RE: [GKD] Y2K approaches plus Jubilee

[Danny Gillis <dgillis@devp.org>]

Hello Henry and Vicente,

I posted this to the GKD discussion group some time ago. It wasn't
picked up for wider distribution to the list serve. No doubt there is
some sanction against non-scientific discussion, fear-mongering and
what might be construed as biblical prophecy. I also abhor biblical
prophecy but from my perspective, where I am working practically
full-time on Jubilee-related campaigns and have been following Y-2k
for over two years, the confluence of events can't be brushed aside.
So I am trying to make sense of things through a biblical lens.
Apologies withheld.

Jubilee is the modern sense has come to mean celebration of an
anniversary, like Christ's birth. I agree as you've pointed out that
the dates as arbitrary. Celebration may be cathartic but I think there
is far more than meets the eye when we talk about debt and Jubilee.

Sincerely,

Danny Gillis


Original message below:

I was interested  that for the first time to see the Y2k problem and
Jub ilee mentioned in the same breath. I think this juxtaposition is
very important. Thank you Roberto Verzola.

The Catholic Church and now many other Christian churches are
preparing for a Great Jubilee in the year 2000. The Jubilee tradition
comes from the book of Leviticus and calls for a new beginning, a
fresh start for the poor and marginalized and also for the earth. One
prominent campaign flowing from this is the Jubilee 2000 campaign
which calls for cancellation of the debt of the world's 50 poorest
countries.

The biblical Jubilee occurred every fifty years, the year after the
seventh sabbath year. Every seventh year was a Sabbath where debts
were forgiven, slaves released and the land allowed the lie fallow.
People were expected to take the year off from tilling the soil. The
year was to be given over to assessing life and learning to trust in
God rather than human progress and labour.  In the year prior to the
Sabbath the people stored up so that they would have enough during
their year of rest. In the Jubilee year, land was agaih allowed to lie
fallow and was also redistributed to the original owners. Having a
Sabbath year in the 49th year followed by a Jubilee year in the
fiftieth meant that the people needed to trust in God's providence for
two years in a row while letting their land rest.

I connect Y2k and Jubilee in this way:  What if the churches call a
Jubilee and nobody comes? What if debts are not cancelled, land is not
redistributed, slaves, such as slave-wages labourers in sweatshops are
not given proper working conditions? What if the land and all the
earth are not allowed to rest?

Well, if the bible can be believed, terrible desolation will be
visited upon humanity. The Jubilee legislation contained in Leviticus
25 is followed in Leviticus 26 by a litany of blessings that will come
to the people if they practice the Holy Years' legislation and a many
very scary curses that will befall them if they don't.

Which brings me to Y2k. Roberto Verzola says there are deeply-flawed
thinking processes involved in the development of y2k. I agree and I
think it is part of the same short-sighted world-view that humanity
has practiced for centuries. The Jubilee legislation was kind of like
a brake on unbridled progress which required trust in nature and
forced people to live in harmony with nature. Native North-Americans
practiced this respectful approach infinitely better than the
Europeans (Christians) who came to North America in the middle of this
millennium. We have created great riches and technological advances
but we have failed miserably in sharing these advantages in any kind
of equal way. Worst of all we have contaminated or destroyed many
ecosystems in the process. Some might say our greed and ignorance has
led us virtually to the brink of self-destruction. It certainly has
led to the destruction of many species of trees, plants and animals. I
won't bother with statistics since I think anyone reading this should
be aware of the species loss in the last few decades.

Y2k is an example of this greed and short-sightedness. In its
conception, it was a way to save precious computer memory. Fair
enough. But the computer industry was alerted about twenty years ago.
IBM went into deep denial, even threatening lawsuits against the South
African programmer who exposed the flaw. Even a few years ago, denial
was the order of the day. Greed was and is the primary motivation
which blocks us from resolving the problem.

I believe that we need to move beyond solving the Y2k problem and
begin to prepare for a disaster scenario not unlike Leviticus 26.

I am earnestly involved in the Jubilee 2000 campaign for debt
cancellation. Nicaragua and Honduras are two countries on our list as
eligible for debt cancellation. However, when hurricane Mitch
devastated portions of the two countries, the International Financial
Institutions stood back and said we will give you some more moeny but
we will not cancel your debts. These countries have no hope of
rebuilding when the entire amount of aid given them since the
hurricane would be eaten up in a few weeks of payoing interest on
their debts.

If the IFI's will not cancel debts even of Nicaragua and Honduras,
there will not be a Jubilee. Of all the Jubilee demands that might be
made of our corporate and financial bosses, this is the simplest -
almost a no-brainer. But it doesn't look like it's going to happen.
Forget about giving land back to the original inhabitants, letting the
land and sea lie fallow for a couple of years or freeing the slaves
from their bondage.

Y2k calls us to community preparedness. This is the way out of the
mess that will come and it is also the answer to the question, what
new paradign do we need. We need to reject the greed that feeds
globalization and return to a simpler "small is beautiful" economic
practice.

But most people will pay no heed to the need for community
preparedness as long as government and corporations tell us not to
worry. There is much that we need by way of a new paradigm - beginning
with trusting our instincts and not what the banks tell us; respecting
the environment in uncompromising ways and stopping the mad, headlong
drive for 'progress' which is based on false indicators.

-Danny Gillis



-----Original Message-----
From:	Marasigan . Vicente [SMTP:vic@pusit.admu.edu.ph]
Sent:	January 22, 1999 6:34 AM
To:	interdoc-y2k@jca.ax.apc.org
Cc:	rverzola@phil.gn.apc.org
Subject:	[interdoc-y2k 204] Re: [GKD] Y2K approaches



On Fri, 15 Jan 1999, Watermeyer, Henry wrote:
--------
> =(the Catholic Church, for instance, has declared 2000 a jubilee
> =year--very significant!);
>
> Arguably totally artificial and of no real importance. What makes the
> change from 1995 to 2005 of signifigance? Calenders are arbitarily
> defined and based measures of passing time. Untill 1582 there was no
> real measure of years that coincided with the seasons so how can we
> be sure that Christ's birth was 1999 years ago?
---------


To declare 2000 a jubilee year does not declare that Christ was born
1999 years ago.  To me, it is simply saying: let us celebrate the year
2000 with jubilation.  But what for?  Because celebrations are good
for the spirit, whether they are scheduled for 2000 or 2003 or 2030.

However, the year 2000 seems to have a higher probability of
widespread panic, judging from reflections posted on this Y2K
listserv.  To offset panic, a jubilee celebration may at least be
therapeutic.  Panicking people may be calmed more easily if they can
cling to Kingdom Come or to Nirvana or to some evolutionary optimism
- than if they have nothing to cling to, not even their bank account.

Evolutionary optimists like Henry (and myself) may try to show how the
Y2K crisis is in fact a challenge to do better in the next millenium,
with or without the help of the banking fraternity. The challenge can
be a source of world-wide jubilation if we face it as rational people.

Vicente Marasigan