccine-virus replicates in the intestine for a limited period, thereby developing immunity by building up antibodies. During this time, the vaccine-virus is also excreted. In areas of inadequate sanitation, this excreted vaccine-virus can spread in the immediate community before eventually dying out. This can offer protection to other children through ‘passive’ immunization but may also generate infection with vaccine-derived polio. The risk is small compared with that of having no vaccinations at all, but remains troubling.

Source: Leslie Roberts, “Polio vaccinators are back after pandemic pause,” Science 369, no. 6502 (24 Jul 2020): 360, doi: 10.1126/science.369.6502.360.

MS Maasdam

HAL ships sold

Holland America Line has announced the sale of its ships Amsterdam, Maasdam, Rotterdam and Veendam to “undisclosed buyers” — about 30% of its fleet. This is a big chunk of parent-company Carnival’s downsizing plans, with many ships go by October 2020. Holland America is especially vulnerable to the Covid-19 slump as the demographic to which it appeals includes older people who may be reluctant to resume cruising. Our first cruise was on the Veendam in 2014 and we have also travelled on the Maasdam. We enjoy the somewhat smaller size of such ships compared to many recently-built behemoths.
Maasdam joined Holland America in 1993 as the second of four S-Class ships. Carrying 1,258 guests, it was the fourth Holland America Line ship named Maasdam name. Most recently, the 55,575-ton ship sailed longer South Pacific and Alaska voyages. The 57,092-ton Veendam, the final S-Class ship, was delivered in 1996. The fourth ship of that name, it carried 1,350 guests.
Loss of cruise ships is certainly a “first-world problem.” Nonetheless it is sad that an excellent company suffers the loss of fine ships for such an ignominious reason.

A motto?

“I have only time for eternity.” Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas (San Diego: Harcourt, 1953), 120.
A goodly candidate as a motto.

Propeller

Propelled into history

In an earlier page I mentioned the VGSS Lady Loch; my great-grandfather John Slater Anderson was among those who designed and built it.

A spare propeller of about three tons weight was cast for the Lady Loch at the time of her construction in 1886. Lady Loch was a 487-ton steam vessel built in Melbourne by Campbell, Sloss & McCann in 1886 for colonial Victoria’s Department of Trade & Customs. She was used by Victoria as a lighthouse tender. With federation, care of lighthouses was transferred to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth bought the vessel and, presumably, the spare propeller. After a chequered history, Lady Loch became a mere hulk and was finally scuttled in Moreton Bay in 1962.

For some years, the propeller was displayed on the street frontage of a government building in Mort Street, Canberra. When the building was demolished and the propeller moved. I wrote to ask of its whereabouts.

Dr Steven Kennedy, PSM, Secretary of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development, kindly replied that his department and the Australian Maritime Safety Authority had arranged for the propeller to be displayed in the newly established Seafarers Rest Park in Melbourne. The Park is being developed along the Yarra River in the heart of the city. The propeller is seen above on a truck as it arrived in Melbourne. The park is next to the heritage building of the Mission to Seafarers an active Christian ministry caring for merchant sailors who visit our ports.

mission

An Agenda for Joy

My PhD is done, and my degree was conferred yesterday. My thesis, “An Agenda for Joy: Rowan Williams’s Theology of Conflict, Unity, and Solidarity,” is available from Charles Sturt University’s open access portal at https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/publications/an-agenda-for-joy-rowan-williamss-theology-of-conflict-unity-and-.

TestamurMy study seeks a theological understanding of disagreement and conflict in church and society through a reading of the work of Rowan Williams. Williams’s theology of church and his understanding of its unity are closely interrelated. The church itself and its unity are God’s gift. Williams argues that conflict and unity are not opposed but are essential parts of the struggle for mutual recognition and solidarity. Thus I propose solidarity as a category through which to understand the oneness of the church and its relationship with society. According to Williams, God creates and sustains a universe of immeasurable difference within itself. Williams employs Gillian Rose’s reading of Hegel to introduce a metaphysical understanding of such difference and our response to it. The communal work of truth-seeking requires unavoidable negotiation, self-dispossession and loss, without which there may be tragic misrecognition of our interests and those of others. I critically examine situations of conflict that exemplify and test Williams’s theology. Looking beyond the church, I then explore Williams’s theologically grounded proposals for solidarity in a pluralist society oriented towards the common good.

I am immensely grateful to those who have helped me achieve this happy outcome. My supervisor, Dr Benjamin Myers, gave unfailing wisdom, enthusiasm and valued friendship. I was helped by Ben’s careful perception of what I have been on about and workable ways to get there. He challenged me with penetrating questions and exposed muddled language and thinking.

My closest teacher and friend is my husband, James Kim, to whom I have dedicated this work. His love, courage, and care made it possible.

Years ago, my undergraduate mentor, Dr Graeme Garrett, told me that the greatest value of a doctoral project in theology would be whatever it did within the depths of my own soul. So it has been. Thus, in his doctoral thesis, Rowan Williams wrote of Vladimir Lossky’s insistence that “to do theology is to engage in an exploration of one’s personal encounter with God in silence.” I also echo Williams’s submission that “anything of value in the pages that follow belongs not to me but to the catholic communion of minds in Christ, mediated to me by my teachers and friends.”1 Without that, I would not have undertaken this study.
. . . . .

  1. Rowan Williams, “The Theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: An Exposition and Critique” (DPhil. thesis, University of Oxford, 1975), xi.
authagraph

The AuthaGraph

The problem of projecting the Earth’s spherical surface onto a flat page has vexed cartographers for centuries. Here’s one brilliant solution, the AuthaGraph, designed by Hajime Narukawa. This rectangular world map is made by equally dividing a spherical surface into 96 triangles, transferring it to a tetrahedron while maintaining areas proportions and unfolding it to be a rectangle. The world map can be tiled in any direction without visible seams.

The wisdom and integrity of governors

“Much of the strength and efficiency of any Government, in procuring and securing happiness to the people depends on opinion, on the general opinion of the goodness of that government as well as of the wisdom and integrity of its governors.”—Benjamin Franklin’s final speech in the constitutional convention, 1787