We’re back for 2008! I hope you've enjoyed our Best Of series during our summer hiatus. Now join me this Sunday as we launch our new-sound show with Senior Australian of the Year David Bussau. From orphan to entrepreneur, David’s organisation now creates a job in the developing world every 30 seconds. This week you’ll discover the man, his ideas, and the Christian faith that drives him.

Plus our new series on spirituality, and Aussie artist Nathan Tasker. Acclaimed by the likes of Michael Card and Charlie Peacock, Nathan will perform in-studio before flying back to Nashville.

We’ve got some wonderful guests planned this year, so get ready to join in each Sunday night on Open House!

This week’s dilemma is from Mary. Mary’s spent the last 6 and a half years as a nurse in a psychiatric ward. Recently she’s felt the need to report what she calls the ‘bullying’ treatment of some co-workers to the anti bullying unit where she works.

The response from management, however, has been that Mary’s misinterpreted what's happening– that the people she’s reporting aren’t actually engaged in bullying behavior. Mary feels the manager is “covering” for the coworkers. Apparently these been around 40 other complaints of bullying at this workplace.

Mary maintains that she does work with bullies - that there are two nurses she works with who are lazy…She says they have one hour meal breaks and read the newspaper,  forcing her to work harder to compensate. They don’t answer the phone or do their job, they chat on their phone while Mary says she’s left alone to do their jobs as well. She says she finds it difficult to work so hard when the other nurses don’t ‘pull their weight.’

Mary faces a dilemma

• Should she continue to fight her case and wear the unpopularity, or let it go and put up with difficult conditions at work?
• When do you stay and fight, and when do you quit and leave?

Is there a question that’s on your mind?  If so, send us an email  dilemma@theopenhouse.net.au

Do you think the government should be offering some form of compensation along with its apology to the stolen generations?

Some Aboriginal groups say the apology should be offered with compensation. Lowitja O'Donoghue from the Stolen Generations alliance is calling for a $A 1billion dollar compensation fund to be established, saying that an apology without compensation “won’t settle anything.”

But other groups say it’s the symbolism of saying ‘sorry’ that’s important.

What do you think? Is saying ‘sorry’ alone meaningful? Or do you think the government should also be offering to set up a compensation fund?
 
Is saying sorry, just by itself, actually enough? Or should it be accompanied with action?

What do you think about the fact that the sorry is being said on behalf of the government, and not the Australian people? Indigenous affairs minister Jenny Macklin said last month that “The apology will be made on behalf of the Australian government and does not attribute guilt to the current generation of Australian people.''

It’s time to ‘open up’ now – the place where we trade stories from our life’s wealth of experiences, highlights and challenges.

Today I want to find out about how the experiences of your childhood have made you the person you are today.

We heard from David Busseau – and how growing up as an orphan spurred him into becoming an entrepreneur, firstly in the construction industry, but then ultimately to help others through his inventive micro-finance scheme.

We’ll be speaking to Graham Clarke in a few weeks’ time – his father was deaf, but Graham went on to invent the cochlear implant to make listening for deaf people – including his father - possible.

Speaking from my own life, I know that the involvement of my parents in one of the world’s better known cults – has made me seek after the truth and constantly challenge what I believe and why.

What are the childhood experiences that have made you the adult you are today?

What are the defining circumstances of your childhood - that influenced what you went on to do with your life?/still influence what you do today?

I think the past few weeks will turn out to be some of the most memorable of my life. Merryn and I spent January in Peru, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, and the sights, sounds and smells will not be forgotten quickly.

I find it hard to describe Haiti. Words fail me. It’s the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere with 70% unemployment and 80% of people living below the poverty line. The capital city Port-au-Prince is the size of Sydney yet has few sealed roads. Only four-wheel drives can negotiate the rubble and pot holes, and wrecks of small cars line the streets. Electricity is irregular, as is the water supply. The landscape is baron, dusty, grey. Ninety-seven percent of the trees have gone. And the houses... Most Haitians build their homes over years, buying a brick or two when they have the money. Imagine your street made completely of incomplete, unpainted besser-brick and concrete shanty homes. That gives you an idea of Haiti.

There are few public schools, and not enough teachers, so those few children who get to school attend one of three shifts—in the morning, afternoon and evening. Only 2% of Haitian children finish high school, the rest leave to help the family earn a living. I’ve visited seven developing countries now, and in Haiti I came across something I haven’t seen anywhere else—children without dreams. Even kids in Bangladesh dream of becoming doctors or engineers or singers. Some of the Haitian kids I met desperately wanted a different life, but had no idea what that might look like.

I could go on with the sorry side of Haiti’s story. But there’s another side. A paradoxical side. Amidst the destruction and destitution, Haiti has riches that we in the developed world know little of. In the midst of their hardship and pain, Haiti is undergoing a spiritual revival.

I was in Haiti visiting Compassion Australia projects where children are fed, clothed, given healthcare and education. These programs are run by local churches, and all the churches I visited had no less than 1000 members each. The Haitian Christians ‘pray-in’ every single meal and are thankful for whatever God provides, even if it’s one potato shared amongst the whole family. Even the most conservative churches run deliverance services and see Haitians released from demonic spirits and spells. The faith of the Haitians is passionate, persevering and powerful. As one pastor told me, ‘in Haiti everyday is a battle—a physical and spiritual battle. You simply cannot win that battle without Jesus.’

On the plane flight home from Haiti I flicked through one of the magazines in the seat pocket in front of me. It was one of those Sky Mall brochures, full of things to purchase with your credit card. Oh, the things you could buy! ‘Gravity-defying shoes’ with a spring-loaded heel to give you bounce. A mini microwave for your desk, saving you that laborious walk to the kitchen when your coffee goes cold. There was a luxury mattress in there for your dog, and a portable foot spa in there for you. You could even buy a full-size 80’s-style arcade game, and a mini Automatic Teller Machine that doled out money to your kids.

I read the brochure, and I winced.

Because while we buy luxury beds for our pooches, Haitian children sleep on cold cement floors. And while we fill our empty lives with trinkets, Haitian Christians are meeting God in profound ways. It was then that I realised the developing world needs our generosity and we need the developing world’s faith. We have what they want, and they have what we need.

It seems to me that a great exchange needs to take place: We give up the consumer toys for the sake of the poor, so that we might catch the faith that makes them so rich.

As a child did you ever dream of pulling on a space suit, flying to the stars, and looking back at earth as a tiny colourful ball. Well, this week we’ll talk to one of the very few people who’ve done it. Jeff Williams is a NASA astronaut. He’s orbited the earth, walked in space, and spent six months on the International Space Station. Don’t miss his most amazing perspective on the world, the cosmos and the future of space travel.

Plus, spirituality for busy people—developing a rich devotional life when you can’t become a monk.

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief is a large book about a small girl, an accordianist, some fanatical Germans and the power of words. Set in Germany during the 2nd World War, the book centres primarily on Liesel. Liesel's father has been taken by the Nazis because he is a communist, her brother has died tragically of sickness, and Liesel is adopted out by her mother as the last hope for survival. She lives with the accordionist who is a gentle and lovely man who helps her overcome the trauma of her brother’s death, her abandonment, and who teaches her to read. Books become the inspiration for her survival. She is 'the book thief' and steals her first book at the graveside of her brother. It’s a little book about how to dig graves. She goes on to steal other books, including saving books from the bonfires of the Nazis. The book about graves is significant because it is an ongoing link with her family, especially her brother. Stealing books from the Nazis is significant. She steals them from the library of the mayor, a collaborator with the Nazis. She reads them to her friends and to her community in the bomb shelters.

The Book Thief has a unique narrator too--death. The grim reaper. He is fascinated by this little girl who repeatedly cheats him. She evades the sickness that claimed her brother, and the concentration camps that killed her father and probably her mother. She even survives the bombing of her city.

At one of the most moving moments in the story, Liesel and her family take in a Jew hiding from the Nazis. It’s a very tense and dangerous situation. There is a beautiful relationship that develops between Liesel and Max. I think I cried most when Max presents Liesel with a beautiful book he’s painstakingly created for her. The paper he uses is white-washed pages from Hitler’s autobiography Mein Kampf, My Struggle. In this way Max reclaims the words of Hitler which have been used to steal people’s identity and lives; and he creates new possibilities for Liesel; words and images of hope and beauty.

This book is about the power of words. Zusak comments: “It was words (and Hitler’s ability to use them) that contained the power to murder and ostracise. What I set out to create was a character to juxtapose the way Hitler used words. She would be a stealer of books and a prolific reader. She, too, would occasionally use words to hurt, but she would understand their power to heal and give life through stories.” Ultimately the message of the book is that love is stronger than death.

This is a wonderful book. There are pictures and poetry and songs and images: the flames from bombs lighting up the skies like day; a man being beaten for daring to offer bread to the Jews... It’s creative and lyrical and significant and charming and funny and sad. It is a tremendous achievement, and so awesome that the author is young and Australian. He has much to give. My only warning is, the book is big, it builds your biceps just reading it; but one you will still be sad to finish!

What experience in your life that’s changed the way you see the world – or see your life?

NASA astronaut Jeff Williams says seeing the earth from space changed his view on the world and gave some passages in the Bible new meaning.

Chances are you haven't been to space, but what situations have caused you to examine life - or the world - from a new perspective?

Maybe witnessing poverty in another country made you appreciate what we have here in Australia.

Maybe you met someone who challenged you about something in your life that you’d never thought of before.

Maybe a book, a film or a play stirred your imagination and made you think twice about something, that you normally wouldn’t have thought about even once.

Maybe church – or faith – has changed your perspective on the world – or life in general.

What experience has caused you to step ‘outside the box’ and gain a new perspective on yourslef or the world in general?

This week’s dilemma is from Sam, who’s debating whether or not to tell his father that his mother is having an affair.

Sam came to Australia two years ago with his mum, while his dad stayed in their home country, South Africa, for financial reasons.

He says his mum has been cheating on his father, and in fact is now engaged to another man…despite the fact that technically they’re still married to each other.

Sam feels he has a responsibility to tell his dad. His mum won’t, and no one else knows about the situation.

But on the other hand, Sam is fearful that he might inflame his father’s diabetic condition. His father is already very sick, and the concern is this could be detrimental to his health. Sam’s also concerned as his family has a history of strokes. He fears the news could overwhelm his father.

• Should Sam tell his dad that his mum is getting remarried? Or wait for him to find out some other way? Or simply let him stay in the dark?

• What’s more important? Should Sam be more concerned about his father’s health – or filling him in on his mother’s plan to remarry?

Did you watch the apology to the stolen generations on Wednesday morning?

Maybe you were in Canberra for the event – or saw it on a big screen in your own town or city.

Maybe you were at school and watched it as a real live history lesson….?

What did you make of it?

Were you touched? Did it make you feel proud to be Australian?

Are you hopeful that relations between indigenous and non indigenous Australia will be improved?

Are you hopeful that the ‘gap’ will be closed – in terms of life expectancy, health, education and job opportunities?

Or are you waiting for the symbolism of the apology to be followed through with action?

They say you are what you eat. If this year’s television diet is anything to go by, we’re going to develop a taste for the overly buffed, salivate over muscle cars, digest the bitterness of organised crime and be too full for our families…

The Seven Network
LOW: Gladiators
Maybe I’m being overly dismissive, but I can’t really see the new series of Gladiators contributing anything particularly exciting to Australia’s 2008 menu. The fanciful performances of the combatants and the mock-shocked presenters are typically strained and the entertainment, if any, relies solely on the potential for the real injury of entrants. Think Nero’s circus maximus meets WWF. If there is any positive it will be the ideas it passes on to youth group leaders for Friday night games. Otherwise, the only viewers being mentally challenged will be those who thought the ‘Bring back the biff’ t-shirts were a good idea.

HIGH: Packed to the Rafters
This is an Aussie drama that stands a good chance of making us think about our modern family make-ups, though the questions may be too close to home (pardon the pu). Packed to the Rafters is a drama based built around Dave and Julie Rafter (Erik Thomson and Rebecca Gibney), baby-boomers on the verge of retirement with three adult children. Consider the dilemmas that emerge when said off-spring each see the need to move back home due to various life-struggles. For decades Australians have been developing an unhealthy obsession with the day the kids are finally ‘off their hands’ leading to the idea that parenting is a limited responsibility. Hopefully Seven’s new drama will provide opportunities for us to consider just what a good dad God is.

The Nine Network
LOW: Secret Diary of a Call Girl
This imported English drama has already made huge waves across the intervening waters. It is based on blogs posted by a prostitute known as Bel de Jour, recounting in explicit detail her experiences servicing the UK’s middle classes. The television series starring Billie Piper of Doctor Who fame contains similarly explicit material. However the real concern is the glamour the program is likely to lend to the trade. Belle has respectful, good-looking clientele, is never bothered by the police and earns substantial returns for the fun she appears to have. There are gritty sides to various episodes, but the criminal aspects and the dangers associated with prostitution are largely edited out. Predictably some nitwit will get up and talk about how empowering such a series is for women both in an out of this sad situation. Would said person be prepared to demonstrate the strength of their convictions by trying the profession for themselves? Unlikely.

HIGH: Underbelly
There series of underworld assassinations that captured the attention of Australians for the better part of a decade is likely to make captivating television, so long as the producers don’t let their imaginations run wild. The 13-part mini-series by Screentime is based on the book Leadbelly: Inside Australia's Underworld by The Age journalists, John Silvester and Andrew Rule. It’s a massive foray into Australian drama with a substantial cast aimed at helping Nine reclaim its number one status. The way in which Melbourne’s seemingly untouchable crime families spectacularly self-destructed certainly lends strength to Leviticus’ timeless assertion: beware, your sins will find you out. My hope would be that Underbelly doesn’t descend into caricatures like ‘loveable rogue’ and ‘evil psychopath’, at once softening and desensitizing us to the real ordinariness of sin and its deceptive potential to lead any of us on to the most despicable acts.

Network TEN
LOW: Swingtown
Marketing wordsmiths have continued their onslaught on the English language and combined ‘drama’ and ‘comedy’ to create ‘dramedy’ to describe this US import. It’s one collision you’ll probably want to avoid. According to the marketing guff, Swingtown “…peeks into the shag-carpeted suburban homes of the 1970s to find couples revelling in the sexual and social revolution that introduced open marriages, women's liberation and challenged many conventional wisdoms.” That might be enough said, but the real question will be whether those ‘conventional wisdoms’ are successfully but unrealistically overturned. Real life has demonstrated that the liberation gained in this part of history has had the added benefits of freeing us from stable relationships, nuclear families and a sense of community. Since the producer, Mike Kelly, also consults on The OC it’s unlikely we’re going to learn anything helpful here.

HIGH: Kenny’s World Toilet Tour
One-trick pony you say? If I were Shane Jacobson I’d be worried. But the star of the hit Australian comedy about a man in charge of port-a-loos seems the obvious choice for a tour of the world’s toilets. The project sounds banal, and its placement on TEN is not encouraging, but there’s actually something quite equalising and down-to-earth about a view of the world that begins with the realities of the human condition – even a king has to go to the bathroom.  It could be a welcome anodyne to the overly polished characters that often populate television dramas and histories. So long as it doesn’t get bogged down in juvenile humour (again, sorry for the pun) it may be as sobering as it is informative.

ABC
LOW: Family Brat Camp
I’m generally fairly scathing when it comes to programs that promise to fix your family problems, but only deal with one side of the equation. The predecessor to this series, Brat Camp, was a prime example. There, problem children were sent off to American desert locations to suffer until they’d learnt to value the homes they’d left behind. I’m not doubting that some of the lessons were valid, but I wasn’t sure how removing kids from the very situation they’re failing in, and ignoring the parents who are at least partially responsible for it, was likely to produce a positive, long-term result. This new series seems to address some of those concerns, taking both troublesome teens and suffering parents off into the wilderness to bond or break together. However, again, it’s hard to see how it will really result in anyone learning the sort of skills that will help them behave responsibly in the environment they’ve left behind. Character is more likely the result of time, time, time in far less picturesque everyday locations.

HIGH: Jane Austen Fourplay
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if the ABC deserved two ‘lows’ when I read the media release for this series. On the up-side, the public broadcaster is doing what it does best, providing access to high quality productions of four more morality tales from the pen of Jane Austen. However the accompanying description, ‘bodice-ripping frenzy of costume drama delight’ and the obviously sexual reference in the series title leaves you wondering. Still, the fact that productions of Emma, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion will be arriving on the small screen this year gives some hope. Mansfield Park, for one, will provide a tale about the true nature of attractiveness in an age where appearance and income are all that seem to matter – that’s the 19th century rather than the 21st but hopefully the lesson won’t be lost.

SBS
LOW: Skins
As if Sex in the City and Californication didn’t go far enough, SBS is happy to present sex-based drama that details the antics of British adolescents. Dawsons Creek with cockney accents? Maybe. But is it a reflection of reality or a load of wishful thinking from older producers? Nicholas Hoult plays the pumped up, manipulative ‘fixer’ for a wayward group of friends in a world of drugs, dance and rebellion. But as another reviewer puts it his character “…is overwritten with all the intellectual precocity and sexual confidence of a coke-snorting city banker twice his age.” I’m not suggesting there isn’t plenty of promiscuity amongst the teens and tweens, but you have to wonder how much programs like this act as self-fulfilling prophecies. Extremes like these arguably move the ‘middle ground’ of acceptability for younger audiences.

Open House TV and Media reviewer Mark Hadley, from Anglican Media 

This week on the show, one of the most influential voices in rock and roll—Barry McGuire. From Eve of Destruction to Cosmic Cowboy, hear Barry’s journey through fame, failure and faith—and the array of interesting folks he’s met along the way.

And triumph of the airheads! How celebrity pop culture is winning over common sense.

Time to get the Big Picture on film, with a Citizen-Kane style flick about a preacher, an oil tycoon, and moral frailty. There Will Be Blood is loosely based on an 80-year-old novel by Upton Sinclair titled Oil!  It’s a 19th century story of the ambition of two men, the hard-bitten oil man Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day Lewis) and the preachin’, teachin’ faith healin’ son of a goat herder, Eli Sunday (Paul Dano). That ambition turns into greed and callousness with the truth and with their fellow human beings.

Eli’s family is sitting on pay dirt and Plainview accepts a $10,000 proviso so Eli can build a church – money that never passes hands. Oil comes through in a great gusher, and that’s where Plainview’s problems really start.

Daniel Day Lewis gives a huge performance in the lead role. His will cannot be contained; he is a terrifying figure but also a broken, pathetic soul. It’s both a study in human potency and an object lesson is mortal frailty. Audiences may recall Paul Dano from his role as the silent but endearing older brother in Little Miss Sunshine. Dano, who plays Eli and the scarcely seen twin brother who scabs a finder’s fee off Plainview, is great as an old time preacher who’s more a carnival barker than a minister of the gospel. 

The film’s gothic power and intensity comes from the two male leads and the music score by Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead, who uses searing discords, bizarre percussion and intense volume to build tension and give power to the conflicts and situations that go down.

For me, There Will Be Blood brought the following to mind:
• The evil twin of capitalism is greed
• Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely
• We can learn from Ben Franklin’s little quote, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. The truth will come out. More to the point, quoting Chairman Moses, be sure your sins will find you out.

There Will Be Blood is nominated for best movie, director, actor, cinematography, editing, sound editing, art direction and best screenplay based on existing work. It’s a powerful, exhilarating film of biblical proportions. Director Paul Thomas Anderson gave us confronting films such Boogie Nights, Magnolia and Punch Drunk Love, so viewers should know before they show up that they are in for a rocky ride – he loves to challenge the status quo and explore the use of hypocrisy in society and relationships. The truth will come out, and there will indeed be blood in this gothic morality tale. Take the title literally and see this if you have a strong stomach and a love for drama.

There Will Be Blood is M for moderate violence and themes.

Open House film reviewer Barry Gittins is editor of On Fire magazine, and a regular reviewer for the Salvos' Warcry magazine: www.salvationarmy.org.au/warcry

This week’s dilemma is from Sophie….who is a little bit apprehensive about what to say to a colleague who’s returning to work this week, after attending the funeral of her father.

Sophie doesn’t know whether it’s better to treat her friend like normal, almost as though nothing’s really happened, so that she can make a smooth transition adjusting back into work.

She feels as though maybe she should say something - but she's not sure what. She’s scared she might say the wrong thing and make her feel worse.

Have you ever been in that situation? Has a colleague had time off to bury a loved one…and you’ve found you don’t really know how to treat them when they return to work?
 
Maybe you’ve been on the other side of the equation, and have lost a family member yourself. When you returned to work, how do you wish your colleagues had treated you? The same as everybody else? Or do you wish they’d said something to acknowledge the death?

What are the best things to talk about when you’re in this situation? Are there topics that you should steer clear of? (Is it safe to talk about how the funeral went? Or the life of the person who died?)

How do you feel about the climate change reports we keep hearing?

Do you feel hopeful—that things indeed will change?

Do you feel worried—that we’re just not moving fast enough?

Do you feel overwhelmed—by the magnitude of the subject?

Or do you simply feel confused?

Much of the debate is at the federal decision-making level. Apart from changing to energy-efficient light bulbs, properly insulating your home, and perhaps converting to a solar-powered hot water system, there’s not a lot of practical, specific options for you and I being talked about much.

Perhaps you feel empowered. You’ve changed your lifestyle—or are planning to.

I was just reading about CRAGS – Carbon Rationing Action Groups in the UK – where a group of people meet together to keep each other accountable to cutting their household emissions by about a quarter – they even tell each other off for taking too many foreign holidays.

You may or may not be part of something like this.

Is it inevitable that our high carbon lifestyles will have to change? 

Barry Maguire says he turned from a lifestyle of sex, drugs and rock and roll – to God, after randomly discovering a Good News Bible one day.

Have you had a hippy conversion of your own?

Was there been a point of complete turnaround in your life?

What was the tipping point for you?

For Barry it was the fact that his friends were dying all around him from HIV AIDS and drug overdoses, and yet amidst it, he found a small book at a friend’s house called the Bible, offering life.

What's your story?

This week on the show, the British woman offering a sanctuary of sanity to the troubled Congo. Lyn Lusi’s hospital has already been destroyed once, but continues to heal abused Congolese women. Hear how Lyn’s faith compels her to rebuild broken lives.

Plus, part 3 of our Spirituality for Busy People series; we'll look at how prayer can transform our lives. And Juan Mann, the ‘free hugs’ guy, will drop in to share the love!