The promptings of the Spirit
There were moments in the recent campaign to save Convent Bukit Nanas when some people might have wrung their hands in despair. Here we go again, many would have thought.
May 01, 2021
By Anil Netto
There were moments in the recent campaign to save Convent Bukit Nanas when some people might have wrung their hands in despair. Here we go again, many would have thought.
But the campaign to save the convent from losing its land ownership reached a happy conclusion when the government lease was finally extended.
The 28,000 people who signed an online petition and others who wrote and spoke out on this issue helped to bring about a change of heart.
It is not clear what motivated the initial decision not to renew the lease. This is prime land devoted to education that could otherwise have earned huge profits had the owner been a developer. And no doubt many developers must be eyeing such relatively untouched urban prime land throughout the country.
Such land for public education in urban areas must be protected for two reasons.
First, it provides education to children of all backgrounds, ethnicities and faiths, a precious space where children of different socioeconomic backgrounds can mingle.
Second, such schools also contain wide open fields for their students’ sporting activities, thus providing a precious green lung in congested urban areas.
This is especially critical as we are short of parks and green spaces in our concrete jungles. Perhaps we could ask schools to make their school fields in city areas available to the public in the evenings.
It was encouraging that the alumni and people of all faiths spoke out and made a difference in the Convent Bukit Nanas episode.
Several other episodes in recent times have also shown us how ordinary people can make an impact in our world.
The public uproar over the murder of George Floyd finally saw justice with the perpetrator found guilty in a landmark verdict in a US court.
However, it will be much harder to uproot systemic racism and police brutality around the world. But that’s not to say it cannot be done.
Then, the outrage over “period spot checks” on girls in schools was quietened when enough people spoke out against such intrusive action.
Similarly, the courage of a 17-year-old schoolgirl who highlighted her teacher’s appalling remarks about rape has put the spotlight on what is going on in our schools. The plucky, enlightened schoolgirl said she was doing this for other pupils experiencing similar difficult situations in schools.
Over in Europe, a plan to set up a European Super League (ESL) football tournament, involving mainly an elite band of rich teams, was scuttled when a groundswell of ordinary fans spoke out against it. They saw this as a clear manifestation of unbridled greed at the top of sport.
The ESL plan was to ringfence the money from the game — television rights, corporate sponsorship deals — and share it between a much smaller group of elite teams, while the rest of the teams would feed on the crumbs off the table.
This is ironic as those who champion free market capitalism often end up indulging in monopolistic behaviour, privatising profits and socialising losses as they grab what is in the public domain.
Even in football, we can see how greed gets the better of people, who then forget what really matters. The same could be said of other areas such as the provision of healthcare, water and other essential services, which have been privatised, enriching a small group.
Even though the ESL flopped before it could take off, we shouldn’t be under any illusions that greed does not prevail, even in sport. Former football star John Barnes said of the ESL plan: “This is a power struggle between elite groups …. everybody who runs football now, and a new group wanting to come in and take over and exploit football and exploit the masses.”
Barnes said the failure of the ESL was a return to the status quo, so there isn’t much to celebrate.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised — for how could football escape the clutches of the ‘greed-is-good’ mentality and neoliberalism when almost every area of public life has succumbed to it?
What was encouraging in all this was the way ordinary people saw through what was happening and made their views known in unmistakable terms. And in all these cases, they succeeded, at least to a degree.
Before Jesus’ ascension, he told his disciples he would send the Spirit. This Spirit would teach us all things and open our eyes and hearts to the will of God.
Some people try to limit the workings of the Spirit to people of their own kind, religion, race or nationality. But the Spirit is working around the world, quietly, freely, in the whispers of the wind.
That said, God also needs the agency of ordinary people to make an impact in our world.
Today, many around the world are responding to the promptings of the Spirit, even if they might not be Christian or even particularly religious in the conventional sense.
Let us be more open to the workings of the Spirit in our own lives.
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