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South Africa's Lockdown Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide
May 30, 2020 by Dianne Kokkonidis
"This is a true story that comes from the heart. I sat staring at the computer screen wondering how I was going to say what I wanted to say so people will hear it. This is not just a story about the impact of this virus on my life and my family's life and the tears I've shed over what we've lost. It's also about the tears I've shed for my colleagues. For my friends who are sitting in a shack somewhere watching their starving dogs scavenge for something to eat. We are the wildlife guides who used to take people into the African bush so they could live their dreams of going on safari." —Frank Watts in an interview with Wilds Wings Safaris on 28 May 2020.
Wild Wings Safaris: "We're going to chat about your short story, "Lockdown SA: Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide" in a moment, but before we get to that, let's go back to the beginning. How did you get into guiding?"
Frank Watts: "At the age of about ten, I went on safari with my family. In those days, there were no such things as safari vehicles. You'd go to a wildlife park in your vehicle where they'd put a local guide - in our case, our guide was a big Zulu guy - in the car with you. At that time, I spoke Zulu fluently so I ended up interpreting for this big man who couldn't speak English very well. He liked me, this little white kid who could speak his language, and we had an amazing time. The Zulu guide was incredible. He could see things we couldn't. He'd point out something in the bush and describe what he was seeing in Zulu. I'd turn to my dad and say, "There's a rhino over there." We'd look and see nothing until eventually, a rhino began walking towards us. At the end of that safari, I said to my dad, "This is what I want to do. I want to take people into the bush and show them the animals." So basically, I was living my boyhood dream until this pandemic pulled the carpet out from underneath us."
Frank Watts today
Wild Wings Safaris: "You call yourself a nature guide in the title of your short story. Not a safari guide. Is there a difference between the two?"
Frank Watts: "Not really. You know, safari is a word that's become more and more associated with wildlife. It's a word that means going on a journey. So safari guide, nature guide, it's pretty much the same thing. Nature encompasses the whole thing, the big picture. When you talk about safari, people think of wild animals but the more you do this job, the more you want them to see beyond the wild animals. It's about beautiful landscapes. It's about the shape of the clouds in the African sky."
Going on safari is about going on an African journey
(Image: Simon Vegter)
Wild Wings Safaris: "You were motivated by a particular experience as a child to get into guiding. What about your colleagues? What motivated them? It can't be money because safari guiding doesn't exactly pay well."
Frank Watts: "It's not the money. I think, ironically enough, a lot of guys that become nature guides are running away from people. They want to be out there in the bush, surrounded by nature and Africa's wildlife. And yet you find yourself working closely with more people than most individuals living in big cities come into contact with on any given day. What motivates us is a very powerful thing. We are sharing people's dreams with them. It's very hard to explain what it's like when a cheetah mother walks across your path with her two baby cubs, their furry mantles sticking up like mohawks, and guests on your safari vehicle start crying. Seeing that is a big, big thing for some people. They've dreamed about going on a safari all their life and they see something like that? It's big. Being part of moments like that is what motivates us to go out there every day in the cold, in the rain, in the hot sun."
Three cheetah cubs
Wild Wings Safaris: "Having a job where you play such an integral role in making people's dreams come true is something very few people can claim to have. Are there any other memories like the one you've just talked about you'd like to share with us?"
Frank Watts: "I remember guests who'd been on four, five safaris and the one animal they hadn't seen was the African wild dog. They'd been to Kenya, Botswana, all over Africa and they came to us specifically wanting to see wild dogs because they're one of Africa's most endangered carnivores. They'd done a bit of research as to when the best time would be to see these animals which is when they're denning between May, June, July. That's when the alpha female normally has puppies. The puppies stay in the den when the rest of the pack go hunting so, while they're mostly sedentary during that time, it's unlikely you'll get to see the little ones. We spent a lot of time investigating a pack's movements and had an idea their den was near a rocky outcrop. I'll never forget it. The rocky outcrop was beautiful, it was breathtaking, and as we came around the corner, there they were. African wild dogs with their little puppies. Just playing. It was a moving thing even for me because I'd never seen little ones like that before. These tiny, little puppies. For the guests, it was huge. They'd travelled across the continent looking for wild dogs and there, right in front of them in some remote corner of Africa their dream was waiting for them. It was just amazing."
African wild dogs and their pups
Wild Wings Safaris: "In the synopsis of your story, "Lockdown SA: Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide", you write about the use of the word lockdown in terms of incarceration. Few people have picked up on that. How did you make that connection?"
Frank Watts: "In my short story, I write about my last safari before the lockdown. I was parked at this beautiful waterhole and I was thinking, "Have I ever heard that word, lockdown? Have I ever used that word?" The only time I'd ever heard that word was in movies about prisons in lockdown and I sat there imagining the sound of all these prison doors slamming shut on us. I use the word incarceration in my story and I talk about my family as my cellmates because, at the end of the day, you can't do anything or go anywhere. Millions and millions of people couldn't just say, "I'm going to visit my neighbour." Even though you might have the key to the door you're locked behind, you're not allowed to leave."
Wild Wings Safaris: "So you chose those words to express your sense of frustration and helplessness at being locked in?"
Frank Watts: "You know, probably the freest person in the world is a nature guide if you think about it. We see forever and I often tell my guests when I'm driving and stop on a little rise where you can see this huge, blue African sky, "This is my office. As far as you can see." It's beyond freedom and now all of a sudden, that's gone. In a heartbeat. Not gradually like when you're getting older and can't go out as much as you could before. In a heartbeat, it's stolen from you."
Welcome to the safari guide's office
Wild Wings Safaris: "Let's talk about how the lockdown has affected your family, your business. As you say millions of people's livelihoods are affected by the lockdown, but specifically in terms of your profession, what has the impact been like?"
Frank Watts: "We were privileged. The business my partner, Dianne, and I had built was growing. We were in the process of acquiring another safari vehicle to accommodate more guests. Our little boy, Aidan, was going to boarding school and our girl, Emily, was being homeschooled so she could focus on her horse riding. Lockdown put us out of business. We don't have an income anymore. We've had to take both kids out of school. We've had to give Emily's horse away. We sold the safari vehicle that was paid for and had to apply for a payment holiday on our other vehicles. We try not to allow ourselves to feel despair because it's crippling. We do that by taking one day at a time. We wake up in the morning, take stock of what we have. So far, we have enough money to feed ourselves but the impact is devastating. We try to make ourselves feel better by reminding ourselves we're better off than most. I'm not standing in a food line, yet. I'm still here."
Wild Wings Safaris: "How has this lockdown affected other members of your profession? Tourism to South Africa came to a halt from one day to the next. I imagine the effect has been devastating for nature guides, game rangers, members of anti-poaching units and their families. You're in touch with others in the profession. Is there anything you'd like us to know?"
Frank Watts: "That's the part that breaks my heart. It's sometimes harder to find yourself in a better place than the ones you love. When I sit down for a meal, I think of some of the freelance guides and how they've lost everything. We often used a freelance guide called Happy. His name is perfect for him. His smile was like a shining beacon of light. He's recently updated his WhatsApp profile picture and I could cry when I see him sitting there with his head bowed. It's heartbreaking. These are friends, my brothers in arms, who are going to be standing in queues waiting for food to survive. Tourism will come back, but it's not going to happen any time soon."
Wildlife guide, Happy
Wild Wings Safaris: "Tourism funds wildlife conservation. I don't think people realise how important visitors are to conservation efforts such as the protection of rhinos, for example. Now that tourism has dried up, what do you think the future of conservation in South Africa looks like?"
Frank Watts: "Private game reserves only source of income is from tourists. They aren't subsidized by the government so when the tourists stop coming, their income dries up. One way for them to generate an income is to start farming the land perhaps. That means the integrity of the environment and the preservation of wildlife is at stake. The wild bush our country is blessed with is paid for by tourism. Even the Kruger National Park, the only funds they receive from the government is for road maintenance. They support themselves through tourism. The importance of tourism cannot be overstated, not only for the safeguarding of our wild animals but in the country as a whole. I speak under correction, but if tourism isn't the biggest employer in the country, it's certainly one of the top employers. So as far as the economy of South Africa is concerned, the loss of jobs and the drop in revenue is staggering."
Anti-poaching units are funded by the proceeds from tourism and donations
(Image: Susan Scott)
Wild Wings Safaris: "You chose some interesting titles for each chapter in "Lockdown SA: Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide". Chapter One, for example, is called "The Enemy Has Landed." Who or what is the enemy?"
Frank Watts: "The coronavirus is our enemy. I'm a nature guide, not a novelist, but one thing I knew when this thing started was that we had one hell of a fight on our hands."
Wild Wings Safaris: "Chapter Two is called "Don't Do The Crime If You Can't Do The Time." What do you mean by that?"
Frank Watts: "I talk about what human beings are doing to the earth in that chapter. The disrespect we show to the only home we have and how this lockdown has seen nature recovering from the effects of pollution, for example. We've been committing grave injustices to Mother Nature and each other and I can't help but feel that it's payback time."
Wild Wings Safaris: "'Life Lessons' is the title of your third chapter. Can you share some lessons you've learned with us?"
Frank Watts: "When I was still new to guiding, I quickly became disillusioned by the endless supply of people I was taking on safari who weren't understanding what I was trying to tell them and weren't showing any level of appreciation for nature. I asked this old, African guide who'd been doing this for many, many years, "How do you keep doing this?". He gave me that smile only an African can give and said, "Don't watch the animals, Frank. Watch the people." And I embraced that. I've been watching people for the last thirty years and guiding according to their reactions. Watching my kids deal with the lockdown has also taught me a lot. Our daughter, Emily, asked us if she could move in with the family who owns the stables where she rides horses because all the grooms had to be sent home. Forty-four horses and nobody to look after them. The riding instructor, her husband and their heavily pregnant daughter took Emily in. Three adults and a fourteen-year-old girl. What could go wrong, right? But she got up every morning at five o'clock, Monday through Sunday. She carried bales of hay, groomed horses, cleaned stables. When I saw her again after ten days, the little girl we'd dropped off at the stables was gone. In her place was a young woman. The boy, Aidan, he's like this little ball of sunshine. He comes out of his room every morning with a big smile and when I see that and think about what Emily has accomplished, I have hope that they will be the ones to show us a way out of this."
Frank Watts (right), nature guide and people watcher
Wild Wings Safaris: "Your final chapter is called "The Battle at Kruger". Is that a specific reference to the video that went viral thirteen years ago and put you on the map, or are you referring to something else altogether?"
Frank Watts: "Both. I briefly mentioned the video where I was witness to an incredible, once-in-a-lifetime wildlife event. But really, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. Right now, we're in a battle of our own but no one's waiting to rush in and save us like the buffalo did when they saved their calf."
Wild Wings Safaris: "That's one of the most impressive scenes. It's phenomenal to watch that herd of buffalo marshal their numbers and attack as a unit to protect their own. Do you think human beings and specifically South Africans, working together as a family will be our saving grace?"
Frank Watts: "South Africans can take on anything if we stand together. We've seen it happen before. Do you remember how our country united when we won the Rugby World Cup in 1995? When Mr Ramaphosa gave his first speech about the lockdown, I felt that same sense of unity, but, to be honest, I'm a bit disillusioned. Not only because of the way our leaders have handled the lockdown but also because of how divided we are as a nation. The insults we're levelling at each other on social media? If we put that energy into standing together, we could get through this."
Wild Wings Safaris: "Final question, Frank. What's the first thing you're going to do when the lockdown is lifted?"
Frank Watts: "I'm going to drive into the Kruger National Park in my safari vehicle and I'm going to park at that very same waterhole I was sitting at when I heard the word "lockdown" for the first time. And I'm going to sit there and listen to the sound of prison cells unlocking across the country."
Frank Watts at the same waterhole where "Battle at Kruger" was filmed.
Find out more about Frank Watts and buy his short story, Lockdown SA: Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide, at Freedom Writer.
Our blog, Top 10 things you probably didn't know about Kruger National Park, contains a link to the famous Battle at Kruger video Frank spoke about in the interview.
Editor's Note: Frank Watts and his partner Dianne (not the same Dianne who conducted the interview) are our dear friends and business associates. Over the years, Frank and his team have guided many safaris for Wild Wings Safaris, and those guests lucky enough to have had Frank as their guide will know that he is a wonderful storyteller, and he's incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about Africa's wildlife and his beloved Kruger National Park. To see this wonderful family, their safari business and their employees suffering due to Covid-19 is heartbreaking for us. Our appeal to you is to support Frank by ordering and downloading his e-book Lockdown SA: Through the Eyes of a Nature Guide, by buying it directly at Freedom Writer. At under $2 it is an unbelievable bargain, and we guarantee you will enjoy Frank's authentic writing style, his wisdom, his wit and his perspective on the world and the challenges we face. So please head over to Freedom Writer and buy his e-book right now. It can be downloaded as an ePub, Kindle file or PDF version.
Dianne Kokkonidis was born in Johannesburg, grew up in the Transkei and spent years exploring Europe. She returned to South Africa to live on a farm in the Outeniqua Mountains when the call of Africa got too loud to ignore. She comes from a family of storytellers, so it's no surprise she's now found her way into writing about one of the oldest stories known to mankind - the lure of Africa.
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Painkillers to carry addiction warnings
Over-the-counter painkillers will carry prominent health warnings about the dangers of addiction from next year.
Painkillers that include codeine, such as Nurofen Plus and Solpadeine Plus, will carry a label that reads: "Can cause addiction. For three days use only".
The move is one of a series of measures announced by the Government's drug watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) aimed at tackling the problem of "hidden addiction".
The watchdog also says that advertising will no longer be able to state that drugs can help cure ailments such as colds, but instead will state that they can only help relieve acute and moderate pain.
The maximum number of pills in a packet will be limited to 32 and warnings about addiction will be repeated on any literature inside.
The MHRA announcement follows a July report by a parliamentary group that warned about the danger of over-the-counter painkillers. About 32,000 people in the UK are believed to be addicted to painkillers, according to official estimates.
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Allan Barber looks closer at the financial results of the Alliance Group and finds plenty of operating improvement, but the profit gains touted look minor given the size of their business
2nd Dec 16, 12:29pm
by Allan Barber
By Allan Barber*
At first sight the Alliance profit of $10.1 million for 2016 appeared to be a small but definite improvement over the previous year's result when no supplier distribution was made
In contrast the directors have decided to pay $9.8 million to their suppliers, although about a third of this will be retained to ensure suppliers share up to a shareholding consistent with their livestock supply volumes. Therefore the final post tax profit was a bare $100,000.
The press release on 10th November talked up this result as a very positive outcome of the company's new business strategy which delivered $56 million of gains, compared with a budget of $34 million with a lot more to come. There is no way of finding where these gains actually came from or how they were achieved from an analysis of the detailed financial statements in the annual report.
It is quite clear that the debt level came down with a bump from $129 million to $41 million which enabled Alliance to do away with seasonal debt, increase the equity ratio to 71% and make the very welcome distribution to its shareholder suppliers.
However the major items which led to the lower debt were a substantial reduction in debtors and inventory totalling $119.3 million and a 50% drop in interest costs to $7.3 million. Operating expenses decreased from $1,476 million to $1,347 million, a healthy reduction of $129 million, but this was more than offset by a fall in revenue of $140.3 from 2015.
Although the annual report is full of positive achievements, including health and safety improvements, marketing gains, processing investments and the ability to segment livestock suppliers, this was just the start of a long process which Alliance has embarked on. To give the company credit, it freely acknowledges this, recognising much remains to be done to retain competitiveness in the context of declining livestock volumes, particularly in its main South Island catchment areas.
The 2017 financial year will provide a better indication of how Alliance is making progress towards preserving and enhancing its status as the only wholly farmer owned cooperative and leading New Zealand sheep meat exporter.
It may also want to use its improved balance sheet to strengthen its competitive position in the beef segment of the market, specifically in the North Island where it is under represented.
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*Allan Barber is a commentator on agribusiness, especially the meat industry, and lives in the Matakana Wine Country. He is chairman of the Warkworth A&P Show Committee. You can contact him by email at allan@barberstrategic.co.nz or read his blog here ». This article was first published in Farmers Weekly. It is here with permission.
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The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation and Evangelism
by Norman Shepherd.
Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian & Reformed, 2000. Pp. ix + 110, and Scripture index.
This review of The Call of Grace was first published in the Mid-America Journal of Theology
Volume 13, 2002, pp. 232-248 © Cornelis P. Venema, Professor of Doctrinal Studies
Permission granted to print, and also to post at: www.grebeweb.com/linden
In this popular presentation of his views, Norman Shepherd makes a case for an approach to salvation and evangelism that is shaped by the biblical doctrine of the covenant. Due to the importance of the subject and the controversial nature of Shepherd's reformulation of the Reformed view of the covenant, this study will be of particular interest to the Reformed community. Shepherd, who taught systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary from 1963-82, attempts to make his case for a covenant view that resolves some troublesome and unresolved problems of more traditional formulations. Since his covenant view was the occasion of a controversy that led to Shepherd's dismissal from the faculty at Westminster in 1982, this volume, which basically restates the position Shepherd was advocating already in the 1970s, merits special attention and careful evaluation.
The study is divided into two major parts. Part 1, "Covenant Light on the Way of Salvation," addresses the question of the nature of the covenant and the way it opens up a helpful view of the long-standing problem of the relation between "faith and works, or grace and merit" (p. viii). The material in this part of Shepherd's study was originally delivered as the Robinson Lectures at Erskine Theological Seminary in Due West, South Carolina, in 1999. Part 2, "Covenant Light on Evangelism," considers the significance of a biblical view of the covenant for a biblical and Reformed approach to evangelism. The material in this part is a revised form of lectures originally presented at a conference in 1975 and subsequently published in The New Testament Student and Theology (ed. John H. Skilton [Presbyterian & Reformed, 1976]).
If it is often true that the way a question is posed has much to do with the answer provided, this is particularly true for the way Shepherd poses the question he aims to address in the first part of his study. After noting that we live in a period of history that presents a special challenge "to maintain a clear testimony against unbelief, immorality, and social disintegration" (p. 3), Shepherd suggests that this challenge is aggravated by a long-standing and unresolved problem stemming from the time of the Reformation. Though Reformed believers may be profoundly grateful for Luther and the Reformers' emphasis upon the doctrine of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, they have nonetheless inherited from the Reformation some "unresolved questions." Recent debates within the evangelical community regarding such matters as "lordship salvation" (does salvation include acknowledging Christ as Lord as well as Savior?) and "Evangelicals and Catholics Together" illustrate that the problems of antinomianism and legalism have not found satisfactory resolution. Whereas some Protestants emphasize justification through faith alone and thereby diminish the gospel call to repentance (for fear of legalism), others, as in the Roman Catholic tradition, emphasize the necessity of good works and thereby introduce a new legalism. This continuing problem of antinomianism or legalism is the "legacy of the Reformation on the downside" (p. 8), according to Shepherd. It raises the question that only the biblical doctrine of covenant satisfactorily answers — "how do you preach grace without being antinomian? … [H]ow do you preach repentance without calling into question salvation by grace apart from works?" (pp. 8-9)
In the first part of his study, Shepherd surveys the biblical accounts of the covenant of grace in its distinct Abrahamic, Mosaic and New Covenant administrations. According to Shepherd, all forms of God's covenant with human beings, whether before or after the fall, involve "a divinely established relationship of union and communion between God and his people in the bonds of mutual love and faithfulness" (p. 12). Though this covenant relationship is founded upon and initiated by God's grace, the promises of God's grace toward his people are always accompanied by obligations or demands. Thus, promise and demand are two, closely related components or parts of any covenant between God and his people.
Consistent with this general understanding of the covenant relationship, Shepherd argues that it is incorrect to identify the covenant with Abraham as an "unconditional" covenant. Those who view the Abrahamic covenant, for example, as a "model for the method of gospel grace," contrasting it with the Mosaic covenant as a "legalistic covenant, in which you are saved by keeping [the] republished covenant of works perfectly" (p. 14), misunderstand both the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants. No less than the Mosaic covenant, the Abrahamic is conditional upon its distinctive requirements. Among the conditions of the Abrahamic covenant, Shepherd identifies the following: the requirement of circumcision, the obligation of faith, the crediting of Abraham's "living and obedient faith" as righteousness, and the command to walk before the Lord and to be blameless. These conditions or obligations of the Abrahamic covenant, moreover, are clearly demonstrated in two ways: first, due to Israel's unbelief and disobedience, she failed to receive all that the covenant promised; and second, only through the "covenantal righteousness of Jesus Christ" were the promises of the covenant fulfilled. Jesus Christ fulfilled the covenant obligations by means of his "living, active and obedient faith that took him all the way to the cross" (p. 19). The faith (or better, faithfulness) of Christ was, Shepherd maintains, "credited to him as righteousness" and becomes thereby the "guarantee" of blessing for "his followers" who are obligated to "be faithful in order to inherit the blessing" (p. 19; Shepherd's emphasis). Shepherd summarizes what we may learn from the Abrahamic covenant as follows: "In the Abrahamic covenant, there are promises and obligations. The blessings of the covenant are the gifts of God's free grace, and they are received by way of a living and active faith. Salvation is by grace through faith. By grace and through faith! Those are the two parts of the covenant" (p. 22).
A pivotal leg in Shepherd's argument and reformulation of the doctrine of the covenant is provided in his exposition of the Mosaic covenant. In Shepherd's view, this covenant conforms in its essential parts to the same pattern exhibited in the Abrahamic covenant: God's grace and promise establish the covenant relationship, but the promises are only enjoyed in the way of covenant faithfulness or obedience to the covenant's obligations. However, in the history of Reformed covenant theology, the Mosaic covenant has often been misinterpreted as a covenant of works that republishes the pre-fall covenant with humankind in Adam. Citing Charles Hodge as an example of this interpretation, Shepherd identifies the "basic principle" operative in this covenant view as a "works/merit" principle. The Mosaic covenant is regarded as a legal one, which requires perfect obedience to its demands and, upon the condition of such obedience, promises blessing as its merited reward. Just as God promised Adam life upon condition of perfect obedience, the Mosaic covenant, though it functions within the broader framework of the covenant of grace formally established with Abraham, has a legal cast. In this understanding, the Mosaic covenant promises its merited reward "as a matter of simple justice" (p. 26).
The burden of Shepherd's treatment of the Mosaic covenant is to demonstrate that it follows the same pattern evident in the Abrahamic covenant. Though he does not explicitly reject the whole concept of a pre-fall covenant of works, Shepherd's argument shows that he regards the concept as a fundamental misstatement of the covenant relationship. The obedience required in the Mosaic covenant is "not the obedience of merit, but the obedience of faith. It is the fullness of faith. Obedience is simply faithfulness to the Lord; it is the righteousness of faith (compare Rom. 9:32)" (p. 39). In his fatherly love and covenantal favor, the Lord graciously covenants with Moses and the children of Israel. This covenant relationship is not merited, nor does its continuance depend upon meritorious good works. However, even as Abraham was obliged to live obediently before the Lord, so Moses and the children of Israel were obliged to keep his commandments. Thus, when the apostle Paul in Romans 10:5-6 and Galatians 3:12 speaks of the law in contrast to faith, he is using an ad hominem argument against the Judaizers in their misuse of the Mosaic covenant. When the law says, for example, that those who do what the law requires will live (compare Lev. 18:5), it is not enunciating a works/merit principle, as the Judaizers claimed, but the covenantal principle of enjoying the blessings of God's favor in the way of faithfulness. Neither the Abrahamic nor the Mosaic covenants ever contrasts as opposing principles grace and merit, or faith and works. "In both covenants," says Shepherd, "thee are promises, and these promises are received by a living and active faith" (p. 40).
The remainder of the first part of Shepherd's study outlines the distinctive features of the new covenant in Christ, by comparison to the Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants, and draws conclusions for the problems of antinomianism and legalism. Consistent with his main thesis regarding the covenant, Shepherd insists that the new covenant consists of two parts, promises of grace and obligations. The grace of God in Jesus Christ places believers under the obligations of faith and repentance. Believers "must become obedient, as he [Christ] was obedient" (p. 48). Furthermore, believers who believe and repent are obligated to persevere in doing the will of God. This is the only way whereby they will receive "what has been promised as a gift of sovereign grace" (p. 49). Failure to meet these covenant conditions can only result, as was the case under the covenant in its previous administrations, in coming under the curse and judgment of God. Though the conditions of the covenant are not "meritorious conditions," it remains the case that only a "living, active, and abiding faith is the way in which the believer enters into eternal life" (p. 50).
However, Shepherd also notes significant differences between the Mosaic covenant and the new covenant in Christ. The Mosaic covenant has been abrogated in several respects. The elaborate rituals for temple worship are no longer binding. The sacrifices of the old covenant, which typified the sacrifice of Christ for the sins of his people, are no longer needed. Furthermore, the observance of the Mosaic law cannot save any one. Shepherd argues that this is not due to the inability of anyone to "keep the law perfectly as a covenant of works. Rather, observing the law cannot save a person because the Mosaic system is no longer operative" (p. 56). Despite these differences between the old and new covenants, and despite these senses in which the new abrogates the old, all of the covenants, according to Shepherd, are "revelations of salvation by grace through faith" (p. 57). What is new in the new covenant is "not the principle of grace, but the person and work of Jesus Christ" who enables his people "to become the covenant keepers that God intended [them] to be from the beginning" (p. 57).
Shepherd concludes the first part of his study by returning to what he terms the unresolved legacy of the Reformation. The solution to the twin errors of antinomianism and legalism, as well perhaps as the divide between the Reformation and Catholicism, lies in a wholesale rejection of the idea of merit. Both Reformed and Catholic views of salvation have historically allowed the idea of merit to pervert the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. Roman Catholics, on the hand, teach that the believer who cooperates with God's grace can merit further grace. However, Protestants, who repudiate the idea of the meritorious good works of believers, still retain the idea of merit in connection with the saving work of Christ. Christ alone, by way of his perfect obedience to the law (active and passive), obtains or merits eternal life for his people. This Protestant understanding of merit has the unfortunate consequence, according to Shepherd, of encouraging the idea that an emphasis upon sanctification or the necessity of good works represents "a threat to salvation by grace" (p. 62). Once the whole notion of works (whether Christ's or the believer's) meriting salvation is repudiated, however, we can stress the conditional character of the covenant. The blessings of salvation are granted by God's grace by way of the covenantal obligations of faith, repentance and obedience. A covenantal understanding of the gospel, accordingly, solves the problem of traditional Protestantism's embarrassment with passages like Galatians 5:6 and James 2:24.
In the second part of his study, Shepherd offers a solution to the problem of a Reformed approach to evangelism. What we need, he argues, is a "covenant-evangelism" approach rather than an "election-evangelism" or "regeneration-evangelism" approach. Because Reformed people have typically approached the subject of evangelism from the perspective of divine election, they have often faced crippling practical obstacles to an effective and rigorous approach to evangelizing the lost. Since the doctrine of election emphasizes the particularity of God's love and grace, the pastor is faced with the insoluble difficulty of knowing to whom the good news is addressed. If lost sinners are approached as a mixed company of elect and non-elect sinners, only some of who are graciously addressed in the gospel, then how can a pastor confidently extend the gospel's promise to all? In addition to this difficulty, the Reformed pastor is also uncomfortable with the gospel's demands of repentance and obedience. Too much emphasis upon what the gospel requires will lead, he fears, to a new legalism or undermine the gospel of grace alone. And, if these practical difficulties were not enough, the Reformed pastor is also shackled by the problem of the assurance of salvation. If we do not know who are elect and non-elect, how can we obtain any real certainty regarding God's electing grace toward us in Christ?
Shepherd presents his case for a covenant-evangelism approach in three stages. In the first stage of his argument, he begins with an exposition of the "Great Commission" of Matthew 28. In the second stage he turns to the subject of the relation between covenant and election And in the third stage he concludes with a chapter on the subject of covenant and regeneration. The heart of this second part of his study is his insistence that we approach sinners in terms of the doctrine of the covenant, rather than in terms of the doctrine of election.
After showing that the Great Commission is thoroughly covenantal in its nature and assumptions (fulfilling the promise to Abraham, calling all to meet the covenant conditions of faith and obedience, administered by means of Word and sacrament), Shepherd seeks to illustrate how the covenant solves some of the long-standing problems of Reformed evangelism. Rather than approaching people in the "third-person" ("God saves the elect by grace alone, though we do not know whether you or I are elect"), the pastor who speaks covenantally is able to extend the gospel promise without embarassment to all covenant breakers in Adam. Just as the prophets and apostles viewed election from the perspective of covenant, so should the gospel preacher (p. 83). This enables the pastor to address people, not "as a mixed multitude of elect and reprobate, with a view toward separating them," but as a company of lost sinners to whom he opens up the promise of "covenant life in union and communion with God" (p. 84). Viewed covenantally, the gospel may be addressed "to everyone on the basis of John 3:16, 'Christ died to save you'" (pp. 84-85). The covenantal gospel, furthermore, grants assurance by focussing upon the covenant promise rather than upon the inscrutable, secret things of God's decree. It allows the preacher, at the same time, the freedom to stress the covenant's obligations without fear of legalism, since the promise is always realized in the way of covenant faithfulness. The categories, in this kind of an approach, are no longer elect or non-elect persons. The only kinds of persons with which the pastor deals are covenant keepers and covenant breakers.
According to Shepherd, this covenant approach helps to explain the language of the apostle Paul in Ephesians 1. It also helps to explain why baptism, not regeneration, is "the moment when we see the transition from death to life and a person is saved" (p. 94). When Paul speaks of believers as elect in Christ in Ephesians, he is not speaking in terms of God's eternal decree of election. Rather, he is speaking of the covenantal status of believers (and their children) in Ephesus, some of whom may prove to be non-elect should they fail to persevere in faith. Contrary to an approach that focuses upon regeneration, which inevitably leads to the practice of dividing the covenant community into two classes, the regenerate and the non-regenerate (who can ultimately be known only to God), covenant evangelism deals with sinners in terms of the covenant and its administration. Because baptism signifies and seals visibly the believer's fellowship and incorporation into Christ, it must serve as the point of departure for determining whether a person is elect in Christ.
Shepherd is convinced that this kind of covenant-evangelism approach will have a liberating and enlivening effect in Reformed churches. If a Reformed pastor, he claims, consciously orients his evangelistic methodology to the doctrine of the covenant rather than election, "he can and ought to expect permanent vitality in the steady expansion of the church of Christ" (p. 82).
I have taken the trouble to provide this brief sketch or overview of Shepherd's argument in order to provide a basis for the following evaluation. Though Shepherd's study is relatively brief and written in an easy-to-read style, it constitutes, as I indicated at the outset, a rather substantial reformulation of Reformed covenant theology. Since the implications of his reformulation are far-reaching and possibly destructive of a consensus within the Reformed churches today, my evaluation will be somewhat more comprehensive than is ordinarily the case in a book review.
Shepherd's study has several evident strengths. The book is clearly written and makes a good case for recognizing the unity of the covenant of grace in its various historical administrations. Shepherd's general description of the covenant as a divinely-initiated relationship of union and communion between God and his people is unobjectionable and fairly traditional. In his brief survey of the administration of the covenant of grace in its Abrahamic, Mosaic and New Testament forms, Shepherd properly insists upon the mutuality and conditionality of the covenant relationship. When the Lord enters into a communion or covenant with his people, this covenant stipulates or obligates its members to live together in the bonds of mutual fidelity and love. There are, accordingly, senses in which the covenant of grace is both unconditional in its initiation and conditional in its administration. In his treatment of the Mosaic covenant, Shepherd rightly opposes any view that would interpret it exclusively as a kind of "covenant of law," neglecting thereby to recognize the priority of God's grace and promise in this administration of the covenant as well as others. Whatever the peculiar features of the Mosaic covenant, Shepherd correctly maintains its continuity with the formal establishment of the covenant with Abraham and its subsequent fulfillment in Christ.
Since the covenant, according to Shepherd, invariably includes the elements of God's gracious promises, stipulations of obedience, and sanctions for disobedience or unfaithfulness, it provides a framework for understanding how God's sovereign grace does not diminish but undergirds human responsibility. When the doctrine of salvation is viewed exclusively in terms of God's sovereign and unconditional electing grace, and not in terms of the covenant in history, it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to accommodate the Scriptural emphasis upon human responsibility in the context of gracious privilege. In this way the error of antinomianism can be resisted, since the privileges of God's gracious covenant serve not to diminish but rather to establish the responsibilities of the covenant relationship. Shepherd effectively makes these points throughout his study.
In his treatment of the relation between covenant and evangelism, Shepherd also offers a number of helpful observations regarding the benefits of a covenantal approach. In his exposition of the Great Commission, he rightly observes that it can only be understand against the background of God's promise to Abraham. The promise of blessing for all the families of the earth is now being fulfilled through the discipling of the nations. This promise of blessing and salvation, moreover, does not aim simply to save sinners from condemnation and death. Rather, it aims to gather the nations in order that God's kingdom come, and that the peoples serve the Lord in truth and faithfulness. Evangelism, therefore, is not merely a matter of "snatching a few brands from the burning," but includes the goal of preaching the gospel of the kingdom to the ends of the earth. On the basis of this covenantal emphasis, Shepherd also resists the temptation to draw an inappropriate line between the nurture of covenant members and the evangelistic seeking out of non-covenant members in order to bring them into the fellowship of the church. The same covenantal gospel is preached to all, and it is preached with the same goal in view.
Perhaps the primary emphasis of Shepherd's advocacy of a covenant-evangelism approach is that the gospel preacher should not approach sinners from the perspective of God's decree of election and reprobation. When this is the case, and the primary focus of interest is upon the regeneration (or non-regeneration) of covenant members, insoluble problems arise for the evangelistic task of the church. Since no one knows precisely who is elect and who is non-elect, the gospel promise may not be generally extended to all recipients of the gospel (for fear that non-elect persons be improperly addressed). Furthermore, since no one knows the "secret things" of God's electing or non-electing counsel, the gospel may not be communicated in a way that assures its recipients of God's promise and faithfulness. Anxiety about the assurance of salvation often follows and believers become preoccupied with looking for evidences of regeneration, which then become the basis for a confidence about one's salvation. Because the electing grace of God in Christ is unconditional, evangelism that is oriented to the decree of election also suffers, according to Shepherd, from an inordinate fear of emphasizing the gospel's conditions of faith and obedience. However, when we approach people in terms of the covenant with its promises and obligations, we can simultaneously herald the good news of God's grace in Christ and the corresponding summons to new obedience. Shepherd's main point regarding covenant evangelism, therefore, is the helpful reminder that we should approach lost sinners with the gospel of God's covenant grace in Christ, making judgments respecting people in terms of the covenant's administration (through Word and sacrament) rather than curiously inquiring into the secret things of God.
Despite these evident strengths of Shepherd's study, there are also a number of deeply troublesome features to his book that I do not believe can be ignored or minimized. Since a full discussion of each of these features would extend this review beyond its proper limits, I will restrict myself to a series of critical observations, each of which could undoubtedly be developed at much greater length.
First, we have noted that Shepherd's study is presented as a helpful resolution of some allegedly "unresolved questions that are really the legacy of the Protestant Reformation" (p. 4). Chief among these problems is a failure to relate properly faith and works, a failure that is especially evident in the unresolved questions of antinomianism and legalism. Shepherd presents his study, accordingly, as something of a creative contribution to problems inherent in the traditional formulations of Reformed theology going as far back as the sixteenth century. By any standard, this is a rather tall order and daunting task. It is rather perplexing, therefore, to read Shepherd's study and discover that he cites almost no authors in the course of his study. On one occasion he quotes an unnamed and unreferenced source (p. 13). On another occasion he quotes Charles Hodge on the subject of the covenant of works to illustrate what is wrong with some of the traditional formulations of Reformed theology (p. 25). The historic confessions of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches likewise receive little or no attention. Perhaps these omissions may be excused by noting that Shepherd's study is a published version of occasional addresses, and that he makes no claim to offer a complete or systematic presentation of his views. However true such points may be, Shepherd's bold claims for the advantages of his formulations, as contrasted with (unnamed and unidentified) formulators of traditional Reformed theology, would seem to place a greater burden of proof upon his shoulders. That burden includes, minimally, a significant amount of interaction with the exegetical, confessional and theological tradition known as "Reformed." Readers of this little volume, however, will find such interaction notably lacking.
Second, in making a case for the unity of the covenant of grace throughout the history of its various administrations, Shepherd treats the covenant relationship between God and his people as largely identical at every point, including its administration before and after the fall into sin. In all of God's dealings with human beings, whether before or after the historic fall into sin, the covenant relationship consists of a graciously established bond of union and communion between God and his people. This covenant relationship is born of God's free grace, stipulates faith and obedience, and threatens with sanctions those who fail to fulfill its obligations.
This flattening out or virtual identifying of the pre- and post-fall covenants has unavoidable and mischievous implications for our understanding of the way of salvation. For example, one implication of Shepherd's argument is that the way of salvation, whether for Adam or Christ or any believer, is always one and the same — the way of covenant-keeping faithfulness. Thus, one of the ironies of his formulation of the covenant at this point is that, though Shepherd introduces grace into the covenant relationship before the fall into sin in a way that parallels the priority of grace in the post-fall covenant, he also treats the stipulation of obedience for believers in the covenant of grace as though it were merely a reiteration of the pre-fall obligation of obedience. Salvation is by grace through faith(fulness), before as well as after the fall. God's promise secures or guarantees the believer's covenant inheritance. However, that inheritance can only be received by way of the believer's covenant keeping (p. 19).
Third, though this flattening of the covenant relationship throughout the course of history, before and after the fall, may have a superficial appeal, it has huge implications for the way we interpret the respective "work" of Adam and Christ, the second Adam. Shepherd makes clear that he rejects the traditional Reformed doctrine of a pre-lapsarian "covenant of works" that promised Adam life "upon condition of perfect obedience" (Westminster Confession of Faith, Chap. VII.ii). To say that Adam's acceptance before God justly demanded his performance of an obligation of obedience, is, Shepherd argues, tantamount to treating the covenant relationship as though it were a contractual one, on analogy of an employer to an employee, rather than a familial one, on analogy of a father to a son (p. 39). We should recognize that God always treats human beings on the basis of his sovereign grace and promise. Just as children never "merit" their father's favor by their good works, so human beings never "merit" God's favor by their obedience to the covenant's obligations. However, life in covenant with God, though not "merited," is nonetheless obtained only by way of the obedience of faith. This means that what God required of Adam, he requires of Abraham and all believers, including Christ.
Lest this interpretation of Shepherd's view be regarded as a misreading of his position, it should be noted that Shepherd explicitly draws a parallel between what God obliges Abraham, Christ, and all believers to do as a necessary condition for their salvation. In his description of Christ's saving work, Shepherd uses the same language that he earlier used to describe Abraham's faith: "His [Christ's] was a living, active, and obedient faith that took him all the way to the cross. This faith was credited to him as righteousness" (p. 19, emphasis mine). By this language Shepherd treats Christ as though he were little more than a model believer whose obedient faith constituted the ground for his acceptance with God in the same way that Abraham's (and any believer's) obedient faith constituted the basis for his acceptance with God. In his zeal to identify the covenant relationship between God and man in its pre- and post-fall administrations, Shepherd leaves little room to describe Christ's work as Mediator of the covenant in a way that honors the uniqueness, perfection and sufficiency of Christ's accomplishment for the salvation of his people.
Fourth, these features of Shepherd's reformulation of the doctrine of the covenant raise questions regarding his understanding of the doctrine of justification. Though Shepherd studiously avoids any explicit formulation of the doctrine of justification in this study, the trajectory of his position clearly points in the direction of a revision of the historic Reformation position. Just as Adam was obliged to meet the conditions of the covenant that God graciously established with him, so believers are obliged to meet the conditions of the covenant of grace in order to inherit eternal life. Just as Christ was obliged to live in covenantal loyalty and faithfulness to God, Shepherd maintains, "so his followers must be faithful in order to inherit the blessing" (p. 19). As we have noted, Shepherd is even willing to speak of Christ's obedient faith being "credited to him as righteousness" in a manner parallel to the way Abraham's (and every believer's) obedient faith is credited to him for righteousness.
But this kind of parallel between Christ's faith and ours would mean that the believer's inheritance in the covenant of grace finally depends upon his following Christ's example. Salvation and blessing are the (non-meritorious, though earned?) reward of the covenant for those who keep the covenant's conditions and stipulations. Missing from Shepherd's discussion at this juncture are several key features of the historic Reformed view of salvation. Shepherd does not make it clear, for example, that the believer can only obtain eternal life upon the basis of the perfect obedience, satisfaction and righteousness of Christ alone received by faith alone (compare the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Days 23 & 24). Nor does he make it clear (indeed, on page 62 he seems to deny it) that the believer's imperfect obedience, which Christ by his Spirit graciously works in him, adds nothing to the work of Christ in respect to his standing before God and right to eternal life. Rather, Shepherd argues that the traditional Reformed view, which insists that the (sinfully imperfect) good works of believers provide no basis for their acceptance before God, fails to do justice to the genuine obedience of believers (p. 62). By this argument he fails to appreciate the classic Reformed conviction that Christ's work as Mediator of the covenant of grace constitutes the only ground for the believer's justification (and sanctification!) before God.
Fifth, the ambiguity in Shepherd's formulations (the reader will look in vain in this book for a clear, express statement of the doctrine of justification by grace alone through faith alone) is undoubtedly related to his antipathy for the idea of merit. For Shepherd the biggest obstacle to a resolution of the differences between Reformed and Roman Catholic views of salvation is the employment of the language of merit. In Roman Catholicism the believer's works are said to "merit" further grace and salvation. According to Shepherd, this undermines the truth of God's gracious initiative in the covenant of grace and misunderstands the way God rewards the obedient faith of his covenant people. Though obedient faith is necessary in order for the believer to inherit the covenant's blessings, this obedience is prompted and enabled by God's grace in Christ. However, Reformed theology has also, according to Shepherd, wrongly employed the idea of "merit" in its doctrine of salvation. In the traditional Reformed view, Christ's active and passive obedience are represented as the just basis for the believer's acceptance by God. Because Christ fulfilled the obligations of perfect obedience on behalf of his people, their justification and inheritance of eternal life are justly "merited" by the work of Christ. Shepherd insists, however, that we need to eliminate every idea of merit from our understanding of salvation. Only then will we be in a position to acknowledge the indispensable role of non-meritorious works as an instrumental means for the believer's obtaining of his inheritance.
The problem with Shepherd's wholesale repudiation of the idea of "merit" in our understanding of salvation, however, is that it has detrimental implications for other aspects of the traditional Reformed view of salvation. As we have already noted, it requires a thorough revision of the classic Reformed view of the covenant of works. However, it also would seem to require a revision of the classic Reformed view of Christ's saving work as Mediator of the covenant of grace. The Reformed confessions describe the work of Christ as a remedy for fallen sinners in Adam. The only kind of Mediator who can save covenant-breakers in Adam is One who fulfills all the obligations and liabilities of the law on behalf of his people, and thereby obtains and "merits" for them eternal life. Christ's obedience is understood in terms of God's truth and justice, as a satisfaction of God's justice and a maintenance of the truth of his Word ("in the day you eat you shall surely die …"). Christ's perfect obedience, satisfaction and righteousness are regarded as the sole and sufficient ground for restoring fallen sinners to full communion with God. Moreover, the Reformed confessions, when they speak of the believer's works and necessary obedience, make clear that the believer's sanctification, as much as his justification, is a gracious working of Christ by his Spirit. The whole of salvation and every covenant blessing is graciously and justly procured for believers through the perfect mediation of Jesus Christ.
Shepherd fails to show how this traditional Reformed view of Christ's saving work, which requires the elements of Christ's merit and satisfaction of the demands of God's justice revealed in his law, represents a significant problem. Specifically, he fails to demonstrate how this view undermines the necessity or genuineness of a believer's good works. To say that Christ's work "merits" for believers their inheritance in the covenant is only to say that his covenant faithfulness (and substitutionary endurance of the covenant's sanction) is the exclusive ground for this inheritance. But this in no way compromises the obvious truth, which classic Reformed theology also emphasized, that believers are obligated by God's grace to walk worthily of the gospel. The Reformed use of the language of "merit" in respect to the work of Christ was always employed to magnify the perfection of Christ's work in satisfying for the sins of his people. Unlike Shepherd, who seems to think grace and justice, fatherly mercy and judicial satisfaction, are at odds, the Reformed view always insisted upon and assumed their harmony. The covenant is an expression of God's fatherly favor, to be sure. But it is also a relationship that God justly administers.
And sixth, though Shepherd offers some helpful observations in his apology for covenant evangelism, his treatment of the relation between covenant and election also raises some troubling questions. To put it somewhat simplistically, Shepherd seems to want to view election exclusively through the lens of the covenant of grace in its historical administration. Since we cannot know the "secret things" of God's eternal decree, we should preach the gospel solely in terms of the promises, obligations and sanctions of the covenant of grace. In this approach, we should regard all baptized members of the covenant as "elect in Christ." However, this election, which Shepherd maintains can be directly known through the promise signified and sealed in baptism, may be lost, should the baptized person fail to persevere in the way of obedient faith. Shepherd rejects traditional distinctions that Reformed theologians have used to distinguish between the covenant of grace in its administration and the particular election of some, though not all, covenant members. If we say that some members of the covenant of grace in its administration are non-elect, then we imperil the assurance of salvation by raising doubts as to the truth of God's covenant promise.
Remarkably, because Shepherd is unwilling to distinguish between those with whom God covenants in a broader sense (covenant in its administration) and those with whom God covenants in a narrower sense (covenant in its fruition), he ends up with what sounds suspiciously like a conditional election doctrine. Covenant members are elect in Christ so long as they persevere in faithfulness. However, should they become unfaithful, they may become subject to covenant discipline and lose their election. But this is not the end of the mischief that his approach creates for our understanding of the doctrine of election. For example, Shepherd maintains that the Reformed preacher is authorized by the doctrine of the covenant to address all with the message that Christ died for them, even though some so addressed may choose not to believe and obey the gospel (p. 85). Does this mean that persons for whom Christ died, because they fail to persevere in the way of obedient faith, do not receive the covenant's blessings? In Shepherd's formulation of the covenant's significance for our understanding of election, notes such as these are sounded that can hardly be harmonized with those found in the Canons of Dort, a classic expression of the Reformed faith. For Shepherd, election, covenantally viewed, is corporate and conditional. Perseverance in the way of obedient faith determines whether baptized persons are elect or not, even though God may have earlier declared them elect. Christ's atoning death is preached as a death for all sinners whom the gospel addresses. What Warfield called the main point of Calvinism, the irresistible working of God's Spirit in the regeneration of lost sinners, is said to be little or no part of what evangelists should emphasize in their preaching.
(It should also be noted that there is an interesting irony to Shepherd's reformulation of the relation between election and covenant. Because he wants to view election strictly from the vantage point of the covenant in its historical administration, Shepherd is unable to fulfill his own promise that this approach enhances the believer's assurance of election. He has no answer for the question: if I can lose my election through covenant unfaithfulness, then why is the promise of my election in baptism so reassuring? Furthermore, by calling into question the way the apostle Paul speaks in Romans 9 [not all covenant members are "children of the promise" in the same sense, since God, according to his "purpose of election" chooses to save one and not the other], Shepherd cannot but leave the impression that the believer's election, perseverance, and inheritance of eternal life depend upon his faithful performance of the covenant's obligations.)
Each of these problems in Shepherd's study deserves further elaboration. They illustrate, however, that there are substantial problems in his reformulations of the Reformed view of salvation, and of covenant and election. Readers of this book need to be aware of these problems and resist the temptation to endorse unwittingly formulations whose implications raise more serious problems than those allegedly inherent in more traditional views.
The solution, for example, to the supposed problem of faith and works is not to confuse justification and sanctification, or to stress the believer's obligations of obedience as indispensable to the inheritance of blessing. Rather, the solution lies in a careful presentation of the riches of God's grace toward us in the Person of our Mediator. Christ, as Calvin often remarked, is given to us by God for righteousness and sanctification. In Christ, and in Christ alone, God provides every spiritual or covenantal blessing, whether it be the blessing of acceptance with him, on account of the righteousness of Christ, or the blessing of renewal in holiness, on account of the Spirit of Christ at work in us. The legacy of the Reformation is not an unresolved problem of antinomianism or legalism. The legacy of the Reformation is, rather, nicely put in Q. & A. 86 of the Heidelberg Catechism: "Since, then, we are delivered from our misery by grace alone, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we yet do good works? Because Christ, having redeemed us by His blood, also renews us by His Holy Spirit after His own image …." The "call of grace," according to this legacy, is itself enveloped within the "gift of grace."
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text:
Grenfell Tower inquiry
Grenfell inquiry: 'medical emergency' after harrowing film shown – as it happened
Coverage of the second day of the Grenfell Tower inquiry as it continues to hear tributes to the 72 people who died
Distressing footage halts proceedings on emotional day
Portraits of all 72 people killed
On the second day of the Grenfell Tower, families and friends shared tributes to the 72 people who died. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
Matthew Weaver
Tue 22 May 2018 14.06 EDT First published on Tue 22 May 2018 04.12 EDT
12.29pm EDT 12:29 Second day ends
11.39am EDT 11:39 'Medical emergency' after harrowing film shown
11.20am EDT 11:20 Hisam Choucair: 'I see it as an atrocity. They should still be here'
9.12am EDT 09:12 Grenfell inquiry holds a minute's silence for the Manchester Arena victims
5.31am EDT 05:31 Second day opens with tribute to Debbie Lamprell
4.20am EDT 04:20 Second day to hear tributes to the Choucair family
2.06pm EDT 14:06
This live blog is now closing. You can read our report from the second day of the inquiry here:
Grenfell inquiry: distressing footage halts proceedings on emotional day
12.29pm EDT 12:29
Second day ends
Sir Martin Moore-Bick Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA
Moore-Bick draws an end to the second day of the inquiry by thanking Mussilhy and Rahman's family.
"I'm sorry you had to wait so long to make your commemoration, but it was worth the wait."
He added with this understatement: "Thank you all for being here so long. It has turned into a very long day and an very emotional day and I grateful to all you for being here."
"We will start again at 10am tomorrow."
Hesham Rahman Photograph: Karim Mussilhy/PA
Karim Mussilhy introduced a video tribute to his uncle Hesham Rahman, who lived on the 23rd floor of Grenfell in flat 204. The video showed family photos with a commentary from his sister and his young nephew Omar. "His personality made me stronger every time I was around him," Omar said.
Mussilhy remembers visiting his uncle's flat after the fire. The lifts were not working, which happened quite often, he said. Walking up the stairs brought on Mussilhy's asthma. He remembered thinking how difficult it would have been for his uncle to escape the flat.
"Until those in power make changes to the system, only God knows how many homes are safe. So listen and learn those mistakes," Mussilhy said. "We are here because the system failed to protect my uncle and 71 other souls.
"We are here because nobody listened, because that system is broken. You can't hide behind rules and procedures. That's what allowed people to die. Materials that are clearly dangerous are still on buildings all over the country.
"It is not good enough for the government to say it is going to remove this material. We want light to be shone on what went wrong and who is responsible. We want an inquiry into the truth."
Richmond interrupts him to say these points should be made at a later part of the inquiry. Mussilhy carries on. "We have been censored enough," he says. "You have a duty to the truth and not procedures, because we will not let you forget."
Mussilhy closes with a poem by his uncle, which includes the line "Remember my presence after my departure."
Updated at 12.55pm EDT
Here's a summary of what's happened so far on second day of the inquiry.
The second counsel to the inquiry, Bernard Richmond, has apologised after distressing images of people trapped in the fire were played without a warning about the content. Several people attending the inquiry left the room in tears, and at least one person required medical help.
The inquiry heard powerful accounts of the night of the fire by Hisam Chocair, who lost six members of his family in the blaze. He said: "I don't see this as a tragedy, I see it as an atrocity, because essentially there is segregation between the rich and the poor … My family should still be here."
Chair of the inquiry, Sir Martin Moore-Bick, was presented with a copy of a painting of Grenfell Tower by artist Damel Carayol, a relative of victims Mary Mendy and Khadija Saye. A similar image of the work, entitled Eyesore, Final Straw, was presented to Theresa May earlier this month.
Debbie Lemprell had complained that the regeneration of Grenfell was a 'nightmare' before she was killed in the fire. Her mother Miriam said there were problems with the electricity and heating and her daughter was upset about having a boiler behind a door in a corridor. Problems with the lifts made access to the 16th-floor flat difficult, she said.
Resha Ibrahim, who lost her sister Rania and two nieces, said she still had questions about the fire. In a statement, she said: "There were months of uncertainty before they were identified and buried. To this day the questions remain in my mind and plague me about what exactly happened. It is very important for me to take part in the process of questions of finding out the truth." Resha also revealed that she still sends text messages to her dead sister.
The widower of Pily Burton, the 72nd victim of the fire, who died in January, claimed that her stress and dementia were worsened by a leasehold dispute with the council. He said the fire took away her dignity and all the couple's possessions, but that she remained "perfect".
11.43am EDT 11:43
Susanna Rustin
"How is it possible to sum up all these lives, of all these people who have been taken away from us?" asked Hisam Choucair of the Inquiry. "We are broken."
I put together the Guardian's tributes to the Choucairs, published last week and based on interviews with the three girls' teachers, and colleagues of their parents. The six Choucairs - Sirria, Nadia, Bassem, and their children Mierna, Fatima and Zaynab - were the biggest family group killed in Grenfell and I was really moved to hear more about their lives and background from Nadia's brother Hisam and in the video featuring their sister Sawsan.
This was a family tightly woven into the fabric of their north Kensington neighbourhood - all six of them were well known, and are much missed at Avondale Park school, where Nadia worked and where Zaynab had joined the nursery on her third birthday just a month before she was killed. But they also had strong links with their country of origin, Lebanon, where Hisam described the house Bassem built in the family's village "with his own hands".
Hisam said his mother Sirria had prepared all her children "for what we would have to face in life'. She could never have imagined that her surviving children would have to face such overwhelming tragedy - or the fight for justice they are now embarked on.
Headteacher Katy Blackler described how one day when Bassem arrived at school on his bicycle and was asked if he was there to collect his daughters, he said 'I'm here to collect my beautiful wife'. It's one of the phrases that's stayed with me.
The loss of so many people is just devastating. How brave their relatives are to speak so openly.
'Medical emergency' after harrowing film shown
Robert Booth
A film shown about the Choucairs has caused considerable distress in the inquiry room. It showed distressing images of people trapped in the building as it burned and around 20 people got up and left the room, some breaking down in tears and wailing.
Outside in the foyer one person is having what appears to be a panic attack and is being assisted by one of the counsellors and several other people.
The counsel to the inquiry has described is as "a medical emergency". The counsel to the inquiry has had to stop the film as a result of this. Even as someone not directly affected by the fire the images were shocking, so survivors' reaction are completely understandable.
The counsel to the inquiry, Bernard Richmond, had said he would warn people if images of fire or the building were about to be shown but has admitted that he forgot.
Paramedics are now here treating the woman who collapsed and she seems to have gathered her composure and is being counselled in an anteroom.
It was felt very quickly that the content of the film was too much for some people and there were pockets of commotion around the auditorium as people decided whether to leave or not.
But the film was allowed to run on for a couple of minutes. This feels like a difficult moment for the inquiry so early on. Emotions are still incredibly raw and there will be more distressing testimony to come in the weeks and months ahead. How that is handled is now sure to be reviewed by the inquiry team.
A statement by Nadia's sister and Sirria's daughter, Sawson Choucair, was read out by her lawyer. Sawson lived with her mother in flat 191 on the 22nd floor, just across from her sister's flat at 193.
"I was never happy there myself but my mother loved being closed to Nadia and her grandchildren," the statement said. Sirria also liked the view.
Sirria prayed five times a day, but struggled to get to the mosque. She was dedicated to her job at the Royal Marsden hospital where she got to know Pily Burton.
Sawson said her nieces were confident and the best behaved children. Respecting others was a family tradition, she said.
All the photos I had of the family were all taken away from us in the fire, she said.
Bassem was working on terrible pay in restaurant so I got him a job at M&S where I worked. He was quickly promoted and very strict with staff. But he made work fun for me.
During the fire Bassem said everything would be alright, because he was trained in fire safety.
She added: Everything has been taken away from me: my mum, my sister, the brother-in-law that I worked with every day, and my nieces. I lost everything I owned. This should not have happened. We do not want excuses. We demand justice for every single family. We are broken.
Hisam Choucair: 'I see it as an atrocity. They should still be here'
On the last day he visited the family to collect his children, Hisam Choucair said his sister was asleep. Zaynab, his three-year-old niece, had a headache. Fatima (11) and Mierna (13) talked to Hisam before he left.
Mierna loved Arabic and pop music and sport and was very artistic. She loved school and loved learning. She was very focused but in a very relaxed manner. She wanted to be either a doctor or a lawyer. She could not decide.
Hisam ended with this powerful passage:
On the night of the fire I received a call at around 2am. My brother told me to turn on the TV. I couldn't believe it. I ran down their immediately. I found the building completely engulfed in flames.
Sawson [my sister] tried to call them, but now there was no signal. The phone was ringing and ringing. And we had to stand there for hours and hours, helpless, watching them all burn to death.
It was five months before we were able to bury them. We took them to the village where all our family are from. It was my mother's wish to be buried next to my father who died had when they were in Lebanon. So now they are buried together: my mum, Nadia, Bassem, Fatima, Mierna and Zaynab on a little slope in a remote country cemetery. It is not like a cemetery here is more like a garden of peace.
My mum's mother is still alive but she is unable to get about, unable to visit the grave of her daughter, granddaughter and three great-grandchildren. She is not coping very well.
I have not be able to grieve. It has been one thing after a another. In one night I lost half of my family. I feel like a stranger now. It has destroyed everything. I feel like part of me has been taken away.
When I look at the tower I have flashbacks. I know they are images in my head but I can see people behind those windows. Dying, trying to get out. So I keep busy.
It has already ruined many lives. The difficulties have caused huge upset within our remaining family. This inferno has split up families and smashed up their lives.
None of the counselling I receive can ever repair what has already been done ... I don't see this as a tragedy, I see it as an atrocity, because essentially there is segregation between the rich and the poor. I think they call it a postcode lottery.
But I'm here to remember six lives. They were ordinary people, but they were also extraordinary people. They were my family, and they should still be here.
Hisam said his sister Nadia Choucair was the baby of the family but also a determined fighter, who always wanted to work with children.
She was loved by the parents, teachers and kids at Avondale Park primary school, where she worked.
She touched the many lives, Hisam said.
Her husband Bassem Choukair never took a day off work which he cycled to before five in the morning. Hisam got to know Bassem on walks in Lebanon.
Nadia loved the area around Grenfell and knew so many people through looking after their children. She loved where she lived but that all changed with the refurbishments. There were so many problems, he said. Problems with the lift meant that Hisam's mother Sirria found it "virtually impossible to leave the building" and her 22nd floor flat. I always had a bad feeling about the building, Hisam said.
Hisam said Nadia and Bassem had saved a deposit to buy their flat.
But no bank would give them a mortgage as soon as they found out they were on the 22nd floor. This led me to believe that the banks were aware of something within high rise social housing that we were not aware of."
His children were inseparable from their cousins. They were at staying at the 22nd floor Grenfell flat until 13 June, the day before the fire, because their mother was in hospital.
"If my wife had not been due out of hospital, they would be dead too."
The inquiry heard a statement from Hisam Choucair who lost six close relatives in the fire: his mother, Sirria Choucair, his sister, Nadia Choucair, Nadia's husband Bassem Choukair and their three daughters, Fatima, Zaynab and Mierra.
He started with a tribute to his mother. Sirria was good friends with Pily Burton, who also died in the fire, Hisam said. His mother was a great cook of Lebanese and English food. His favourite was courgette stuffed with yoghurt and mint.
Every day we would wake up to the smell of delicious food, he said. She then went to work and would return to do more housework. No one worked harder, Hisam said.
Because she couldn't go to university, education was very important to her. She worked hard to send all her children to private school, he added: "Because she had not had the opportunity, she wanted it for us." She brought them up to work hard, to be considerate, to be kind and to respect other people and other cultures.
Her husband died 13 years ago, aged 52. This was a huge strain on her. And her arthritis made eventually made it impossible for her to work.
She devoted herself to looking after her grandchildren. She was not just a grandmother but a mother to Zaynab, Hisam said.
"My mum was a proud, devout woman, who never said a bad word about anyone. She was kind and caring and I will miss her for ever."
Moore-Bick presented with 'Eyesore: the final store'
Moore-Bick presented with a copy of 'Eyesore: the final straw' Photograph: Grenfell Tower Inquiry
Damel Carayol, an artist and another cousin of Mary Mendy and Khadija Saye, presented Sir Martin Moore-Bick with copy of a painting he made of Grenfell Tower. It is entitled Eyesore. Final Straw and includes words by Moore-Bick.
Reading the inscription, Carayol said: "To Sir Martin Moore-Bick. 'Work until truth is laid bare', to quote your words, sir. Do it for humanity, do it led by love. It signed by myself, Damel, family and Grenfell community."
He added: "This is just a gift to yourself to keep in the foremost of our minds what we are really here for. We are here for humanity. If we don't care, take our eye off the ball, something like this can happen. It comes from a good place."
Moore-Bick thanked Carayol for the work. He said: "Damel, thank you very much for your copy of a very fine work, with personal observations attached. I'm very pleased to be able to accept it on behalf of myself but more particularly on behalf of my whole inquiry team. As I have said more than once, we shall work until the truth is laid bare. Thank you very much indeed."
Moore-Bick looked more pleased to receive the image than Theresa May was when Carayol presented her with a similar gift earlier this month.
Theresa May with artist Damel Carayol, who lost relatives in the Grenfell Tower fire. Photograph: Relative Justice Humanity for Grenfell/PA
Ambrose Mendy talked about listening to the words "love and fire" being used in a different context at the royal wedding last Saturday.
He ended his tribute by saying:
To Mary and Khadija to all those who lost family and friends. To all those who are gathered here today to try to make a change. You are making a change. A change has been made.
The Grenfell Tower inquiry heard more tributes to people who died in the fire, as the emotional process of commemorations continued to reveal the lives of those who called the tower home and stitch together a picture of a highly integrated, happy and now devastated community.
The last of 72 people to die as a result of the June 2017 disaster, a Spanish-born health worker, an Egyptian mother and her two daughters and a 45-year-old British woman who worked at Holland Park opera were all remembered on the second day of the inquiry on Tuesday at the Millennium Gloucester hotel in Kensington.
First to contribute was Miriam Lamprell, the mother of Debbie Lamprell, 45, who lived on the 16th floor of Grenfell tower. Miriam was present, but her statement was read by Michael Volpe, the director of the opera where Debbie worked. She described her daughter's happy childhood, sledging with friends and picking blackberries with her father Reg, and her anguish that she had urged her to get a council flat because it would be safer than a private bedsit.
'Broken and bereft': Grenfell inquiry hears tributes from survivors
Grenfell Tower fire


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5 reasons why Sensex can breach 22,000 by year end
Why Sensex can breach 22,000 by December 31
It seems the Diwali spirit has come to Dalal Street a tad early for this year. October saw the Sensex appreciate an astounding 8.44 per cent, going from 19,517 to 21,030 and hitting a new 5 year closing high on the 31st of October. Euphoria has hit the streets and there seems to be no indication of things changing anytime soon.
However, this column is not just about the present; it is about where the Sensex is predicted to head by the end of the year. The Sensex, without a doubt, has all indicators pointing towards an upwards surge that should push it past 22,000 by the end of the year.
Let's take a look at 5 reasons as to why this is likely to happen.
Upward Momentum
The Sensex has appreciated 9 per cent year to date: from 19,693 to its most recent closing price. Even if we were to use this rate of return as the benchmark for predicting the next two months (through the end of 2013), we get a forecasted Sensex of approximately 21,500 by the end of the year.
However, not all of 2013 was the same. The US Federal Reserve made its surprise decision to not taper down its quantitative easing program on September 18, which absolutely shocked the markets since some sort of tapering was expected. On September 18, the Sensex opened at 19,865. If we calculate the rate of return from September 18 through October 31 (6.5 per cent) and project that figure through the end of 2013, we get an astounding Sensex figure of 23,156.
Current Account Deficit Woes are Under Control
Earlier this year, there were worries that India's current account deficit was reaching dangerously high levels. India's current account deficit (CAD) has exploded 1125 per cent since 2007, going from $8 billion to $90 billion.
However, the Q1 figures released in August came in at $21.8 billion, and economists are expecting the final year end figure to be comfortably below $70 billion.
Furthermore, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan indicated that India is open to raise money from international markets, since the liberalization of borrowing has made it easier for lending to occur.
Finally, many economists are stating that the $70 billion dollar figure was calculated with US tapering factored in. Since it has become more and more evident that the US tapering is not expected anytime in the near future, C Rangarajan, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, has stated that the CAD is likely to go down well below $70 billion.
Stabilization of the Rupee
In August, there were legitimate worries that the rupee might hit 70 against the dollar. It seems that the currency was in chaos and nobody seemed to know what to make out of the situation.
Since then, the RBI and its governor, Raghuram Rajan, have done a tremendous job in bringing stability to the rupee by slowly increasing the repo rate and by lowering the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate. Currently, the repo rate stands at 7.75 per cent and the MSF rate stands at 8.75 per cent. This is exactly what the RBI intended to do since Dr Rajan took over as RBI Governor- to bring the difference down to 100 basis points.
Here is a graph that shows the stabilization of the rupee since August.
Now, obviously it would be far-fetched to think that the Sensex will breach 23,000 by the end of the year. But by using these two simple forecasting methods, we can see that 22,000 is conservatively within limits by the end of the year.
Increased FII Inflows due to RBI policy changes
There has been a huge increase in FII (foreign institutional investors) inflows into India in the past couple months. Aside from the obvious reason that the Fed's decision to cut back the tapering program has allowed the markets to surge, the RBI has also made some critical moves to ensure smooth FII inflows into the country. The RBI's decision to move towards easing liquidity into the markets by lowering the MSF rate for banks and narrowing the difference between the repo rate and the MSF rate gives the markets a strong sense of confidence.
Rumours of no US tapering of QE Program until 2014
This might be the biggest reason of them all. Due to the fact that there was a very real chance of a prolonged US government shutdown (and it did shutdown for 16 days), many US companies were severely impacted. The Fed has no choice but to put a halt to the planned tapering of its quantitative easing (QE) program. The US economy suffered losses of almost $50 billion due to the shutdown.
Furthermore, there is a Fed leadership change in January of 2014. US Federal Chairman Ben Bernanke, one of the biggest proponents of the tapering program, has his term as head of the Federal Reserve ending on 31st January, 2014. When a change in leadership occurs, major policy changes usually do not go into effect immediately. Therefore, it is safe to assume that there will be an adjustment period for the new Fed Chairperson before any tapering does occur.
On Tuesday, October 29, 41 economists were polled on what they expected the outcome of the Fed meet to be: all 41, unanimously, predicated that the Fed will not taper down its QE program anytime soon.
There is a famous saying, "every cloud has a silver lining". In August, nobody could have known that the Sensex would break all-time highs by the end of October. However, many things have changed since August. The 5 reasons mentioned above show that we are truly placed in a situation like never before.
We are now in a unique position where all indicators seem to point the markets in one, and only one, direction: up.
Note: This article originally appeared on NDTV Profit at http://profit.ndtv.com/news/market/article-5-reasons-why-sensex-will-breach-22-000-by-year-end-371119.


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Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg
Internal Security
Horizontal research focus "Doing Peace!"
Graduate Programme Democratising Security
Staff Directors Assistant Professor, Berlin Office, Staff Officer European Security Internal Security Arms Control Senior Fellows Non-Resident & PhD Fellows Administration Communications Student and Research Assistants
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Dr. Neil Renic
Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy
Phone: +49 (0)40-413307604
Email: renic@remove-this.ifsh.de
Neil Renic contributes to the "Arms Control and Emerging Technologies" project at IFSH, focusing on the changing character of war and the ethical and legal regulation of armed conflict. In this context, he is investigating the extent to which, and in what way, the timing of the legal regulation of battlefield weapons and techniques matters. Alongside this, he explores historical misconceptions of technology, and their enduring role in shaping our understanding and governance of war. His latest book, published with Oxford University Press, is titled: Asymmetric Killing: Risk Avoidance, Just War, and the Warrior Ethos.
Research Profile | Current Projects
Neil Renic is a researcher at the IFSH. Prior to this, he lectured international security and peace and conflict analysis at the University of Queensland, Australia. He received his doctorate (2015-2018) from the University of Queensland. During this time, he spent twelve months as a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford. Neil Renic's PhD addressed the moral right to kill in war, and the extent to which this right is challenged by the growing capability of certain states to kill with little or no physical risk to their own forces.
Renic, Neil C.. 2020.
Asymmetric Killing: Risk Avoidance, Just War, and the Warrior Ethos.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Battlefield Mercy: Unpacking the Nature and Significance of Supererogation in War.
Ethics & International Affairs 33 (3): 343-362. DOI: 10.1017/S0892679419000364.
Justified Killing in an Age of Radically Asymmetric Warfare.
European Journal of International Relations 25 (2): 408-430. DOI: 10.1177/1354066118786776.
A Gardener's Vision: UAVs and the Dehumanisation of Violence.
Survival 60 (6): 57-72. DOI: 10.1080/00396338.2018.1542794.
UAVs and the End of Heroism? Historicising the Ethical Challenge of Asymmetric Violence.
Journal of Military Ethics 17 (4): 188-197. DOI: 10.1080/15027570.2019.1585621.
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the-bon-jovi-story
THE BON JOVI STORY
Date: 24th October
Time: 8:00pm
Price: €29.50
The Bon Jovi Story details the band's history from their breakthrough album Slippery When Wet up to their present day inclusion into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame. The story is told through live performances of their most poignant and iconic songs, coupled with a series of video montages, and costume/ set changes which replicate the band's best loved concerts.
BON JOVI'S MANAGER LIKES US!!!
On Jan 13th 2019, Patti, wife of Paul Korzilius, manager to Bon Jovi, messaged us via FB to say "the show looks amazing and sounds incredible. Even Paul was fooled by the vocals. Amazing talent!
What the fans from recent shows said:
"Fantastic show from start to finish. Vocals and music were outstanding... had a brilliant eve and certainly will go to see these guys again. Surpassed all our expectations."
"absolutely brilliant. My voice was gone at the end of the night from singing along."
"...brilliant from start to finish."
https://www.facebook.com/thebonjovistoryireland/
Promoted by Fergus House Productions
FRANKIE'S GUYS
DIRTY DUSTING
7th November
THE MIAMI SHOWBAND STORY