REFLECTION FOR AUGUST 2012   PETER MILLAR
       
THE WAY OF AVAAZ   (www. Avaaz.org)  the good use of technology…….

I am a fan of Avaaz and I hope that this month’s Reflection will encourage you to become a fan too. I hear some of you asking  - “what is Avaaz?”

Avaaz – meaning “voice” in several European, Middle Eastern and Asian languages – was launched in 2007 with a simple democratic mission: organize citizens of all nations to close the gap between the world we have and the world most people everywhere want.

Avaaz empowers millions of people from all walks of life to take action on pressing global, regional and national issues, from corruption and poverty to conflict and climate change. Through internet organizing Avaaz allows thousands of individual efforts, however small, to be rapidly combined into a powerful collective force.

The Avaaz community campaigns in 15 languages, served by a core team on 6 continents and thousands of volunteers. Avaaz takes action – signing petitions, funding media campaigns and direct actions, emailing, calling and lobbying governments, and organizing “offline” protests and events – to ensure that the views and values of the world’s people inform the decisions that affect us all. It depends entirely on voluntary donations for its work.

Previous international citizen’s groups and social movements have had to build a constituency for each separate issue, year by year and country by country, in order to reach a scale that could make a difference. Today, thanks to new technology and arising ethic of global inter-dependence, that constraint no longer applies. Avaaz’s online community can act like a megaphone to call attention to new issues: a lightning rod to channel broad public concern into specific, targeted campaigns; a fire truck to rush an effective response to a sudden, urgent emergency;  and a stem cell that grows into whatever form of advocacy or work is best suited to meet an urgent demand.

It costs nothing to Google the Avaaz web site and to give them your e-mail address. Avaaz then informs you by e-mail of their current campaigns. Through their net-working they have built a vast global community of people. I see this as especially important at a time when many people feel they can do nothing in the face of the world’s suffering. We can. What Avaaz is seeking to achieve is an inspiring vision - a vision rooted in compassion and in concern for our connected world in which there is much injustice. We need not sit back powerless when through the internet we can act for the good of other people.

 Avaaz crosses all political, cultural and religious lines, while accepting the power of the individual to change things. Through its work I personally feel connected to many deeply concerned people in the world. People of all religious and cultural traditions - all of whom are aware that together we can raise our voices on issue that matter to the human family.

Recently about 50,000 of us all across the world (it may be more now) responded to this moving letter from a woman called Ria living in the UK. This was Ria’s initial, beautiful message sent to  the Avaaz web site.

Dear Friends at Avaaz  all over the world,

I am 65 years old and have terminal cancer and not long to live. I can do very little practically because of this. The state of the world and the amount of violence and injustice often break my heart. Through your organization even I can make a difference and try to help make this world a better place for others before I leave it. This is a positive and peaceful action which gives me great comfort. I am no longer helpless and powerless.  You have given me, even in sickness, a voice.
Thank you for giving me this priceless opportunity at such a time as this. Peace and democracy in Syria would be such a fantastic “going away present.” However, this message was just to say thank you for giving so many people who care a voice which is now heard world wide – 15 million of us! What a voice to be reckoned with. Thanks to you all.  Ria.

I have never believed that the Christian God is confined to the churches or to church-goers. But as many of you know from these month by month reflections I am deeply interested in this fundamental question:

              Where is Christ’s voice to be heard and his presence felt in the world today?
Avaaz  is not a religious movement but through its vision millions of caring people have come together to make their voice heard. I know that some Christians dislike global movements of this kind. In some way they see them as threatening or “not of God.” Many  Christians are suspicious of anything that does not originate in their own country or which takes seriously other religious and cultural traditions.

All I can say is that when I get a message in my e-mail box from Avaaz, I know that its content  will awaken my heart and mind to a vital concern in the modern world. A concern which  may be “far away” but relates to my daily living me for we are together on this small planet. Ria was right in her moving letter when she said that we can all make a difference to some tough situation or to some suffering group in the world.

No one has asked me to write in support of Avaaz. I hope, if you have time, that by my writing about Avaaz here, you will look at the web-site and through it find encouragement for  your own work of compassion.

+++++    Lord in these inter-connected times, we thank you that millions of caring people can be linked through the web in their work for justice and peace. +++++

 **** CONGRATULATIONS TO THE OLDEST READER OF THESE REFLECTIONS – Mrs Louie Wilson of Ayr in Scotland who in July celebrated her 100^th birthday in her own home. ****