Football Manager Fights For Moral Standards. That’s not the kind of headline we’re used to seeing. What, football? Setting the new social standards?

On February 5 this year, it certainly looked that way, when England football manager Fabio Capello dismissed John Terry as captain of the England football squad. As the world soon learned, Terry was dismissed for off-field behaviour, accused of having an affair with his wife’s good friend Vanessa Perroncel, the ex-girlfriend of John Terry’s former team mate Wayne Bridge.

When allegations of the affair surfaced, people started deciding did that matter, and how much. Does it matter how we behave, or how the famous behave? Some people thought so. A number of English football fans booed John Terry off the field; some people called for his sacking. Others supported him and posted online comments that said personal behaviour was irrelevant, it’s how he played football that counted.

Racism. It sounds nasty and it is. Racism is part of the soft underbelly of human reaction that flinches at the splinter of difference between human beings and shrugs off the telegraph pole of similarity.

We people are brothers and sisters in the one human family. We’re all capable of fine, noble behaviour from time to time, and long periods of moderately good behaviour. However, there are also some negative behaviours that we prefer to overlook.

Racism denies the self-evident reality of how much we all share as human beings.

Perhaps because of a fear of difference, insecurity, or a caveman tribalism, of the kind that drives kids to scuffle in a playground or teenage gangs to spoil for a fight.

That desirable duo, success and money, don’t come joined at the hip. As economies improve, it’s time to ask ourselves are we equating success too simply and too completely with acquiring money?

It’s time to see that success is a moral, creative and professional attainment that rises above financial plenty. The two may go hand in hand – but they are not one and the same. Was the late and lauded violinist Yehudi Menuhin a success? Yes. Was he enormously rich? No, his attainment came through dedicated pursuit of the highest standards of his art and then helping others to pursue their musical dreams.

Tolerance doesn’t often create headlines: hate and violence deliver much more sensational coverage in the media. Yet tolerance is like a dove of peace in a world lacerated by conflict. We cannot achieve peace unless we take the steps that lead to it. Tolerance is a tool of peace. It is one we can all take up and so become active contributors to peace on our communities.

A couple of weeks ago, I visited St Paul’s Anglican Church Manuka in Canberra, Australia’s spacious and leafy capital city. The sermon was preached by the Reverend Dr Brian Douglas, the Rector of St Paul’s and tolerance was a strong message that came through what he had to say. He made a special point of interfaith tolerance and gave an example from his experience.

Lives are being lost needlessly and tax payers money is going down the drain. That is the disturbing conclusion I reached this week after viewing the television documentary Afghanistan, on the Dollar Trail, an on-the-spot reportage screened nationally for Australian audiences by the ABC’s well-regarded Four Corners program and produced by Studio cooperatif Premiers Lignes of Quebec.

Forget winning hearts and minds – or beating the Taliban. If even half of what I saw on Four Corners this week is substantiated then we have squandered lives and money and have almost nothing to show for it. How? Through corruption.

Depression, homelessness, addiction: life can have tough edges and certain people fall through chinks in the social fabric into a personal abyss – and long-term unemployment. It’s a global problem. The climb back out requires helping hands. In inner-suburban Sydney, Australia, one mission offering very practical assistance is HopeStreet - Urban Compassion.

At HopeStreet, participants in their employment program can take the first steps towards finding a lasting job. They can make mistakes, fall over and get right back up again in a safe environment and with support tailored to meet each individual’s needs.