If Jesus had come to Australia, he would have been born a First Nations Aussie and, if lucky, he would have avoided his own Massacre of the Innocents as a member of the Stolen Generations.
If he was born in Palestine today, Israeli soldiers would have shot him in his cradle.
In Russia, he may have fallen victim to another Massacre of the Innocents by becoming cannon fodder in an egotistical politician’s war of self aggrandisement.
In Uganda, his family would have denounced his progressive declarations and the government would have sentenced him to death for advocating the human rights of LGBT+ people and other opppressed groups including women.
In the USA today, the MAGA cult would have declared him illegal for cross dressing in a galabaya; and deported him back to die, along with a million other black people.
Happy Christmas.
The lines of the old song declare:
“I’m dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know…”
That was a generation ago, before modern communication brought the world together. These days, we cannot be ignorant of the suffering of others across social media – unless we choose to.
These days, we see a clear divide between the western nations and others. Christmas in the west is often one of eating turkeys, ham, foodstuff and sweets, while exhanging gifts and excess. Christmas in most of the world is a time of deprivation, hunger, or ongoing suffering.
Any message of Christmas and deferral to the philosophies of that refugee from Nazareth, is lost in rabid consumerism and consumption and toxic capitalism. Santa is more important than peace on Earth. No room at the inn.
As I write this, I am mindful of the LGBT+ refugees I know across Africa. For Christmas, they are enduring the usual starvation, medical suffering, homelessness due to unpaid rent, detention due to outstanding medical expenses, or hungry children with no food. Seeking consolation in the very same faith that encourages their families and communities to reject or imprison them, they suffer on the one day of the year that possibly means the most to them.
Meanwhile, people in white nations enjoy excess, and overlook the suffering of others. Happy Xmas indeed.
The apartheid of Christmas emphasises the division during the rest of the year. White Christmas? Enjoy it if you are white and affluent.
But maybe ponder the suffering of others – and if humanity means anything to you, listen to your conscience and do something.
House after Cyclone Tracy, Christmas 1974. Photo by Bill Bradley on Wikipedia|cc-by-2.5
Our humanity sometimes most noticeably comes to the fore during times of crisis. This Christmas marks the significant anniversary of two such notable human tragedies – and their related stories of human resilience.
Fifty years ago this Christmas Day, a cyclone blew into Darwin and devastated the city, killing dozens and causing many millions of dollars damage. I can recall the Australian news mass media being full of stories of how ordinary Aussies with building or other skills gave up their holiday time in order to travel to Darwin and offer assistance to survivors whose stories – even fifty years later – recall resilience and heroism. Fundraising appeals were held across the country. Even a charity song, Santa Never Made It Into Darwin, contributed to the recovery and rebuilding cause, and as a child I pondered how this outpouring of selflessness seemed to contradict the capitalist spirit of amassing gifts and possessions courtesy of Santa and Christmas.
2004-tsunami.jpg: David Rydevik (email: david.rydevik at gmail dot com), Stockholm, Sweden. derivative work: Wilfredor, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Twenty years ago this Boxing Day, a much larger and literally Earth-tilting disaster occurred when an Asian earthquake and tsunami killed probably a quarter of a million people. News clips showing people being swept to their deaths amidst a floating city of debris can surely never be forgotten. What else I recall from this time is the outpouring among ordinary people to donate money and compassion to those affected: the charity telephones which I helped to staff rang non-stop for days; and I even recall a young man standing in a bank queue ahead of me – upon being told that the money for his car loan had been approved – immediately donated the lot to the Asian Tsunami appeal, “because they need it a lot more than I do”.
At such times, humans can be inspired and inspiring: they can cast aside (at least temporarily) the norms of capitalist consumerism and greed and selfishness, but focus instead on helping others. This is surely not only the most humane option, but also the most rational: as a social creature, we instinctively recognise that we need each other if we are to survive as a species.
But it should not take a crisis for us to recognise our common humanity and our common need for empathy and kindness: every religion and philosophy recognises “The Golden Rule” in some form or another, and it simply calls us to act and live in ways that are consistent with our humanity and our humanism. It is even reflected in a certain life insurance advertisement.
What must surely be one of the world’s most famous advertisements (and my favourite advertisement of all time) has enjoyed over 120 million views on YouTube alone. It is an advertisement for life insurance, and it thereby subliminally asks its viewers to ponder what difference their mortal lives might make during whatever short time we inhabit this cosmic pebble. Titled “Unsung Hero”, the ad celebrates the rewards of a humble, empathic, life that is generous to a fault – and the impact that can ripple into the lives of others, including people, animals and plants. Coming from a land where Buddhism is the dominant philosophy, it echoes with secular humanism because it quietly, almost subversively celebrates the agency and commonality of our human connection.
Our lives should demonstrate this same connection.
Remembering the Apollo 17 Moon mission, launched 7 December 1972, splashed down (returned to Earth) 19 December 1972.
It was the last Apollo mission to land men on the Moon.
No humans have returned since then.
Apollo 17 lunar rover. NASA photo.
Where were you in December 1972? I was eleven years old, and enraptured by the Apollo Moon missions. I was not alone: many school kids proudly owned models of the “Thunderbirds” space ships (from the TV series of the same name), while I was one of the people who owned an Airfix model of the Apollo vehicles, the Saturn V rocket and the lunar module. One of my classmates filked the song, “Blowing in the Wind” to create a new song with a chorus that broke the rhyme and rhythm of the original song, but aspired towards the lofty ambitions of the times:
“The answer, my friend, is in the vacuum of space.
The answer is in the vacuum of space.”
These were the days of stereotypical heterosexist and patriarchal gender norms, when it was asserted of astronauts: “Every boy wanted to be one, and every girl wanted to marry one”. The blokey male aspects of astronautics could even be found in my local Boy Scouts group: every time they held a concert night to sing “Gang Show”-type songs or to share anecdotes and jokes, they always welcomed the slides I brought along (purchased at the Astronomical Society of Victoria or Space Age Books) showing Apollo astronauts walking on the Moon.
Tracy’s Rock. NASA photo by Eugene A. Cernan Photomontage by Eric Hartwell – AS17-140-21493 archive copy at the Wayback Machine; AS17-140-21497 archive copy at the Wayback Machine, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=630874
I loved those slides: they showed the Moon’s surface in crystal clear clarity that could not normally be found on Earth-bound slides; and even as a child, I intuited that this was because the vacuum of the Moon lacked dust particles that were common in Earth’s atmosphere. They were images that were as silent as the vacuum, and yet they echoed a cosmic chorus that bespoke of the Moon’s magnificent desolation. Apollo 17 slides even featured Tracy’s Rock, which children pondered: how could a big rock roll so far down a distant hill on the Moon? This was an important aspect of the times: we always deferred to experts for the answers.
Oh how I envy those days – not because of the gender stereotypes, nor from some misplaced sense of nostalgia for “the good old days” – but because I can see our culture and our world today lacks that sense of excitement, an optimism in science, a trust in people who spend their lives doing the hard work to become experts in their field, and the aspiration of reaching literally for the Moon.
Apollo 17 Earthrise (NASA photo)
Reaching for the Stars
The phrase “I aim for the stars” is attributed to German rocket scientist, Werner Von Braun, who later joined NASA and was instrumental in putting men on the Moon. Cynics even back then added an addendum to his phrase as a recognition of his work building V2 rockets for the Nazis during World War 2: “I am for the stars – but occasionally I hit London”.
Such cynicism can be healthy in questioning the whys and wherefores of events, thereby ensuring transparency and accountability when needed. But it can go too far. In recognising the duality and nuances within both individual and collective humans, it can be dangerous to figuratively throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Apollo 17 photo of the Earth (NASA photo).
The Apollo Moon landings were the apex of the Space Age – a form of political and technological Cold War between the Soviet Union and the USA. The Moon missions were arguably the largest non-military scientific investment in the history of our species – and we enjoy the spinoffs today. Everything from our automobiles to our electronic devices; everything from climate change mitigation to beaver habitation; virtually every aspect of our modern world owes a debt of gratitude to the space program. Apollo aimed for the Moon – and we found Earth.
And yet, ironically, new generations today use their space age technology – their mobile phones, the Internet, our social media – to spread their uninformed doubts and misinformed conspiracy theories about science and the space program.
Looking at the Gutter, or the Stars?
We live in a culture where everyone is entitled to an opinion, no matter how ignorant, uninformed or misguided, and people expect equal respect for those ideas alongside the informed proclamations of world scientists. Apollo astronauts who risked their lives reaching for the Moon – and some even died on that quest – have been accused of dishonesty and deceit. Half a million Apollo workers (rocket scientists, astronomers, aeronauts and engineers etc) from the USA to Spain, from Africa to Australia, have all been implicitly accused of dishonesty and involvement within a conspiracy which, if true, would rewrite the history of the Cold War and leave open the obvious question: why the USSR never accused the USA of manufacturing a hoax – such an exposé would have changed the course of history and potentially elevated the Soviet Union to world leader above the USA.
As I write this, the nephew of John F Kennedy – the President who launched the Apollo missions to the Moon – is allegedly an anti-vaxxer proponent who was allegedly involved in the preventable measles deaths of children, and seems likely to be elevated to a peak medical position in his nation under an anti-science President. The anti-science, anti-education, pro-narcissist culture that has arisen since the religious zealotry of Ronald Reagan and Ayatollah Khomenei, now threatens scientific and social progress around the world.
But for me, another of the greatest tragedies of anti-science proponents and Moon conspiracy theorists is what they are missing: the grandeur of science and adventure, the optimism and excitement of taking footsteps into history, the achievement of working hard and honestly in order to learn and to uncover new discoveries, creating opportunities to make a difference and change the world.
Science will Win
Apollo 17 holds symbolic as well as scientific implications for us all. It was the only Apollo mission launched at night, yet it brought science to the space program by taking a geologist to the Moon, whose contributions are still making a difference today. As we face the dusk of dark times ahead, we can feel confident that science will survive and succeed: even luddites need modern scientific technology to sustain their lifestyles; no matter how insular their views, they dare not dismantle their own life support systems. As Stephen Hawking observed: “Science will win because it works”.
And we can find inspiration in science. One of history’s greatest scientists, Sir Isaac Newton, stated that, “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” Despite his flaws as a human being, he advanced science and acknowledged the greatness of those who had preceded him – and of those who would follow. Science does more than create opportunities for a better world; it embiggens the human soul and allows us to dream (and achieve) bigger and better and nobler than before.
We see that promise every time we cast our eyes skyward at the Moon.
“And as the Moon shines down
On the shattered launching ground,
I remember Apollo,
Who flew the chariot of the Sun.
And I wonder of the legends they will tell
A thousand years from now.”
Today, we stand beneath the solemn sky,
To honour lives lost, and never let them die.
HIV/AIDS, a shadow we cannot ignore,
Still claiming lives, still knocking at the door.
To every soul, regardless of name,
This is a fight we all must claim.
Keep off the networks where danger may lie,
Protect your heart, your body—don’t let dreams die.
To my queer family, bold and true,
This battle is ours; we must see it through.
For too many loved ones, we’ve had to say goodbye,
Let’s stay vigilant, let’s not let hope die.
Let education be the shield we wield,
Knowledge a weapon, a formidable field.
Empower the youth with facts so clear,
To conquer ignorance, dispel the fear.
International voices, hear this call:
Lend your hand, for this fight affects us all.
To refugees, the displaced, those in war-torn lands,
Palestine, and beyond, let’s extend our hands.
To NGOs, with hearts so grand,
Support the vulnerable; let them stand.
Medication, care, and hope to renew,
For the LGBTIQ, and the broken too.
HIV/AIDS is real, a foe we all face,
Let’s combat it together, with love and grace.
On this World AIDS Day, let unity shine,
For a future of health, for a brighter design.