A cargo cult is a Melanesian millenarian movement encompassing a diverse range of practices and occurring in the wake of contact with the commercial networks of colonizing societies. The name derives from the belief that various ritualistic acts will lead to a bestowing of material wealth (“cargo”). Cargo cults often develop during a combination of crises. Under conditions of social stress, such a movement may form under the leadership of a charismatic figure. This leader may have a “vision” (or “myth-dream”) of the future, often linked to an ancestral efficacy (“mana”) thought to be recoverable by a return to traditional morality. This leader may characterize the present state regimes as a dismantling of the old social order, meaning that social hierarchy and ego boundaries have been broken down’
Prototype Charitable helicopter as constructed by remote natives in search of the true meaning behind Christmas
Dear reader we begin this little piece with the above excerpt lifted 100% from Wikipedia.
The Judea Mega Mart. Bigger than Pharos!! And not full of silly old books like the local library at Alexandra
Todays sermon relates to the practice of giving and the true meaning of Christmas. Because that’s what Christmas is all about. A celebration of the day when the prophet Jesus Christ opened the first ever retail super store in Judea. The store known in biblical texts as ‘Mammon Middle-East-field’ , (or colloquially as the Judea Mega-Mart) was a game changer from the Midas corporation in upgrading the retail experience into what is described by Mathew, (chapter 22, verse 12) “ More luminous than Pharos, behold the hyper mart’. So in tribute to this special event we delve into the history of giving and the reciprocal “ taking”. All in god fun we assure you in preparation for the West Indies domination in the Boxing Day test.
Child receives the Bounty of Civilisation. (and Christmas)
Doing Good. A Big Charity at work. The husband and wife team preparing to load the gifts into their charitable tax-free helicopter.
It was compelling viewing on the ABC, (Monday 21 Dec) to watch (our soon to be commercialised) national broadcaster proclaim the sterling work being undertaken by the good folk of the Salvation Army in delivering presents to the wretched, disadvantaged, remote, and most likely abused children of outback Australia. The children from “remote communities” were being graced with gifts from the sky, and assembled in remote locations right across Northern New South Wales and Queensland in anticipation of the arrival from the Salvation Santa, a husband and wife team who heard the calling to give these children “hope” for christmas. In heart wrenching earnestness they told us that these ‘kids often didn’t know the meaning of receiving gifts, and it was their sacred duty to inspire them with the spirit of christmas and a bounty of presents’. The presents gathered across Australia from “giving trees’ were despatched, by sacred helicopter with a capacity for up to two hundred gifts per community.
Lucky children waiting for the helicopter to unload. Each thinking, “hope i don’t get the Rolf Harris Song-book again this year”.
We wondered if these were standard sized gifts, and discussed in some detail the logistics of such an enterprise to which our younger experts informed us that it would be of a medium size but due to the remoteness of location would exclude X Box, Wii , Playstation and the desirable games “Call of Duty and Battlefield‘ Still as the journalist revealed, the children were nonetheless delighted with their plastic toys, and stood for the cameras beaming in the absence of adult males and made to feel especially grateful. This is a special event, and so glad that these wretched, accursed, property-less, and mortgage-less denizens beyond the urban fringe can be acquainted with the sprit of Christmas and the Worlds first ever hyper mart in Judea. There is talk of a treaty being delivered next christmas, but such a propsition has been dismissed by the chair of the Judea Mega Mart as being beyond the scope of the Corporations Act. And besides we’ve been told that politics and religion don’t mix. Quite right too.