Sabbath 19/02/30/120
Dear Friends,
You would all be aware of the dreadful drought that we are experiencing in Australia and in the Sudan. Two weeks ago the Church was asked to pray for the salvation of the tree crops and the trees themselves in the Murray-Darling basin. Remember this is the fourth-longest river system in the world behind the Nile, Amazon and the Mississippi.
The power of prayer is a wonderful thing. A few days after we all started to pray it rained in the centre of Australia and the first rain in a very long time fell over the area along the Murray and the Murrumbidgee in both NSW and Victoria.
The drought has gone on for so long that even the saltbush was dying in the west.
It was not a lot but it was a start. After that initial fall I received a memo from another church group that had also decided to pray for rain. Within a week the pattern changed. Over the area of the worst affected citrus crops, that are most drought prone, in that they do not go dormant over winter, as stone fruit does, they began to receive rain.
The rain varied from 35 mm to 70mm or so. This was enough to relieve the stress on the citrus trees and save them.
The land is not out of the crisis yet. The feeder dams are still at crisis levels. The Hume Dam is at 3.5% of capacity and the others are anywhere from there up to approximately 15%. There is still good rain required in the catchments. If that does not occur by 1 July then the irrigation supplies will be cut and the water will be allocated only for town survival in the cities and towns along the river system.
Food crops will be restricted and pricing will skyrocket.
However, the bright side was that the rain did fall and your prayers were answered and these citrus trees were saved.
Please continue to pray for decent rains in the catchment areas. Only then will the long-term survival be assured.
Over the same period the UN issued warrants for the trial of the perpetrators of War Crimes in the Sudan. They need to be brought to justice and the land needs rest from drought and stress there also.
Please continue to pray for relief there as well.
The fact of rising food prices brings me to another subject of the irrationality of economic rationalism.
One economist was noted as saying that it was not a big issue if agriculture failed as it only constituted 2.5% of GDP. Therefore it would not affect the economy.
Economics does not take flow-on effects into consideration. The fact is that if there is no food and it is enormously expensive such that, as Elisha said, a pint of dove’s dung will cost vast sums then it will indeed affect the global
It is the equivalent of a woman saying to one of us that it did not matter as she got her food from the supermarket. People simply don’t think deeply at all about such things.
The Reserve Bank of Australia uses a formula where rising food and fuel prices are used to determine the inflation index. When there is a price rise or disaster, for example when the banana crop was destroyed by the cyclone in the north of Australia, then inflation is deemed to have risen and the decision is made to increase interest rates to dampen the economy.
The bizarre reasoning in this can be seen as follows.
Fact: We have had a disaster and food is scarce and therefore much dearer.
Fact: Prices have risen and therefore inflation has occurred and must be dampened.
Conclusion: Therefore we must raise interest rates to stop people spending money.
The reasoning behind this argument is so flawed that a first year philosophy student would be failed if he produced it. It is also unethical. However, politicians and bankers produce the argument and wonder why people don’t trust them or cedit them with any serious intellect.
The poor are punished because the administration does not understand simple cause and effect and the immorality of Economic Rationalism.
The argument is used to force the poor and underprivileged in the society to the wall and their houses sold to those who benefit by plundering the poor with usury.
This way of thinking and acting is immoral and anti-social and has to be stopped. The only way the nations will do that is by firing every politician and banker that talks like that. God is quite clear that this behaviour is immoral and He will intervene and punish those who do those things.
The earth is groaning. However, we should not cease to pray for our people and for their salvation.
God will determine how He will deal with these things.
It is our job to pray for the welfare of each other and the people of our nations.
Keep up the good work.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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