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1.1.1.1
Development: towards a new paradigm
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1.1.4
Children
Hunger
¨ One child in three in the developing world is malnourished.
¨ Each day, over 40,000 children die due to malnutrition or
easily preventable diseases.
¨ Every minute thirty children die for want of food and inexpensive
medicines.
Health
¨ 120,000 children are born each year intellectually handicapped
because of lack of iodine, a de-ficiency which can be remedied easily
and cheaply.
¨ 250,000 children go blind each year because of lack of Vitamin
A.
¨ 4 out of 5 in rural areas do not have adequate water or sanitation.
¨ 4 out of 5 do not have access to modern health care.
Education
¨ 90 percent of children in the developing world enrol for school
but only 68 per cent complete four years.
¨ In 1993, 130 million children (between 6 and 11) were not
attending school.
War
¨ In 1995, in Africa alone, during the first 10 months, 1/2
million children died due to armed conflicts.
¨ During the last decade 6 million have become disabled because
of wars.
¨ During the last decade 12 million have become homeless because
of wars.
¨ In Liberia alone there are 15,000 child soldiers.
Increasing problems touching children
¨ Child labour: economic exploitation: an estimated 200 million
children are forced to work.
¨ Child prostitution: one million are forced into prostitution
each year, with most of them con-tracting HIV/AIDS.
¨ Street children: over 100 million under the age of fifteen.
¨ Commerce of babies.
¨ Commerce of children's organs.
¨ Half the refugee population are children.
"Children at Risk": a concrete response
Our involvement with the House Workers' Movement all over India
exposed us to the reality of chil-dren in domestic work. We became
more and more aware of the plight of these little working girls
who are silenced and hidden, who are often bonded labourers, covered
by labels such as 'our' child, 'adopted'... Little girls who also
dream of playing and of wearing school uniforms but get punished
when they open the school books of the children in the family.
Sunita, was such a working girl. Her father was in jail and Sunita
was sent to work in Bombay at the age of nine. One of the Bombay
House Worker's Solidarity leaders got her out of the place of torture.
Sunita was then eleven, with beautiful black hair cut unevenly,
a deep frightened look and burn?wounds all over her body. For small
mistakes or incapacities to do the work ordered, her em-ployer would
beat her with a hot rod. The Judge in court gave us a choice; either
to win the case and Sunita would have to go to a Remand Home till
her eighteenth year or withdraw the case and save Sunita.
We chose the latter. So we took Sunita in, got guardianship for
her, and found a school for her.
A few days later Arathi, a victim of kidnapping came. Monica ran
away from the brothels. Jessie was gang?raped as a child of seven.
Children deeply wounded, traumatized...
Our response is mainly the crisis intervention. We network with
lawyers and with different Congrega-tions and children's homes for
the rehabilitation of these children. Just now it has become a search
with a larger group of committed persons and communities for the
sake of the victims of commercial sex work in the city of Bombay.
The search and the commitment has started, but the way is not clear....
The Bishops' Conference of the India Labour Commission also sponsors
this involvement. It is an involvement at different levels in a
large collaborative effort to give our children a "future of
justice and peace".
Jeanne Devos, ICM, India
1.1.5 Women
The critical areas of concern facing women today:
Ï Poverty: 60% of 1 billion rural poor are women.
Ï Education: Of 960 million illiterate adults 70 per cent are
women. Out of the of 130 million chil-dren not attending Primary
School, 70 per cent are girls.
Ï Health: 500,000 women die each year because of complications
from pregnancy.
Ï 500 women die each day due to unsafe abortion.
Ï Violence: 1/3 of all women are physically abused. One woman
is physically abused every eight seconds. One woman is raped every
six minutes. There are 110 million girls and women who have been
mutilated (genital organs); 2 million continue to be mutilated each
year. More than one mil-lion babies die each year from malnutrition,
neglect and abuse who would not have died if they had not been born
girls.
Ï Armed and other Conflicts: Women make up 80 per cent of the
100 million displaced people (within their country) and of the 29
million refugees in the world. US $800 billion a year is spent on
weapons and the international community does not have US $6 billion
needed to provide every girl child with education.
Ï Economic Participation: Woman are paid 30-40 per cent less
than men for doing the same work. Women do 2/3 of the world's work
but get only 10% of the world's income, and own 1% of the world's
land. If women's unpaid work in the household was given economic
value, it would be worth US $ 11 trillion, and add 70 per cent to
global output
Ï Power-sharing and Decision-making: Women's share of seats
in the world's parliaments in 1996 was 12 per cent (15 per cent
in 1988).
Ï Violence against women, selected countries, around 1990
USA 1 in 5 adult women has been raped
Peru 70% of all crimes reported to police are of women beaten by
their husbands.
Norway 25% of female gynaecological patients have been sexually
abused by their partners.
Thailand In the biggest slum in Bangkok, 50% of married women are
beaten regularly.
1.1.5.1
Examples of commitment with women
Extracts from Chapter documents:
"Our specific ministry as women, considered by Comboni as indispensable
to the evangelising mis-sion, makes the promotion of women a prerogative
for us. Women should become conscious of their values, of their
dignity and the essential role to which they are called in the family,
in the Church and society.
Comboni Sisters
"...
Because we ourselves are women, we want to work with and for women
to find our authentic voice in society and in the Church. Our feminine
appreciation of life urges us to live a profound re-spect for each
human person and for the earth which sustains us all. We desire
that perspective and attitude of heart to see God in all things,
to be in solidarity with the poor and to try to comprehend the world
through their eyes. In compassion and courage, with the vision which
only comes from the con-templation of the gospel and the signs of
the times, it is together that we seek the ongoing conversion of
ourselves and others that we might promote justice and peace.
Society of St Ursula
Below are examples of the empowerment of women:
The men (fisher folk) in Cattiparambu were addicted to drinking.
Their meagre earnings were spent on drinks, and this led to quarrels
within the families, divisions and even murders. The women of the
village together with various organisations that worked with them
decided to put an end to this evil. We organised a "dharna"
(demonstration), and informed the police and other authorities of
our plans. We sat in groups in front of all the arrack (a local
drink) shops in the village, day and night. This con-tinued for
over three months. During this period no man was allowed to enter
any of the arrack shops, nor was fresh arrack allowed to be brought
into the shops. On one occasion, one man entered a shop forcefully,
and came out drunk. The women caught hold of him, stripped him,
tied him to a coconut tree and beat him, telling him that they have
suffered enough all these past years. They left him in this condition
for other men to see. After this no one else dared enter the liquor
shop. Since the women were not able to work during all these months,
all their families suffered hunger.
We met with opposition, we experienced great difficulties, and were
threatened in many ways ... We too experienced hunger, we had sleepless
nights.... Through it all, we remained united until the gov-ernment
officials were obliged to take away the liquor licenses, and close
all the arrack shops in the village...
For me this was a "God experience" ... I experienced the
support of my community, my FMM voca-tion was challenged, and my
commitment to justice has been deepened.
Sr. Cecily George, FMM, India
Woman's consciousness, wellspring for transformation...
This is the story of a group of peasant women in Culong, Guimba,
Nueva Ecija, (Philippines). Most of them are members of the Basic
Christian Community animated by a dynamic woman leader of the place.
Some time in September, 1994, through the leader, the Socio Pastoral
Institute Women's Pro-gram team was invited to give a formation
training, without any clarity as to what kind of formation they
desired. An initial encounter was offered: a one day Basic Orientation
Seminar using an experi-ential approach. Thirty?five women participated.
The seminar turned out to be a day of revelation to all. The participants
discovered themselves as per-sons, especially their beauty, talents,
and value as WOMEN. They became aware of the situation and status
suffered by women in the home, in society, and even in the Church:
the woman is the subordi-nate, the exploited, the marginalised,
and the excluded in decision- making. During the seminar, they deepened
their appreciation of the woman's role as child?bearer, as life?nurturer;
but at the same time discovered that the woman is a life?giver in
many more ways than childbearing.
Little did we think that this encounter would be the start of our
journeying together until now, Janu-ary, 1997. The seminar was like
their first taste of the living waters drawn from their own wellsprings.
They had a thirst for discovering life as a woman....
The subsequent encounters gave clarity to the difference between
sex and gender. They became con-scious of the stereotype roles relegated
to women and men and handed on through generations by an unjust
patriarchal culture. They discovered, further, the woman's great
gift of FAITH ? in herself, in others, and above all in God. They
developed a growing sense of inter-relatedness with nature ? be-lieving
that a healthy life is dependent upon a healthy environment; and
that humans exist in symbi-otic relation with earth. They prayed
and hoped that their husbands might also desire to have the same
training as they were having.
RESULTS: They have formally organised themselves as a women's organisation.
Their husbands had the first encounter and have requested a follow?up.
The women's gender?sensitivity is getting sharp-ened. They have
eliminated the use of pesticides and inorganic fertilisers. They
now promote organic farming. They opted to use the carabao in farming
to avoid pollution, have carabao milk for their chil-dren, and help
eliminate the threat of extinction of the species due to mechanised
farming. They DREAM of the time when women and men and the whole
of creation will live in harmony, unity, equilibrium and respect!
Josefina Diaz, Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
(ICM), Philippines
The following are some success stories from Zambia:
¨ Catholic women are present at funerals and successfully protect
the widow from violent relatives of the deceased who want to grab
everything.
¨ Women try to support victims of domestic violence to improve
police attitudes towards them.
¨ Women use the results of research on the causes of violence
to fight against it.
¨ Women have helped the "widows of the Gabon air crash"
get justice concerning the funds due to them.
¨ Women marched to the State House to protest against the increasing
number of rape cases; arrests were made afterwards.
At the first MICROCREDIT WORLD SUMMIT (held in February 1997),
the Queen of Spain shared her experiences and hopes for change:
Speaking at the inaugural session, Queen Sofia recalled her recent
visit to Bangladesh, a country which is among the poorest in the
world. Before undertaking the voyage, she had questioned the pol-icy
of giving small credit to women in rural areas of the world. Would
this action really benefit these women and offer practical results
in the fight to eradicate the poverty that was denying their basic
human rights?
"...While visiting villages and speaking to hospitalers and
generous Bengali women, I found the an-swer to these questions.
I discovered it in experiencing the deepest solidarity with the
suffering of women who had lived through dramatic personal events.
Through their testimony and the tangible proofs of their work, achieved
in great part with regard to practical objectives and products,
I was able to understand that it is possible to conquer poverty
and to create an Utopia!"
1.1.5.2 Eco-Feminism
The violence being done to women and to the environment is closely
inter-connected. Eco-feminism as the word implies is all about environmental
and women's concerns. The term was first used in 1974 by French
writer Françoise d'Eaubonne to describe women's potential
to effect environmental change.
The growing awareness of women's problems is closely connected to
the growing awareness of envi-ronmental destruction. Both women
and the environment are suffering violence. In many cultures, we
hear the "groans" of women, and the "groans"
of creation. The destruction of the environment has a particularly
serious effect on women. "Women suffer the most when clean
drinking water, fuel and healthy surroundings are not available.
Women know what the shortage of water means, they know how the health
of their families is affected when the environment they live in
is not safe. They know what it means when the delicate balance of
nature is tilted precariously."
The women in poorer countries are doubly affected by the ecological
crisis, for they cannot afford to buy bottled water, organically
grown food, or pay for medical care. The injustice being done to
the environment is aggravating the injustices being done to women,
and in particular to the poorer women.
The present eco-feminist movement has contributed to a deeper understanding
of the inter-connectedness between all of creation. And so, the
present eco-feminist movement seeks to promote, new relationships
between women and men, between human beings and nature, relationships
of mu-tual respect, relationships that give LIFE.
Below are extracts from the preparatory questionnaire which were
sent to the participants at the elev-enth General Assembly of the
Asian Meeting of Religious (AMOR) held in India, June 1997:
Roots of Eco-Feminism:
¨ The roots of human history wherein the inter-relatedness of
the entire eco-system was experi-enced in its fullness.
¨ The perception that the earth and woman generate new life:
the feminine revered as 'Mother Goddess'.
¨ The co-relation existing between ecology and feminism and
our understanding of it.
¨ The communal values that foster and sustain 'life' in the
human community have been progres-sively eroded due to the onslaught
of patriarchal and capitalist values/ideology.
¨ The 'mastery' over woman and the earth experienced in the
form of control or dominance, spe-cifically on women and nature;
the violence and destruction of life, reflect the forces operative
in our present context.
"Shoots" of Eco-Feminism:
¨ A spirit of enough - frugality (Robert Muller, ex-Assistant
to the General Secretary of the U.N., and presently Chancellor of
the Peace University in Costa Rica).
¨ An understanding of 'development' and 'progress' where the
community of peoples and care of the earth are placed at the centre.
¨ A protection of nature, against the indiscriminate exploitation
by capitalist and vested interests, is essential for human existence.
¨ A greater appreciation of the role of women as givers and
nurturers of life in the present context of destruction of life
- human life and nature.
1.1.6 Refugees
The presence of so many refugees is a sign of a troubled world.
It is impossible to look at refugees and the way the international
community responds to them without realising that their presence
is an indication that something is terribly wrong in the international
system.
Ï There are an estimated 29 million refugees and another 100
million displaced people (both within and outside their countries
of origin). Only a small minority of refugees manage to leave their
countries in times of war; the majority remain "trapped"
inside, suffering the gruesome conse-quences.
Ï Refugees are on the increase due to Human Rights' violations:
political, economic, environ-mental, and ethnic. Increased arms'
trade, unjust trading practices, inhuman debt policies, politi-cal,
cultural and religious exclusion, racism, desertification and other
environmental disasters, will continue to add to the number of refugees
as we move into the twenty-first century.
Ï They have become "disposables": eye-witness accounts
of the treatment of the Rwandan refugees confirm this.
Definition of a refugee
International law defines a "refugee" as a person who:
"Owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons
of race, religion, na-tionality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his/her nationality
and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself/herself
of the protection of that country, or who, not having a nationality
and being outside the country of his/her former habitual residence
as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is
unwilling to return to it."
The definition excludes those individuals who are displaced by violence
or warfare and who have not been singled out for individual persecution.
The international system of refugee protection is breaking down.
This system was characterized by a consensus that refugees had a
special claim on the international community and that it was the
respon-sibility of the international community to provide protection
and assistance to refugees - not just the responsibility of the
governments of the countries in which they happened to arrive. Today
the con-sensus appears to be in trouble. All three components of
the systems - the legal definition of refugees, the Convention itself,
and UNHCR, the principal actor in the system - are undergoing change:
¨ more restrictive applications by national governments of the
classic definition of refugees embod-ied in the 1951 UN Convention
and the 1967 Protocol;
¨ increasing questions about the suitability of the definition
in an age where most refugees are dis-placed by war and violence,
not by individual persecution, and where the line between economic
and political motivations for flight is blurred;
¨ weakening of the leadership role of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees in refu-gee protection and assistance.
The stakes in such an erosion of the international system are high.
Ninety percent of the world's refu-gees come from countries in the
South and 90 percent of them remain in the South. Governments of
countries far poorer than those of Western Europe or North America
- countries which host far larger number of refugees - are questioning
why they should be expected to provide for refugees when richer
countries are closing their doors. The failure of the three traditional
solutions (voluntary repatriation, local integration, and resettlement
in a third country) to refugee situations has implications for both
North and South.
A refugee shares his experience:
"I arrived in Australia in July 1995, straight from the war-torn
central African nation of Burundi. It was a great change for me
as there was no common ground between life in the two countries.
Al-though Burundi has been making headlines in the media for the
past two years, and in spite of its fa-mous drummers, so far it
remains unknown to a lot of people. Every time I am asked where
it is, I just mention that it is Rwanda's next door neighbour, and
the sad pictures of the 1994 genocide are re-called.
"Now in Australia I have led a different life, as a new member
of the refugee family. I have said good-bye to the never ending
summer, especially to Lake Tanganyika which shaped my life, as violence
was escalating in my city. I did not have a chance to say good-bye
to my friends nor even to my par-ents. But what hurts most is the
cruel feeling which keeps recurring: the feeling that I might never
see them again. Many people back home call me 'the lucky boy'. But
little do they know how hard it is to be far away, especially to
be by yourself...
"Hardly can they imagine that now I am like a leaf carried
by a river. It is hard to answer the eternal and embarrassing question:
'When are you going back home?' But when you know you have no other
choice to survive, you close your eyes and take the decision.
"The greatest challenge to anyone in my situation is to adjust
to the new environment. To achieve this the major factor is to be
financially independent. This certainly is a pre-requisite for a
refugee more than anybody else, in order to be at least partially
accepted by the community.
"I have learned from my little experience that I have to 'work
as a refugee' to survive. I have now re-alised that a refugee has
to be strong both physically and psychologically. Yes, even if you
happen to cry, you let the tears flow into your heart. You carry
the pride and sorrow inside yourself, and just keep smiling. The
earth keeps turning and the sun shines for everybody. At the end
of the day you just sigh and sing, hoping that some time, somewhere,
someone will stare and care."
Prevention is preferable to Cure
Refugee movements are not inevitable, but can be averted if action
is taken to reduce or remove the threats which force people to leave
their own country and to seek sanctuary elsewhere. That is a fundamental
principle of the emerging approach to the issue of human displacement.
The concept of prevention includes activities such as
o monitoring and early warning,
o diplomatic intervention,
o economic and social development,
o conflict resolution,
o the protection of human and minority rights,
o the dissemination of information to prospective asylum seekers.
It means addressing both the root and immediate causes of flight.
...
Countries of origin are being called upon to eradicate the causes
of flight and to facilitate the return of refugees or displaced
people. In other words, there is a growing tendency for the in-ternational
community to concern itself with conditions that until recently
would have been treated as internal matters: violations of human
rights, repression of minorities, indiscrimina-tion, violence and
persecution.
Ten action steps
Step 1 Increase your awareness
Step 2 Become involved
Step 3 Understand the principles of the international system
Step 4 Understanding the policy issues in your own country
Step 5 Strive for justice and peace
Step 6 Demonstrate solidarity
Step 7 Extend hospitality: "welcome stranger"
Step 8 Join the immigration debate
Step 9 Engage in advocacy
Step 10 Provide services which respond to material, social and spiritual
needs.
Conclusion
Even as many in our society turn away or ignore the strangers in
their midst, some Christians and some churches are choosing to be
on the side of uprooted people. Some churches have identified themselves
with strangers and exiles for centuries. Signs of hope are emerging
in community and church initiatives around the world to create new
ministries, new vehicles of ecumenical co-operation, and new ways
of upholding human dignity and creating sustainable community.
We invite member churches through witness and service to all levels
of the life of the churches to rediscover their identity as Church
of the Stranger.
1.1.7 Elderly and handicapped
¨ They are being discarded in subtle ways;
¨ Society gives value only to those who "produce";
¨ They are tolerated, rather than cared for with love;
¨ Society and some families tend to operate from a value system
which excludes them.
1.1.8 Cultural And Religious Injustices
¨ There is a clear distinction between the indigenous peoples'
concept of "culture" and the modern concept of "culture":
the former excludes no one; the latter has an in-built cultural
exclusion.
¨ Cultural and religious "exclusions" have cost 120
million lives in this century alone.
¨ People are considered "non-persons" for cultural,
linguistic and religious reasons.
¨ Many governments have on their secret agenda the elimination
of minority groups or "non-persons", because they are
considered "surplus" peoples.
¨ Till recently the 41 million indigenous peoples of Latin America
and elsewhere were considered non-persons: their situation in many
regions has not changed considerably.
¨ Fundamentalist groups and sects are often used and abused
by the politically powerful. Hence, they are considered as "threats"
by other groups.
¨ Globally, a new culture is being born, with a new value system,
replacing traditional cultural and religious values. The mass-media
is the principal factor of this phenomenon.
1.1.9 Racism
¨ Through biased educational, legislative, legal, medical and
religious practices, and through deeply rooted linguistic and other
conventions, people are systematically robbed of their humanity
and their hope because of their race.
¨ Racism is an evil that exists in every sector of society and
of the Church.
Exclusion:
Till recently we spoke about groups being marginalised, but the
new phenomenon is to exclude these groups. It is easy to identify
the excluded but more difficult to identify those who exclude.
Below is an extract from a Provincial Chapter Document:
Universality - heritage of Mary of the Passion - is first of all
a spiritual attitude of openness taking us beyond frontiers, ethnicities,
castes, nationalities. The starting point is to take the path of
conversion and recognise our own ethnocentrism in order to go beyond
it towards the other.
In the present mingling of peoples and in the context of nationalism,
our intercultural and interna-tional communities are called to be
signs and instruments of communion.
Justice calls us to recognise and respect the equality of every
person and culture, and to work continu-ally to uproot our prejudices
in an attitude of permanent conversion. Therefore, the provincial
chapter members ask that we deepen our awareness of the evils of
racism/ethnocentrism - within ourselves - within our FMM communities,
in the areas where we minister, and in the world at large, striving
to remove barriers that keep us from gathering at God's table.
Within each community, the members have the co-responsibility to
call each other to make this state-ment a reality in daily life.
Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, USA
Action against Racism
"I have been working with South East Asian immigrant women
living in Vancouver Canada since 1993. The women have become aware
that social service organisations are merely "band aid"
to pressing problems and were doing little preventive work. The
women have collectively organised themselves into a large number
of women's advocacy groups to educate, support, network and strate-gise
with other women to bring about legal and social structural change.
The main issue is the lack of recognition of foreign education and
work credentials in Canada.
The forms of discrimination experienced are: a baccalaureate degree
counts for no more than college entrance. A post graduate degree
just might give a woman a first-degree equivalency.
Discrimination in the work place: Sirjit says "as soon as they
see the colour of your skin.. you are looked upon as if you don't
know anything, have a language problem or will not do the job properly."
They have these notions of Indian women - they give the jobs to
mainstream people and tell you "you don't have Canadian experience."
Devi says : "You have to be the first among the first to succeed
as well as a native born Canadian".
Pushpa says : "It's hard to be a foreigner; I have to get 100
percent to get a man's job. These women's statements are packed
with many elements of racism and sexism - the assumption of ignorance
be-cause of skin colour; the assumption that an Indian woman has
nothing to contribute or that whatever skills she has are valueless;
covert racism in placing higher expectations of performance from
an im-migrant woman who is visibly different.
Action: Programmes directed towards getting recognition of foreign
credentials. Providing workshop and practical manuals e.g. How to
become a teacher in British Columbia. Pro-active anti-racist and
anti-sexist educational workshops and projects promoting policies
of British Columbia Multicultural-ism Act 1993.
Helen Ralston RSCJ, Canada
There
is a programme of formation in anti-racism in Sacred Heart High
School in Bonn. In Berlin, an RSCJ is the delegate for migrants
affairs for the Cardinal Archbishop. This brings her into contact
with the press and politicians who are the law and opinion makers
with respect to immigrants. She has animated a group of students
to work on immigration law for presentation to the parliament.
Society of the Sacred Heart, Germany
The
following is an extract from Dr. Martin Luther King's vision of
a land unified by love and spirit, as one, not halted by the boundaries
of colour or race:
" ... I have a Dream that my four little children will one
day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour
of their skin but by the content of their character. This is our
hope. This is my faith.... With this faith, we will be able to hew
out of the mountain of despair a stone of Hope."
1.1.10 Violence
It is no exaggeration to say that we are living in a culture of
violence. Pope John Paul II in his encyc-lical, Gospel of Life enumerates
some of the elements of a culture of Death. Basically, it means
the same, for any form of violence is destructive.
Violence can be personal, societal or global. It can be systemic
and structural. It can be political, eco-nomic, cultural and religious.
It can be institutionalised. It is experienced in families and in
communi-ties. We are aware of its many causes and expressions.
Bob Kearns, a Josephite pastor in the USA, shares with us his experience
with a group of third grad-ers: Speaking about the fifth commandment,
he asked them: "What kinds of violence do we know to-day?"
Here is what came spontaneously from the lips of eight?year?olds:
"Serial rape, beating up people, stabbing, shooting, poisoning,
suicide, kidnapping of children, setting bombs and fires, torturing
animals, abusing children, killing old people, abortion, AIDS."
Kearns asks, "Whatever happened to the days of getting angry
with my brothers and sisters or getting into a fist-fight?"
Michael Crosby defining violence says it is, "any force that
inflicts injury". According to his defini-tion it has three
elements:
¨ it represents any force;
¨ it is unwanted;
¨ the force inflicts injury.
The "force" and the "injury" can be physical
or mental, individual or corporate, psychological or so-ciological,
concrete or ideological, religious or spiritual, etc. In elaborating
on this definition, we should be placing more stress on the "force"
that inflicts the injury rather than the other two dimen-sions.
This keeps us concentrated on the cause as we have to attend to
the impact and effect.
This leads us to ask, what are the different types of "forces"
and "injuries" which are operative in this world. Thomas
Merton had this to say in his book, Faith and Violence:
"The real moral issue of violence in the twentieth century
is obscured by archaic and mythical pre-suppositions. We tend to
judge violence in terms of the individual, the messy, the physically
disturb-ing, the personally frightening.... That is reasonable,
but it tends to influence us too much. It makes us think that the
problem of violence is limited to this very small scale, and it
makes us unable to appre-ciate the far greater problem of the more
abstract, more global, more organised presence of violence on a
massive and corporate pattern. Violence today is white?collar violence,
the systematically organ-ised bureaucratic and technological destruction
of man."
We still have the tendency to limit our understanding of violence
with something physical and indi-vidual, and we do not equate it
with the organised, bureaucratic, systemic forms of violence that
are responsible for our present culture of death.
Concretely, violence manifests itself in the following forms in
the world of today:
¨ in the treatment of the poor and marginalised, of women and
children, of the elderly and handi-capped;
¨ in the heavy burden of debt carried by the poorest countries;
¨ in austerity or the Structural Adjustment Programmes;
¨ in the profit-driven economy;
¨ in a form of consumerism;
¨ in unemployment and underemployment;
¨ in unequal access to arable land, and other essential resources;
¨ in the present international monetary system;
¨ in the destruction of the environment.
The following are some examples of a clear option for non-violence
by the Franciscan Sisters of Penance and Christian Charity:
"The sisters of our province have dealt with the theme of "non-violence"
intensively this year. During the Visitation of the convents the
impulses and common reflections centred on it."
The discussions revolved around questions and aspects such as these:
"How does violent and non-violent behaviour express itself
in our daily lives? Non-violent behaviour towards ourselves and
listening to our own inner truth? Non-violence as an expression
of tolerance? Respect for the dignity and growth of the other persons?
Non-violence - a Franciscan attitude - the principle of subsidiarity,
a principle of structure in which non-violence expresses itself."
A Personal Testimony
Michael Crosby, OFM cap.
To bring this material home, I suggest some things that have helped
me in my own ongoing ef-fort to become more non-violent:
¨ Respecting myself for who I am and others for who they are
by giving up the need to con-trol others and by respectfully not
letting others control me.
¨ In all interchanges that may have elements of conflict, follow
the fourfold path: show up; pay attention; speak your truth; give
up the need to control the outcome.
¨ Be aware of the ways I get "my own back up" when
my power, possessions, and prestige may be threatened. What do I
do to protect them and my boundaries? What makes me defen-sive?
¨ Be aware of my fears and what I do consciously and unconsciously
when they arise. Under-stand how they can keep me from risking.
¨ Ask myself if I have any hard feelings in my heart toward
anyone. If I do, seek reconcilia-tion by means of asking forgiveness
or offering repentance. Be open to others when they seek reconciliation
with me.
¨ Be grateful and appreciative of the little acts of non-violence;
rejoice and be glad in the promotion of peace.
¨ Seek to become a mystic/contemplative in prayer; it will sustain
and authenticate the pro-phetic/challenges involved in resistance.
¨ Realising that all reconciliation must be based on justice,
find creative ways to challenge the institutions, "isms,"
and ideologies that sustain injustice. Don't just denounce; seek
alterna-tives.
¨ Develop ways of thinking that de-centre myself from myself
and put me in greater solidar-ity with the victims of violence,
including the earth itself.
¨ Try to live according to the six principles of Pax Christi's
Vow of Non-violence (see Ap-pendix A3.3); promote it in all my preaching.
¨ Ask myself: "Do I really care" about those with
whom I differ, whom I challenge, who challenge me?
¨ Be aware of the sources of my anger when it is destructive
(i.e., projection, blaming, scape-goating).
¨ Nourish and be nourished by communities of non-violence and
resistance.
¨ Find at least one cause that I am willing to sacrifice for;
engage in a campaign worthy of the cause.
1.1.11 Factors of a manipulated globalisation
¨ Trans-national Corporations
The MAIN Actors are the Trans-national Corporations (multinational
companies) which owe loyalty to no one, especially to no nation
state. Most industrialised nations are in debt but not the trans-nationals.
They are the engines of globalisation. Nation states and politicians
now work for them.
¨ Communication Technology
Computers are now the language of modern life. The NET defines life
for many. Money moves at the speed of the computer and thus becomes
the "only true human language". We are being obliged to
be part of the communications-super-highway.
¨ The Economically Powerful
The rich and the wealthy do not really show any loyalty to their
own country or nations, but rather to the new global community.
Jet travel, cellular and satellite phones, computers and tax havens
off shore allow the rich to move about the world as if it were their
home and show no allegiance to their home country.
¨ The Media
Who owns it? Who runs it? The media is biased, and often manipulated
to serve the interests of those who wield political and economic
power. The Media of the rich nations accept the agenda of the trans-national
corporations and try to convince the rest of the world that it is
the only reality worth working towards, the only truly human reality,
the real sense of progress
¨ Fundamentalism
Because of a subtle insecurity of individualism and its icons there
is a swing to the right in terms of Religion and Fundamentalism.
In certain contexts, fundamentalism is also used as a weapon to
fight modernism.
According to Felix Wilfred, Globalisation seems to carry the whole
world along. But in fact, it leaves more and more behind it in the
desert of misery. It uproots people with the promise of plenty,
but in fact it saps them mercilessly and allows them to dry out
and die. The poor and the weak in our society are increasingly deprived
of the security their traditional occupations, however menial these
may be, provide. They are incapable of competing in a system whose
very nature is to leave behind many as it progresses. The agricultural
sector has experienced the heaviest blow of globalisation…
Globalisation for them in effect means marginalisation…
It is easy to drag peoples and nations into global economics. This
progressively leads to the loss of the most noble aspects of their
culture. All of them are supplied with a surrogate global culture,
which ultimately serves the vested interests of the powerful.
1.2. INJUSTICE TO THE ENVIRONMENT
1.2.1 Integrity of creation
"The land is my mother. Like a human mother, the land gives
us protection, enjoyment and provides for our needs - economic,
social and religious. We have human relationships with the land:
mother, daughter, son. When the land is taken from us or destroyed
we feel hurt because we belong to the land and we are part of it".
Deacon Djiniyini Goudarra
Ï
There is a close inter-connection between social injustices and
environmental injustices.
Ï The increasing environmental injustices are the consequences
of the social injustices. The former cannot be addressed without
addressing the latter.
Ï The present patterns of production and consumption are the
principal causes of the environmental degradation.
FACTS AND FIGURES ON ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICES
1.2.2 The world's oceans
¨ which regulate the earth's climate;
¨ which provide 100 million tons of sea food annually;
¨ which are rich in salt and minerals (magnesium, nickel, copper);
¨ which can be distilled into fresh water;
are now being polluted:
¨ by toxic substances from industries;
¨ by sewage/garbage from urban areas;
¨ by pesticides, fertilisers, animal manure, etc. due to modern
methods of agriculture and farming.
1.2.3 Pollution of land and air
¨ due to the burning of fossil fuels for industrial purposes;
¨ lead emissions from cars;
¨ increasing number of refrigerators and air-conditioners;
¨ dumping of toxic waste material.
1.2.4 Desertification and soil erosion
¨ Desertification has ecological, social, economic and human
consequences.
¨ It is the process whereby arable land loses its trees, bushes
and grasses. The fertile topsoil is then exposed to wind and weather.
This depleted soil turns into sand.
¨ Each year about 23,000 sq. miles of fertile land turns into
desert. Another 77,500 sq. miles of cul-tivable land and pasture
are destroyed or seriously depleted. Eventually these areas become
so ex-posed that the desert takes over.
¨ Desertification is specially taking place in the land south
of the Sahara: also in certain parts of Asia, along the east coasts
of the USA and Latin America.
1.2.5 Deforestation
¨ The forest is home to many people, animals, birds and insects.
It provides food, medicines, fuel, charcoal, wood and paper.
¨ Vegetation supports human and animal life in several essential
ways. Protecting the plant cover is the most important way to prevent
desertification.
¨ Green plants absorb carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Fewer
trees mean less Carbon Dioxide will be absorbed, and more CO2 contributes
to the greenhouse effect.
¨ Tropical rainforests constitute 3/4 of all forests in the
tropics. The rainforests contain 60% of the world's plant and animal
species.
¨ Rainforests are disappearing because of:
Ï mining operations
Ï the timber industry
Ï road construction
Ï cattle rearing (to export beef to the North)
Ï ownership of land.
¨ Rich and poor countries consume the world's trees in roughly
equal proportions: the poor coun-tries use it for survival, while
the rich use it mainly for luxuries (for construction - 75% by rich
countries; for paper, 87.5% by the rich countries).
¨ More than half of the world's tropical forests have disappeared
since 1950. Recent studies show that an area the size of New Zealand
is destroyed each year.
Consequences of the destruction of rainforests:
¨ Deforestation is the principal cause of the elimination of:
Ï indigenous peoples who live in forests,
Ï species: animals, birds, plants, including 7000 medicinal
components.
Ï 1 species disappears every 12 minutes. (There are probably
about 30 million species, of which 1.4 million are known),
¨ Serious Climate Change, due to the destruction of the "carbon
sinks".
Consequences of Accelerated Climate Change:
¨ It makes weather patterns erratic and increasingly hard to
predict. Droughts, storms, floods and hurricanes are likely to be
more frequent and more severe than in the past. Ice, snow and glaciers
will be reduced.
¨ As atmospheric warming increases the temperature of the ocean,
its change will lead to a rise in sea level.
¨ Hffects on agriculture will be uneven but substantial. Some
major cropland areas will be lost. De-sertification will expand.
¨ Hydrological changes will be disruptive.
¨ Changed climate conditions will place stress on forests, grasslands
and other eco-systems.
The effects of accelerated climate
change exacerbate social inequalities
within and between countries.
1.2.6 The greenhouse effect
¨ Combustion of coal, oil and gas,
¨ Release of industrial chemical gases,
¨ Burning of Forests,
¨ Anaerobic fermentation,
increase the amount of Carbon Dioxide and other gases in the atmosphere.
This reduces the radiation of heat into space. Heat is then trapped
as in a greenhouse, and the earth heats up.
1.2.7 Depletion of the ozone layer
¨ The release of Chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere is
thinning the ozone layer which protects the earth against ultraviolet
rays: it has diminished by 4-8% during the last 10 years.
Damaging effects:
Ï effect on the immune system
Ï increase of skin cancer
Ï more eye diseases
Ï reduced timber yields
Ï lower crop production
Ï disturbances to the ocean system
Ï degradation by paints and plastics
1.2.8 Inter-connectedness between social
and environmental injustices
¨ 1 billion people are affected and 2 million are killed each
year due to drinking and washing with polluted water;
¨ in the year 2000 two and a half billion people will consume
wood at a greater pace than its rhythm of regeneration;
¨ the rich 20% consume 85% of non-renewable energy resources;
¨ industry continues to produce two and a half billion tons
of toxic waste each year and to dispose of it in the poorer countries;
¨ 17 of the world's major fisheries have reached or exceeded
sustainable limits - 9 are in serious decline;
¨ emissions from fossil fuels have increased almost 400% since
1950.
1.2.9 Examples of commitment to
the environment
A success story from an environmental group:
Elected to the Senate in 1994, Marina Silva de Souza has risen about
as far as any woman has in Brazil. But she has never forgotten her
beginnings. One of 11 children of a poor rubber-tapping family in
the Amazon, she spent her early years hunting, fishing and making
rubber. In the 1980's she joined with Chico Mendes to organise peaceful
demonstrations against the deforestation of the Amazon, and the
expulsion of rubber-tapping families, who depended on the rain forest
for their livelihood. They met with much resistance from the wealthy
landowners and cattle ranchers, who were clearing the forests at
a rapid rate. "We wondered" she said "if anyone was
listening to us". But listened to they were and the rubber
tappers crusade became an inspiration for grass roots environmental
groups around the world. Since the late 1980's and the assassination
of Mendes, Silva she has carried on the struggle, concentrating
her efforts on the establishment of reserves of rain forest set
aside for non-destructive agricultural pursuits such as rubber-tapping
and Brazil-nut harvesting. Today 1.9 million hectares in Silva's
State of Acre are dedicated to reserves managed by the forest communities.
"If I am able to see a little farther than others," she
says, "it is because I am supported by the shoulders of giants
- the rubber tappers, the native Indians and the scientists."
In her recent book The Fire in these Ashes, Joan Chittister wrote,
what is needed now is an ecology of life, justice and peace if the
planet is to survive and all its people are to live decent human
lives. For the planet to survive and people to live decent human
lives it requires a transformation of economic systems, consumption
patterns and values which underpin much of the life style of the
affluent. The demands made by this life style are impoverishing
the poor and killing the earth. According to Sean McDonagh, "We
are causing changes of a biological and geological order of magnitude
and are only now beginning to wake up to the consequences of our
activity."
It is this very magnitude that leaves people feeling depressed,
powerless and unsure of what to do. The role, however, of those
committed to Christian justice, to making peace and to caring for
the earth is very clear. It is essentially a prophetic role. Unsustainable
structures require critique, industry must be challenged and the
consequences of consumerist practices highlighted. It is not a time
for the fainthearted. But it is a time for the imaginative: new
theologies are coming to birth; liturgies which spring from creation
find their way into churches; and creative responses to present
situations are found in unexpected places. There is much to be done.
Wanagri Maathai, that great and courageous leader of the Kenyan
Green Belt movement and inveterate planter of trees urges us to
action:
"You cannot just say you're going to prevent desertification
or deforestation, just like that. It is not a single issue, it is
not a single answer; it is a complex concoction of all kinds of
issues that interplay and interlock. And when we try to solve these
problems they're not going to be solved at the meetings by the politicians,
by writing beautiful documents. In the final analysis, the problems
will be solved by taking action at wherever we are individually.
That is why I would like to emphasise this concept of acting locally,
but thinking globally. In the final analysis, each of us must make
that decision to take action; but all the talking, all the documents
go on. It has been going on for a long time."
Problems associated with care of the environment can be approached
in a variety of ways through structural analysis, through collaboration,
through local level practical action and in combinations of all
three. Structural analysis can help identify whose interests are
served by industrial pollution, etc. Clean-up days, Greenpeace activities
or World Wildlife Fund can put us in touch with a network and with
information, expertise and group solidarity. Action locally, and
in the home is what keeps our daily lives environmentally "real"
and puts the theory into practice. (In Appendix 2 several practical
suggestions in response to daily environmental challenges are outlined).
Below
is an extract from a sharing from the Franciscan Missionaries of
Mary, from the Philip-pines:
An Environmental Ethic for Personal and Social Transformation
A. Justice Today: Sustainable Sufficiency (SAPAT) for All
¨ SAPAT is the Filipino term for 'enough', 'sufficient'.
¨ 'The rich must live simply so that the poor may simply live.'
¨ Acceptance and adoption of SAPAT as a way of life, as a way
of being in society, calls for a truly alternative manner of viewing
the world and living in it that must stand in stark contrast to
the dominant current culture.
B. SAPAT Principles
¨ Principle One: Enough of the destruction of the environment.
¨ Principle Two: Take from nature only that which is enough.
¨ Principle Three: Eat and buy only what is enough and needed.
¨ Principle Four: Each person must have enough to sustain a
healthful and dignified life.
Throughout the years, considerable strides have been made in the
protection of the environment where our sisters have been working.
In the course of their protest against illegal logging in their
area, the Mangyans and the sisters were harassed and threatened.
This reached crisis proportions when one of the Mangyan leaders
was stabbed.
The Comboni Sisters have made the following option:
To initiate the campaign of 'enough' by limiting our personal and
community demands and being sat-isfied with what is necessary ...
The following is a parable for Reflection and Discussion
MOTHER
There was a very loving, fruitful and provident mother. In her Immense
fertility she happily be-got hundreds nay, thousands of children.
Her name was "Earth" and her children's names were "men"
and "women".
Lovingly and with utter prodigality she regaled them with cool and
chaste water to drink, fleshy and juicy fruits to eat, soft, green
and fresh grass to lie on, nights and days, months and seasons.
When men and women, Mother Earth's children, were small they loved
their mother dearly. They caressed her night and day with their
bare hands and feet.
They were so grateful to Mother Earth that they established great
festivals to usher in and cele-brate the seasons, the harvesting
of the crops, the beginning and ending of the rains, summers and
winters.
In their child?like simplicity they even prayed to her and worshipped
her in their fields, in their homes and in their little temples.
As the children of Mother Earth grew and became learned and educated,
they turned colder and colder towards their mother. In the end they
forgot all her favours and all her love and generos-ity. Their festivals
and celebrations ceased. Their prayers stuck in their throats. Their
worship was forgotten. They regarded with horror and contempt their
former prayers, worshipping, festi-vals and celebrations. And as
they grew more "civilised" they learned to wrest from
her bosom, by cunning and by force, the treasures she lovingly concealed
for men and women yet unborn!.
Finally, now, when they have reached the peak of development, they
have changed their attitudes towards their benign mother. Mother
Earth is now a rival to conquer, a wild beast to entrap and subdue,
a miser to strip bare. And so her children brutally "cannibalise"
on her, maim her, strip her of her mantle of beauty and pollute
her. And yet, all over the world the intellectuals, the phi-losophers
and great thinkers keep repeating: "At last we conquered earth.
We know the secrets of nature. We emancipated humankind from obscurantism,
fear of natural phenomena and supersti-tions. We are now rich and
prosperous. A bright future is waiting for us. We need not pray
or worship anyone any more!"
But I question: "Is it really so? Can we live without our Mother?"
QUESTIONS:
1. Who are the children of the world? Is this just a poetical figure
of speech or does it express a true reality? Explain.
2. How did "primitive" man (and woman) feel towards the
earth and nature? How did they ex-press it?
3. Did the festivals, celebrations, rituals and myths of "primitive"
human beings have any value? Which?
4. Is it a loss or a gain that those festivals have ceased? Why?
5. How do modern human beings feel towards the earth? What is earth
for them?
6. How is it that their attitudes towards the earth have changed
so radically?
7. What do modern human beings do to the earth today?
8. Can the earth sustain such a beating, pilfering and raping of
her resources any longer? Why? What will be the consequences of
it all?
9. How should "rational" human beings use (not abuse)
the riches and resources of the earth to prevent those catastrophic
consequences?
A PARABLE
for Personal Reflection
Once
upon time there was a class,
and the students expressed disapproval of their teacher.
Why should they be concerned with
global interdependency, global problems,
and what others of the world were thinking feeling and doing?
And
the teacher said she had a dream in which
she saw one of her students fifty years from today.
The student was angry and said,
"Why did I learn so much detail about the past
and the administration of my country
and so little about the world".
He
was angry because no one told him
that as an adult he would be faced
almost daily with problems of global interdependent nature,
be they problems of peace, security, quality of life,
food, inflation, or scarcity of natural resources.
The
angry student found he was the victim
as well as the beneficiary.
"Why was I not warned?
Why was I not better educated?
Why did my teachers not tell me about
the problems and help me understand
I was a member of an interdependent human race?"
With
even greater anger the student, shouted
"You helped me extend my hands
with incredible machines,
my eyes with telescopes and microscopes,
my ears with telephone, radios, and sonar,
my brain with computers,
but you did not help me extend my heart,
love, concern,to the entire human family.
You teacher, gave me half a loaf".
by Rye Kinghorn,
quoted by Robert Muller: The Birth of a Global Civilisation
1.2.10 Concluding comment
As Religious and
as Justice, Peace, Integrity of Creation promoters,
it is important that we take
this "new world order" very seriously.
As
Christians, concerned about building the Reign of God,
we need to search constantly for the Plan of God for this world.
This calls for a re-reading of the Scriptures (Section II).
