An Australian volunteer who was doing whatever volunteers do in PNG.
I was there for 2 years until Dec 2005 .. I hope I made the most of it.

Friday, September 03, 2004

Crusade or Circus?

For the past four nights I have been having to drown out a wail coming from a circus tent on the sports oval by putting on loud music and closing windows, and I live over 500 metres away with a barricade of trees and houses in between.

The annual Unitech Fellowship Christian Crusade is on. Which means that every night from Monday to Saturday, I am going to get Pastors and Preachers spell out their rhetoric in loud angry pidgin.

I have nothing against freedom of expression or freedom of religion, in fact those are things I whole-heartedly believe in. As the saying goes “I may not agree with what you say, but I will fight for your right to say it�.

What I have a problem with though is people forcing their opinions on others. And this is exactly what is happening at the moment, with the amplifiers being turned up to ridiculous levels.

The other issue and another reason I am pissed off, is that when the Uni Staff club, had a band on every second Friday, the Vice-Chancellor canned it because it was making too much noise. Now I should mention that the Vice-Chancellor is strict born-again style of Christian, who has also has done a lot of other things like stop the Staff Club from opening on Saturday and Sunday as those days should be for prayer only, not drinking and having fun.

Also it seems that political correctness hasn't quite yet made it all the way to PNG. I think the word Crusade is pretty much taboo in most parts of the world especially when in context of a large Christian get together. Just ask George W Bush this, after his gaffe when speaking about the "War on Terror".

Anyway enough of my rant. Did I mention I am going on holidays soon and my mum is coming up?