austraLasia #2583
Pause for thought....and maybe action!
ROME: 26th January 2010 -- Let this be a brief pause for thought and maybe some action on the part of some, while we congratulate two neighbours who've had some rough times together recently, at least press-wise (Indian students in Australia and some retaliation at the other end for perceived wrongs)! Australia celebrates Australia Day, or better has celebrated it by the time this goes out, recalling that moment on 26th January 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove, although some like to think it also celebrates the Rum Rebelliion in 1808 on the same day - the only military coup the country has experienced! And India, on 26th January celebrates, but here too already concluded, the proclaiming of the Constitution of the sovereign Republic of India in 1950, although there are other associated celebrations, since India had effectively gained independence some years before and on another date. Anyway - congratulations to both, who are united in a great Commonwealth of nations.
But the pause for thought comes from another direction. Today, for one reason or another, we needed to check on some Haiti material and we turned quickly to the Salesian official websites (i.e. province websites) around the world. It was a bit of a shock, really. One might think, given a Rector Major's strongest appeal ever to the entire Congregation, the need to galvanise an already aid-weary public and so forth, that Salesian websites worldwide would hit you in the eye with the needs of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. This writer went first to each of the province websites in the region - which was where the shock began, apart from the fact that if a website changes its URL/DNS and we don't find out about it, we won't have it properly listed or, worse still, if a province has simply let a former DNS go and not properly closed it, it will inevitably have been taken over by somebody advertising something which that province might prefer it didn't - at least in its name! This is the case for one site in the region. But the situation is not much better around the rest of the Salesian world, one must say, just from this one tiny perspective of course, though there are obvious exceptions, and one would have to expect that the New Rochelle site would be such. It could offer some ideas to others. We do want young people to see Jesus, and just for now let's imagine he is visiting Haiti! The two can easily appear on the same page.
This is not a comment on the efforts that are almost certainly being made across the Provinces and especially in the Houses. There was no time to check the thousands of community/work websites. But there is cause for pause....and action on the part of those who manage our websites, is there not?
The criteria, at least for this writer, is a pretty simple one: if I open a website and I cannot see 'Haiti' somewhat prominently in some form or other, and a link that takes me to more on the same, without needing to scroll, then I judge that the website does not wish to or has not thought to promote this particular cause. All our websites are very public. They can be a powerful medium in the public arena,a nd if anyone were to follow the same route, i.e. check what the 'collective' Salesian web view might be on this issue, then....
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
Pause for thought....and maybe action!
ROME: 26th January 2010 -- Let this be a brief pause for thought and maybe some action on the part of some, while we congratulate two neighbours who've had some rough times together recently, at least press-wise (Indian students in Australia and some retaliation at the other end for perceived wrongs)! Australia celebrates Australia Day, or better has celebrated it by the time this goes out, recalling that moment on 26th January 1788 when the First Fleet arrived in Sydney Cove, although some like to think it also celebrates the Rum Rebelliion in 1808 on the same day - the only military coup the country has experienced! And India, on 26th January celebrates, but here too already concluded, the proclaiming of the Constitution of the sovereign Republic of India in 1950, although there are other associated celebrations, since India had effectively gained independence some years before and on another date. Anyway - congratulations to both, who are united in a great Commonwealth of nations.
But the pause for thought comes from another direction. Today, for one reason or another, we needed to check on some Haiti material and we turned quickly to the Salesian official websites (i.e. province websites) around the world. It was a bit of a shock, really. One might think, given a Rector Major's strongest appeal ever to the entire Congregation, the need to galvanise an already aid-weary public and so forth, that Salesian websites worldwide would hit you in the eye with the needs of our brothers and sisters in Haiti. This writer went first to each of the province websites in the region - which was where the shock began, apart from the fact that if a website changes its URL/DNS and we don't find out about it, we won't have it properly listed or, worse still, if a province has simply let a former DNS go and not properly closed it, it will inevitably have been taken over by somebody advertising something which that province might prefer it didn't - at least in its name! This is the case for one site in the region. But the situation is not much better around the rest of the Salesian world, one must say, just from this one tiny perspective of course, though there are obvious exceptions, and one would have to expect that the New Rochelle site would be such. It could offer some ideas to others. We do want young people to see Jesus, and just for now let's imagine he is visiting Haiti! The two can easily appear on the same page.
This is not a comment on the efforts that are almost certainly being made across the Provinces and especially in the Houses. There was no time to check the thousands of community/work websites. But there is cause for pause....and action on the part of those who manage our websites, is there not?
The criteria, at least for this writer, is a pretty simple one: if I open a website and I cannot see 'Haiti' somewhat prominently in some form or other, and a link that takes me to more on the same, without needing to scroll, then I judge that the website does not wish to or has not thought to promote this particular cause. All our websites are very public. They can be a powerful medium in the public arena,a nd if anyone were to follow the same route, i.e. check what the 'collective' Salesian web view might be on this issue, then....
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
