 World Goodwill Newsletter 3 Whitehall Court Suite 54 London SW1A 2EF UK ISSN 0818-4984 ALSO AT 1 Rue de Varembé (3è) Case Postale 31 1211 Geneva 20 Switzerland and 120 Wall Street 24th Floor New York NY 10005 USA email World Goodwill Newsletter visit World Goodwill website read reviews of earlier issues Before commenting on this review please read the FAQ page Home page Notes for publishers Want to be a reviewer? Anthologies. Books. Audio. Magazines. Software. Video. Artefacts. Web design by Gerald England This page last updated: 7th August 2005. |
World Goodwill Newsletter 2005 #1 | |
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This bills itself as A regular bulletin highlighting the energy of goodwill in world affairsand that truly laudable aim is a difficult one to contest in any publication. Seeking further an agenda, I read at the end of the Newsletter that World Goodwill relies on charitable donations and was established in 1932 by the Lucis Trust which is a registered educational charity in Great Britain. So far so mysterious. What kind of education? What exactly does it do? Where do those donations go? There is much good work mentioned and the newsletter is free but the work relies on donations. There is a mixture of Christianity and trancendental spirituality in the undertakings. Yes, laudable, and to quote a verse from THE GREAT INVOCATION at the end of the Newsletter: From the centre where the Will of God is known Let purpose guide all little human wills— The purpose which the Masters know and serve.But who are those Masters? I'm none the wiser and that's what bothers me about this. Many people have asked where God was when the tsunami caused its devastation. If you believe in a God, that is. There's a kind of subtext that we're all to blame for the disasters of the world and there's some truth in that, in fact, empirical scientific proof, that we are mistreating our environment. But to blame it all on our spiritual immaturity is misleading. It lets governments off the hook. It doesn't actively redresss the balance between rich and poor. Meditation is a start and the work of the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement in Sri Lanka is commendable but there is a lot of money in government coffers that has not been deployed rightfully and it is ensuring by political means that this happens that should be our priority. | ||
| reviewer: Pam Thompson. |