SECONDARY RESOURCES
ACTIVITY 4.3 - THINKING LONG-TERM
AIM
To help pupils understand that what we do now affects what happens in the future. This is both a practical and an ethical truth, addressed by faith groups. Behaving as if there will be tomorrow is not an option. This applies to modern transport preferences!
THE ACTIVITY - PILGRIMAGE AS A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME TO GOD
- Background
Across religious traditions pilgrimage offered people the opportunity to turn their backs on the strains and squabbles of ordinary life and presented the possibility of moving into the presence of God. In many traditions the final destination on a pilgrimage foreshadowed the final meeting of the individual with God at the point of death; pilgrimage acted out the journey to judgement.
Medieval Christianity developed the view that the place of Christ's crucifixion, Golgotha, was also the place where the Tree of Knowledge had grown as well as the place where God, at the Day of Judgement, would judge humankind. Pilgrimage in this case was truly a journey through time, as well as being a participation in the crucial events of Salvation History.
- Exercise: The rituals of the Hajj
Explore the ideas of journeying to judgement by researching the rituals of Hajj and their purpose for a Muslim. Divide the class into groups and ask them to investigate the following aspects:
- The history of the Al Ka'bah.
- The meaning of clothes - Ihram - which all pilgrims wear.
- The significance of circling round Al Ka'bah seven times.
- The fast walk between As Safa and Al Marwah.
- The visits to Mina, Arafat and Muzadalifah.
- Throwing stones at Mina.
The common thread is that all of these features in some way anticipate the final meeting of each individual with God - and the fact that each individual will be judged for their actions throughout their life. So each pilgrim faces up to that consequence now, as a way of repenting and changing their behaviour.
- Discussion: Relevance to the transport debate
The events at the culmination of the Hajj encourage the believer to take a long-term view of their own life - and this can be extended to cover a sense of responsibility for society as a whole.
Think of all the "sins" that society disapproves of. Where do "sins" against the environment rate by comparison? Why?
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See John Whitelegg's comment that 'The global population of motorized vehicles in 1995 was approximately 500 million. The free-market path being pursued in China and to be followed by India, the rest of South East Asia, Africa and Latin America will take this total well beyond 2 billion by 2020. China alone increased its vehicle population from 613,000 in 1970 to 5.8 million in 1990. The number of cars produced annually in China is expected to rise from 1.3 million in 1993 to 3 million in 2000. Major European and global car manufacturers are already in China ensuring this will happen.' |
Children today could hope to live beyond the year 2050. What will the world be like then if the current rate of car ownership/use continues to expand at the present rate? Why shouldn't people in countries like China, India and Africa, where there is far less use of cars at present, aspire to the same level of car ownership as Europe and North America? What will happen if they do?
Talk about the situation and ask pupils for their reactions. What do they imagine the world - or the town in which they live - will be like in 2050.
- Conduct a car audit
- Ask the pupils to do an audit of car use by their own families over a period of several day or a week. Print off and use the form provided to gather the information.
- When the material has been gathered, ask the children to analyse their information:
- How many journeys were less than 2 miles / 2-5 miles / over 5 miles?
- How many journeys were essential to their family's well-being - and how many could be thought of as luxuries?
- Could any of the journeys be made by other, more energy-efficient methods?
- When the different ideas have been discussed collectively; ask each pupil to write a 2 to 3 minute presentation in which they discuss whether they think that there really is a problem and what "solutions" they themselves think are best and why.
- Whatever would we do without fuel? A thought experiment.
The idea of increasing tax on fuel has recently caused protest across Europe. Talk with the pupils about why some people are so angry: Do they agree with the lorry drivers and farmers who blocked the roads?
Discuss what might be the effects of a total cessation of petrol supplies. Ask what life might be like in five years time if petrol ceased to flow today - get the pupils to write down how they imagine things would change.
- Would it be like the Mad Max films - hospitals, schools and all the essentials of civil life destroyed? Criminal gangs fighting over the last hoarded supplies of petrol? People starving, huddling round fires for warmth, reduced to a cave-man existence?
- Would it be more like paradise? Would the government be forced to take alternative, sustainable sources of energy (such as wind power) seriously? Would people work and trade locally, and farmers produce food locally? Would the air be cleaner and quieter? Would people be healthier?
The children could illustrate their written description of how they imagine life would be.
© REEP, Graeme Watson, Lazenby Education |
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