June 2008

Why won't the Burmese generals allow us to help? Why will the Chinese government accept aid but not personnel? The world has both supplies and expertise standing by. Human life is being lost on a huge scale, and it could be saved. The frustration of being held at bay is apparent as I watch each media interview with an aid agency representative. So it seems that we watch, helpless; poised and ready to reach in with life-giving supplies and expertise but held at a distance. By the time you read this Talking Point the death toll in both countries will have risen, and the world may, or may not, have broken through the barriers.

The barriers here are dramatic and they are occurring along geographic and political boundaries. Nevertheless in our everyday lives barriers and boundaries exist everywhere. A boundary makes a statement, marks a line but does not exclude. A barrier shuts out, and whether physically, diplomatically or emotionally, it prevents access to those on the outside.

Both boundaries and barriers have gatekeepers-people who make sure the boundaries are observed. Every organization has its boundaries and gatekeepers, but most also have their barriers. In an ideal world gatekeepers do helpful jobs-they welcome and create a place where the work of the organization can happen. Sadly, some gatekeepers protect their space in a way that creates a barrier. This can happen for all kinds of reasons, many of them based on fear-whether it is the fear of being shown lacking and condemned or the fear of being taken over or attacked. Gatekeepers also turn boundaries into barriers out of habit or because of the need to remain comfortable. Have you ever used the expression 'clique' or commented that you couldn't 'break in' to such and such a group? Established groups can have boundaries turned into barriers by their gatekeepers.

The same kind of thing happens within our own lives. We set up intellectual and emotional boundaries to protect ourselves, our families or relationships with other individuals and groups. Once the boundaries are there, defending them becomes a matter of habit, and they can easily solidify into barriers. We continue to defend them and those who challenge or try to break through are quickly characterized as 'the enemy'.

In the 1930s in Cutteslowe (North Oxford) a dispute between the Council and a property developer led to the building of a wall between the 'rich' and 'poor' parts of a housing estate. The boundary walls erected during the building process to try to keep separate two sides of a dispute became a barrier that divided two communities, leading to social segregation and urban violence for almost 30 years. Today in the Middle East the establishing of boundaries and the determination of their respective gatekeepers has led to war, loss of life and destruction on a grand scale.

Wherever boundaries are well and habitually defended they become barriers-sometimes insuperable ones. Whilst in this country we now have few physical equivalents of the Cutteslowe walls, emotional and habitual barriers exist within communities, amongst families and in the lives of individuals, and they are just as damaging and destructive as physical ones. Oscar Wilde's short story 'The Selfish Giant' is a parable of the way in which we can shut the sources of life and light out of our world until we don't even notice the darkness.

My prayer for the world, for our communities and for you this month is that all manner of barriers may be breached for the sake of the future.