August winds, colds and flus, midweek holidays; it must be EKKA time again. The Brisbane Exhibition is a living, breathing institution in our city. We all have our fondest – or most negative – views on the show. Showbags, sideshow alley, strawberries and cream, fireworks and bull parades. I recall countless hours spent pouring through the showbag guide looking for bargains, or desperately trying to influence my teachers to disregard the booklet we needed to fill in on our school EKKA excursion. The bringing together of two communities, the city and the country, is a wonderful event of energy, laughter and learning.

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‘We are becoming the servants in thought, as in action, of the machine we have created to serve us’. John Kenneth Galbraith

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There was a discerning silence in my house on Wednesday night last week. Channel 9’s underdog masterpiece had finished! No more Ninja Warrior! What to watch; laugh at; admire and cheer for? My six-year-old son was obsessed with the program, recording it at night and watching it again the next morning.

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“Feed your faith and your fears will starve to death.” Author Unknown.

It’s a tough gig encouraging students to trust that God (love) is tangible amidst a world that can often be cruel, cynical and unjust where too many young men feel overwhelmed by powerlessness and seeming insignificance. A world where too many feel like David standing before Goliath as justice stands before violence and forgiveness before hatred. A world where too often the power of David (love, justice and forgiveness) always seems hopelessly outmatched by the systematic disdain of Goliath (hatred, ignorance and hurt).

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‘If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.’ An Australian Aboriginal

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