Latest Posts Page

The Catholic Church in Kazakhstan. Testifying through friendship and dialogue.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

Kazakhstan is the country of Central Asia with the largest number of Catholics. Small communities scattered throughout a vast territory. The commitment of the Church to human development and social promotion.

Kazakhstan is located in Central Asia. It is the ninth-largest country in the world, with an area of 2,724,900 square kilometres. Its territory is characterized by the plains of Western Siberia and the oases and deserts of Central Asia. Before independence, during the Soviet Union period, the Kazakh population was less than 50%, the other half was composed of Russians, Ukrainians, Polish people and other immigrants of other nationalities. After the immigrants left, the situation changed and the Kazakhs now make up 63% of the population with 17.5 million inhabitants. The capital of the country is Nur-Sultan (formerly Astana).

The semi-arid steppes characterized by freezing temperatures in winter, turn into endless meadows ideal for pasture in spring, an essential resource for the Kazakh people who are also skilled horse riders since horses have always been essential for their nomadic lifestyle. The Kazakhs are said to have been the inventors of stirrups. They are also very skilled at shooting arrows while riding a galloping horse. Still today they perform their particular skills during parties and events. Their handicrafts made of felt, or wool are lavishly decorated. Headdresses, dresses, bags and saddle-cloths are beautifully embroidered. They use traditional designs and carvings to make and decorate the wooden cups, large bowls and ladles used to serve kumis (fermented mare’s milk). The foundation of Kazakh culture is hospitality, which always starts with a cup of tea. The host offers tea to any person who comes to their yurt. The yurt is a dome-shaped felt tent, a sort of elaboration of the Mongolian tent. It is a movable, comfortable and practical home, ideally suited to local conditions. The main material in yurt construction has always been willow wood. Once the framework is constructed, a felt cover provides protection from wind, rain, and snow in winter, and the scorching sun and dust of summer.

The Kazakh culture has its roots in the nomadic nature of the people and in Islam, which is the religion professed by the majority (70%) of the inhabitants of Kazakhstan. The Kazakhs embraced Islam during the sixteenth century and still consider themselves Muslim today. Changes in Kazakh society (mainly from a nomadic to a settled lifestyle) and an attempt by the Soviets to suppress religious freedoms, have led the people to adopt Islam more closely. However, their Islamic practices have been combined with traditional folk traditions such as shamanic practices, ancestor worship, etc. At the basis of the Kazakh social organization there is the extended patrilocal family. One of the most ancient forms of marriage among the Kazakhs was abduction, in which, under certain circumstances, the young man abducted his future wife either with her agreement or without it.
Marriage through abduction is still rather widespread, especially in rural areas. This is today only an imitation of abduction, however, since the girl, as a rule, willingly goes to the groom’s home ‘surreptitiously’. In such instances, the wedding is arranged immediately. The groom’s parents ask forgiveness from the bride’s parents, who give it. After the wedding the bride’s dowry is brought.
As a rule, patrilocal marriage predominates among the Kazakhs. However, levirate marriages are also common in Kazakhstan. In accord with the custom of levirate, after the death of her husband, the widow, together with the children and all the property of the deceased, is inherited by his brother (i.e., she becomes his wife). In accord with custom, Kazakh men can have several wives.
As for poetry, the Kazakh poetic styles reflect the Kazakh lifestyle, views, and ideals. The main styles of verbal-poetical art are: epic poems, social-domestic poetry, lyric-dramatic epos and lyric poetry, historical songs, shepherd’s lays, magical chants, wedding and funeral songs, fairy-tales and legends.

The Catholic Church
Kazakhstan is now the Central Asian country with the largest number of Catholics. It can be said that the history of the Catholic Church in Kazakhstan resumed in the 20th century when Stalin ordered the deportation to Central Asia of whole peoples of the Catholic tradition. From 1930 onwards, many priests were deported and sent to concentration camps in Kazakhstan. Having been released, they settled among the people and began clandestine ministry.

Msgr. José Luis Mumbiela Sierra, president of the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan.

In September 2001, Pope John Paul II visited the small Catholic community which had gained new vigour after independence. In 2003 the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan was created. This is composed of the dioceses of Nur-Sultan, Karaganda (led by Msgr. Adelio Dell’Oro) and of the Holy Trinity of Almaty (led by Msgr. Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra); in addition, there are the apostolic administrations of Atyrau (governed by Fr Dariusz Buras) and that of the Byzantine rite Catholics in Kazakhstan and Central Asia (led by Fr Vasyl Hovera).The Catholics are around 1.14% of the population (about 112 thousand). There are currently 70 parishes in the country. Religious of 20 different nationalities reside in the area, for a total of 120 priests and 130 nuns. At present, there are 80 Roman Catholic religious associations in Kazakhstan. All of them have passed the procedure of re-registration and are among the 18 denominations officially registered in Kazakhstan.
Msgr. José Luis Mumbiela Sierra is also president of the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan. “The Catholic Church is going through a process of transformation. Initially most of the faithful were descendants of Polish people, Germans, Ukrainians and Baltic people, who had been deported during Stalin’s rule in the past century. Many of them have emigrated to other countries, but at the same time, people of other nationalities who ‘traditionally’ were not Catholics and not even Christians are now joining the Catholic faith. This constitutes a challenge for evangelization and inculturation. The migration phenomenon affects us closely, but we do not consider it a problem”, says the bishop.

“There is an atmosphere of dialogue and friendship in Kazakhstan. The government itself, ever since independence in 1991, has endeavoured to promote a society based on good relations between the different religious faiths. Peace and harmony are everyone’s goal and joint meetings are organized for this purpose. In this context, rather than institutional relations, personal relationships are important, relationships of closeness and friendship between believers of different religions or even non-believers”, says the bishop.
Msgr. Mumbiela recalls Pope John Paul II’s visit in 2001. “It was an unforgettable moment of grace and blessing. I believe that for Catholics who lived through the difficult years of the Soviet era, it was like seeing the light at last after going out of the catacombs. There were also many non-Christians who recognized that a ‘holy man’ had come among them. To us he was, and still is, a strong call to holiness. Missionaries are responsible for the image of the faith they profess. The Gospel must be made credible, acceptable and desirable for its beauty that missionaries should transmit through the testimony of their life “.

The Catholic Church, which is a minority community in Kazakhstan, has strengthened its presence in social works. Caritas in the country is very committed to human development and promotion. Two projects have recently been launched. One project is designed to provide training for staff working with adults and children with disabilities. Caritas director Don Guido Trezzani says, “We are creating two greenhouses, one in Talgar and the other in Almaty, which will also give the opportunity to teach disabled children a possible occupation by learning how to cultivate agricultural products”.
The other project involves women. It is a micro credit project, “We have purchased sewing machines to produce eco-bags which, as Caritas, we are already selling and distributing. With the help of potential partners or sponsors, we plan to buy more sewing machines to make bags and involve other women. Once the participants have returned the credit, they will decide whether to continue working with us or to start their own business”.
Archbishop Dariusz Buras Apostolic Administrator of Atyrau, says, “Over the last twenty years we have experienced very important events: the opening of churches and pastoral centres in cities such as Atyrau, Kulsary, Uralsk, Aktobe and Khromtau. Other occasions of joy were the two priestly ordinations of 2017 and 2019: Father Ruslan Mursaitov was the first local priest of the Apostolic Administration of Atyrau. Last year God gave us a second priest, the Philippine Father Patrick Napal”.
The Apostolic Administration of Atyrau is currently composed of six parishes located in four regions of western Kazakhstan and it is run by 15 priests and seven nuns: “The number of parishioners is constantly increasing. There are about 500 local Catholics in western Kazakhstan, to whom are added the many foreigners who come to work in this area and participate in the life of the Church”. (C.C.)

Music. Mory Kanté. The Electric Griot.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

His eighties hit Yeke Yeke made him one of the prime artists of nascent world music.

The singer and musician Mory Kanté has died aged seventy after a long illness. Originally from Guinea, he was known all over the world especially for his hit, Yeke Yeke, launched in 1987. That piece of music, containing ethnic elements together with the electronic acceleration typical of the music of the eighties, became a reference point in the context of the birth of world music. It was no mere coincidence that he became known to all as the ‘Electric Griot’.

Kanté began as a griot, playing the kora (a traditional sort of harp found in West Africa) that he had learned as a child when his parents suggested he study the instrument in Mali. His whole family was devoted to the musical art of storytelling which, in African culture, goes beyond the confines of the music and becomes a historical account of one’s own family and one’s ethnic group and then part of the collective memory.
Born in 1951 in Kissidougou, in Guinea, at fifteen he moved to Bamako and there, in the Malian capital, he joined the most famous group in the country, ‘Rail Band’. In 1975, during a tour of West Africa with Rail Band, he won the Voix d’Or (Golden Voice) prize in Nigeria.

Having left Rail Band, Kanté began to create his own music, grafting Anglo-Saxon elements onto traditional music, especially soul music. In 1981, he began his solo career. A meeting with Abdoulaye Soumare, a producer who had worked together for years with Stevie Wonder, brought success with his album Courougnegne.
From that moment, Kanté began to be seen as the founder of modern Mandinga music, that special mixture of ethnic, western and electronic music that established him first in Africa and later in Europe, eventually bringing him to France in 1982.
In Paris, Kanté recorded the album A Paris containing a much more acoustic version of Yeke Yeke.
This album of only six tracks, established him as one of the avant-garde artists of the African scene. However, it was in 1987, with a much more rhythmic version using sounds similar to house music, that Yeke Yeke became an international success. Kanté became famous all over the world: the single sold more than a million copies and the album featuring it, Akwaba Beach, reached sales of over half a million.

With Touma, his album released in 1990, Kanté confirmed his style as an electric griot, making further use of electronic components sustained by his deep explosive voice; in the same vein we find his works of the decade: Nongo Village (1994), and Tatebola (1996). He delayed until the start of the new millennium to return to acoustic and ethnic sounds with Sabou, released in 2004 and Tamala in 2009.
In 2012, with La Guinéenne, the electric griot returned to the balaphone and the Fulani flute to honour African women whom he saw as still at a disadvantage despite the progress made. His last publication was issued in 2017. In his musical career, the artist created a total of 13 albums.
Kanté was also a social activist. On 16 October 2001, he became UN Ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “I will work with people of different cultures and I will travel to many countries to give people the chance to help each other. The whole world must unite to combat hunger and poverty”, he declared.

After becoming FAO Ambassador, Mory took part in many TV and radio programmes to promote the aims of the FAO.
In 2002 he took part in the World Food Summit and, in 2003, he held a concert on behalf of the FAO in Helsinki, Finland.
He had been ill for many years when, on 22 May, in Guinea, Mory Kanté died in a Conakry hospital.
Speaking during an interview he had said of himself: “I would like to be remembered as a man of culture, a citizen of the world who gets his message across through music and as a tireless traveller seeking to meet and get to know the people of this world”. (R.M.)

Sudan. St Mary’s Hospital in Khartoum. At the service of Life.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

St. Mary’s Hospital is located in the Arab market district of Khartoum. More than 300 children are born in this structure every month. We visited the Centre.

Six Comboni missionaries of five different nationalities work there full time. The nuns are supported by a large team of 132 people, including seven doctors, 22 midwives, 23 nurses, 12 specialized caregivers, four anesthetists, three hematologists and several other people assigned to different services. The medical staff is composed mainly of women, as seems logical in a maternity hospital in an Islamic country.We went to visit the hospital and the Mozambican sister Albertina Marcelino, who is the staff coordinator, accompanied us.
First we visited the pharmacy, which is open 24 hours a day. The sister assured us that fortunately the hospital does not suffer from lack of medicines, and that, although it is a maternity hospital, people also go to the structure to buy medicines. Nearby the pharmacy there is the laboratory, whose main function is to provide the results of clinical tests as quickly as possible, and is also provided with a blood bank in order to deal with emergencies.

Upon leaving the inner courtyard, we found a group of mothers with their babies. They were there for periodic checks and for the vaccination program for mothers and children, which are provided every Tuesday and Saturday. Sister Albertina greets them in Arabic, caresses some of the babies and then confirms that, “All these children were born
in this hospital”.

The prenatal reception room is on the first floor. There we met Sister Erminiade of Italian origin, who is in charge of filling in the registration form of mothers-to-be. The St. Mary’s Maternity Hospital has never made a distinction between Muslim or Christian, Sudanese, South Sudanese, Ethiopian or Eritrean women. All of them are welcome and receive equal service at the centre. Sister Albertina told us that the sisters of the hospital offer particular help to women from poor families who cannot afford to give birth to their baby in a hospital. Therefore, approximately 30% of women enjoy partial or total assistance, depending on their economic situation. The sister, who is in charge of being in touch with the families of these women to know their real situation, decides about the level of support to offer them.
Those women who can afford to pay for the services of the St. Mary’s Hospital represent the remaining 70%, and their contribution is essential for the maintenance of the hospital. Many of these women get prenatal check-ups in the St.Mary’s Maternity Hospital, while others are followed in health centres located in the city and only go to St. Mary’s to give birth to their baby. They generally register themselves in advance, although some may arrive without prior notice.

The delivery rooms are the heart of the St Mary Hospital. We met, in the adjoining waiting room, a young woman of Eritrean origin who was very close to giving birth for the first time. You could see the joy in her eyes for her future motherhood and at the same time a shadow of fear for the pain she knew she would suffer during childbirth. We were also able to talk, thanks to the simultaneous translation of Sister Albertina, with two Sudanese women, a mother-to-be and her aunt, who were in another waiting room of the hospital. The hospital has three perfectly equipped delivery rooms and an operating room for caesarean sections or for complicated deliveries.
There are also intensive care rooms equipped with incubators. One of the rooms is antiseptic and only nurses have access to it.

In the case of premature births, or when babies have a particular problem, at least two nurses attend to them 24 hours a day. The sterilization rooms and the laundry, which are kept running at full capacity, are in the basement. The clothes arriving from the delivery room are subjected to particular sterilization. The sisters are aware that hygiene is essential, in fact 33 people are assigned to this service. In addition to the daily cleaning and systematic sterilization of medical equipment, a sterilization protocol is followed once a month for the sensitive places in the hospital. Sister Albertina talked to us about her work and that of the Comboni missionaries at the hospital: “I happened to observe that in many places the poor are often ignored or neglected. As a missionary and nurse I try to show with my work that there are no differences between people. Our hospital welcomes and serves all the mothers and new born babies with equal human and professional dedication regardless of their ethnic, social, economical or religious diversities, because the mere fact of being people already gives them full dignity”.Just before leaving the hospital, we met a young paediatrician, Adiba, who had just finished tending to a new-born baby girl. Another ‘daughter’ of St Mary´s Hospital.
Enrique Bayo

Herbs & Plants. Aspalathus linearis. The medicinal Tea Plant.

Wednesday, 1 July 2020 8:00

It is used to treat different allergies and help various antioxidant-associated health benefits.

Globally, a number of plants are used as tea with lots of nutritional and health benefits. One of such plants is Aspalathus linearis (Brum f) Dahlg which belongs to the plant family Fabaceae. It is an erect to spreading, highly variable, shrub that grows between 1.5 to 2 m in plant height. Its young branches are often reddish. The leaves are green and needle-shaped, 15-60 mm long and up to about 1 mm thick. They are without stalks and stipples and may be densely clustered.
The small yellow flowers are solitary or arranged in dense groups at the tips of branches. The fruit is a small lance-shaped pod usually containing one or two hard seeds.

Aspalathus linearis which is commonly known as rooibos is a shrub native to the Cederberg region in the Western Cape province of South Africa. The genus name Aspalathus is derived from the Greek aspalathos,which was the name of a scented bush that grew in Greece. This medicinally and economically useful shrub is endemic to the Mediterranean west coast region of South Africa and the rooibos tea is made from selected forms of the species found mainly on the Cederberg Mountains. Rooibos has been used by many communities within its distribution range since time immemorial and is becoming increasingly popular globally as a pleasant tasting tea with enormous health benefits. It is is known as the long-life tea in Africa.
In fact, rooibos has been consumed by locals for over 300 years, but it was not yet known outside South Africa. A tea made from the leaves and stems of rooibos is generally beneficial to the digestive system and relaxes spasms. It is also claimed to cure insomnia, allergies, and nervous breakdown as well as improve one’s appetite.

The infusion of rooibos leaves is usually added to milk and administered to babies as a cure for chronic restlessness, vomiting, and stomach cramps. The leaf infusion is also known to be effective in the treatment of diarrhoea, vomiting, and other mild gastric complications. Furthermore, Aspalathus linearis is considered to be beneficial when used internally and externally in the treatment of a wide range of allergies especially milk allergy, eczema, hay fever and asthma in infants. In some communities, women take rooibos during pregnancy to relieve heartburn, nausea, and for its iron. Also, it’s given to babies to relieve them from colic condition.
This plant can also be consumed in ‘fermented’ form and as such, it is also used traditionally as a refreshment drink and as a healthy tea beverage. In fact, recent scientific studies suggest that rooibos may confer various antioxidant-associated health benefits including antimutagenic, anticarcinogenic, anti-inflammatory, and antiviral properties and antiatherosclerotic effects.

As already mentioned above, Aspalathus linearis is a source of rooibos tea and is one of the most popular drinks for health-conscious people and it is also free of caffeine.
Of interest to note is that this plant is not only enjoyed as herbal tea but used as an ingredient in cosmetics, in slimming products, and as a flavoring agent in baking, cooking and cocktails.
The medicinal potential of this plant may be attributed to the numerous phytochemicals in it including flavanols, flavones, flavanones, dihydrochalcones, aspalathin and nothofagin. The processed leaves and stems are known to contain benzoic and cinnamic acids. In fact, Rooibos’ antioxidants ability is associated with the presence of aspalathin and quercetin in it.

Richard Komakech

Ethnic Groups and Religions.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

A country of striking and changing landscapes, extremes of climate and environment, in tourism, Mongolia has an important source of income which threatens and simultaneously assists the permanence of traditions and ways of living that are threatened anyway.

The first threat is that of the population gradually becoming sedentary. Among these are many ethnic groups, one of which is the Kazakh with 114,000 members. The others are of Mongolian stock. Most of the Kazakh and Turkophone groups are Moslems (3 per cent in all), while 53 per cent of the population, according to the most recent census (2015), follow the Lama Buddhist faith. Animists and Christians make up 2.9 per cent and 2.1 per cent are Mongols, with 38.6 per cent who
do not profess any religion.

Animism and Buddhism of the Lama form are the dominant religions today in Mongolia, where there are small numbers of Moslems and Christians. Nevertheless, evangelisation in the country has roots going back to the VI century. Christianity even dominated from the XII century also due to the missionary and diplomatic activities of high-quality ecclesiastics such as Guglielmo di Robruk and Giovanni da Montecorvino who were able to cooperate with the various Mongol khans, also with an anti-Moslem aim. The subjection of Mongolia to the Chinese Ming Empire led to the gradual marginalisation of local Christianity and finally to the substantial elimination of Christianity to the benefit of Buddhism at the end of the XIV century.

In the nineteen twenties, Sovietisation made the profession of all religion illegal. This situation changed radically in recent times when, 28 years ago, the new constitution granted freedom of religion. Contemporaneously with the establishment of diplomatic relations with the Holy See, in 1992, three Scheut missionaries (one of whom was Father Wenceslao Padilla who would become the first bishop in 2003) arrived in the new missio sui iuris, initially at the service of communities of foreigners. An Apostolic Prefecture since 2002, the Mongol Catholic community has a cathedral church in Ulaanbaatar and a further five parishes that serve a total of about one thousand baptised people. A considerable amount of help comes from around seventy missionaries of various institutes and congregations, including 45 Sisters as well as a number of lay volunteers.

The new bishop elect of Ulaanbaatar, Father Giorgio Marengo.

In this religious context, there are some Italian Catholic missions that are working in relative tranquillity, and provide a valuable presence, such as that of the Consolata in the central province of Arvaikheer. There is also the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Auxiliatrix who run a school they built to assist education in the more economically challenged provinces.
It was one of the Consolata missionaries working in Arvaikheer, Father Giorgio Marengo, who, last April, was placed in charge of the Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar, with jurisdiction over the whole of Mongolia. The 45-year-old missionary, originally from Cuneo, Italy, has been in the country since 2003 and, as the first European to head the Local Church, succeeded Mons. Wenceslao Padilla, a Filipino and Scheut missionary who died in September the year before last.
His is a determining presence for the rebirth of the Mongolian Church through a missionary presence.

Stefano Vecchia

Music. Manu Dibango. The Poet with the Saxophone.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

A victim of the Coronavirus, in Paris, on 24 March 2020. The Cameroonian saxophonist and composer, best known for his soul/funk single, ‘Soul Makossa’, Manu Dibango left his mark on a long period of Afro Music.

On his arrival in Marseilles in 1949 as a sixteen-year-old, the new music of the African continent was still in its infancy. For that matter, the young Cameroonian, sent by his parents to study in France, knew nothing of the African music of which he would eventually become a symbol. It happened that he listened to a Bach cantata and immediately began to feel homesick for faraway Cameroon; he mistook it for a tune from his native country.

A chorister at a protestant church, from his childhood, Manu – born in Douala on 12 December 1933 – had become familiar with European music: surprisingly, it would be in Europe that Manu would discover African music. Not real African music, as it did not as yet exist in Europe, but American jazz which, in the fifties, was spreading in France; music that owed much to Africa, but that was not African music as such, but something else, an original sort of music created beyond the Atlantic and containing African and European elements, music that reflected a new era, expressing the modern times more than any other. The person who invented African jazz was Manu’s compatriot Francis Bebey, who later became a musician and musicologist of international fame.

It was his passion for jazz that led the young Dibango to leave aside his studies and learn the saxophone. In Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington, the Cameroonian found not only extraordinary artistic examples but also figures that corresponded to his need to take pride in heroes whose skin colour matched his own. It was a happy paradox that African music was not a starting point for Dibango but a point of arrival, lived with creative freedom, and in which there was no room for the ambiguity of African music as ‘ethnic’ music: Bach in Africa and black jazz in France were the premises that launched Dibango towards poetry that was cosmopolitan and metropolitan, in harmony with Africa that was emerging from colonialism and had to invent a new identity for itself and not remain a prisoner of tradition. Dibango’s encounter with African music took place in a year that was a turning point in the era of African independence.
In 1960 Dibango was in Brussels where negotiations were taking place for the independence of the Belgian Congo. In support of the delegation from his country, Joseph Kabasele came with his African Jazz, the first Congolese band to perform in Europe.

Kabasele, who in 1960 found success with his Indépendance Cha Cha, liked how Dibango played the sax and made him part of his orchestra, taking him to an Africa about which Dibango knew little or nothing. Visiting the Congo, Cameroon and Ivory Coast, the discovery of the black continent was no easy matter, and not without its disappointments for Dibango. His popularity in France began with his return from Africa and his collaboration, in the latter half of the sixties, with Nino Ferrer; the black saxophonist was perfect for the singer of Je Voudrais Être Noir, a big hit. The turning point that brought international fame took place in 1972 when Dibango issued a single with the B side featuring Soul Makossa, a piece that fuses soul/funk and Africa; Soul Makossa was a hit in France but in the United States its discovery had a great impact on the African American public. Today, still the best-known Afro piece in the world, Soul Makossa was Dibango’s passport to worldwide success, and with it the Cameroonian saxophonist became one of the most sought-after African musicians at international level.

Also successful, together with him, were a few others such as the South Africans Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela, who achieved success in the United States in the sixties, and the Nigerian Fela Kuti: all this was an anticipation of the tide of new African music that reached its peak in the eighties together with the more general phenomenon of world music, of which Dibango was a precursor. However, with his identity straddling black Africa and Europe, the ties with his origins and his love for France, Dibango, with his style and pleasing presence, was an emblematic public figure in announcing and representing the multicultural society that has been emerging during recent decades. Capable of renewing himself while still being himself, with elegance, melodic taste, unmistakeable affability and often great poetry, Dibango continued his career brilliantly until he was struck down last March by the Coronavirus.

Marcello Lorrai

The 4 Freedoms.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

One of the most important aims of advocacy is building strong democracy and democratic organizations to hold those in power accountable, expanding citizen’s understanding of how power operates.

Many scientific and humanitarian reasons are impelling public authorities to impose on citizens an abundance of controls, restrictions of many kinds ranging from moving, sport, fitness to work, civil and religious gathering, domestic and international travelling. Tests and app control are raising the fear that, in the near future, it will become a threat to personal privacy and social democratic living.

In such a context, the Latin expression Magistra Vitae – used by Cicero in his De Oratore as a personification of history, comes instinctively to our minds. It is paraphrased in Historia est Magistra Vitae – History is life’s teacher – and conveys the idea that History’s lessons can in such difficult situations like today advocate for truth and democracy, serving as a lesson to the present and the near future, advising politicians to be guided by principles, not image consultants.

After the end of the Second World War, an exhausted and painful world, while embarking on the path of reconstruction not only material but also moral and ideological, which required new ideas in all areas, went back to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 State of the Union address, known as the Four Freedoms speech whose proposals founded the world, through instruments such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

He stated notably, “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression – everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way – everywhere in the world.
The third is freedom from want – which, translated into world terms, means economic management which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants – everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear – which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor – anywhere in the world.

His declaration of faith in these four freedoms were preceded by other strong words, “Certainly this is no time for any of us to stop thinking about the social and economic problems which are the root cause of the social revolution which is today a supreme factor in the world.
For there is nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy.

The basic things expected by our people of their political and economic systems are simple. They are:
Equality of opportunity for youth and for others. Jobs for those who can work. Security for those who need it. The ending of special privileges for the few. The preservation of civil liberties for all. The enjoyment of the fruits of scientific progress in a wider and constantly rising standard of living. These are the simple, basic things that must never be lost sight of in the turmoil and unbelievable complexity of our modern world.

Many subjects connected with our social economy call for immediate improvement. As examples: We should bring more citizens under the coverage of old-age pensions and unemployment insurance. We should widen the opportunities for adequate medical care.
We should plan a better system by which persons deserving gainful employment may obtain it.” However, all these beautiful words were destroyed 11 months after by the surprise Japanese attack on U.S. forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii that caused the United States to declare war on Japan, December 8, 1941. Thus began the Second World War.
Maybe History as a life’s teacher would remind us the sentence of Ernest Gaines, “Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing. Doing. That’s the only thing.”

John Paul Pezzi, mccj
VIVAT International NGO
with consultative special status at UN

Catholic Church in Morocco. A ‘bridge’.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

A church that wants to be a ‘bridge’ between the Christian and Islamic worlds. Deeply involved in the field of immigration. Cardinal Cristobal Lopez, Archbishop of Rabat speaks to us.

He had only been a bishop for a year and a half when, on 5 October last, he was made a cardinal. “It is clear that this appointment is not due to my merits – His Eminence says – I have not even had time to gain any merit. The merit belongs to this Church, the Church of North Africa. With every appointment, the Pope sends out a message. I believe that, in this case, he is saying: ‘I wish to promote interreligious dialogue between Islam and Christianity’. He is saying: ‘Have courage, you minority Churches of North Africa, your witness is important, not only where you are but also for the whole universal Church, your contribution will be acknowledged …’

Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco.

As Archbishop of Rabat, Cardinal Cristóbal López, a 67 year-old Spanish Salesian, presides over a small Catholic community of no more than 30,000 faithful out of a population of 35 million inhabitants. They are all foreigners, mainly young people from Sub Saharan Africa. The Catholic Church in Morocco has two archdioceses: Rabat and Tangiers. There are 36 parishes served by 44 diocesan and 39 religious priests. There are around 200 religious Sisters. The work of the Church is also expressed in the daily work of running 15 Catholic schools and 21 assistance centres.
Mons. Lopez says: “Our Church is wholly African since the majority of those attending our churches are young university students from Sub Saharan Africa. They are ‘migrants’, having left their countries to come to Morocco; they are here legally with the specific aim of studying at the university. They are active in the choirs, in the small Christian communities, in the catechumenate groups and in all pastoral activities at parish and diocesan level. Then we also have a large group of migrants whose aim is to reach Europe. Morocco is just a stage on their journey. They come here wounded, beaten, violated and robbed … even sold. This dramatic situation has led us to revise the charitable work of the Church: we try to be a Samaritan Church that takes the trouble to approach its vulnerable and wounded brother to sure him, encourage him and help according to his needs”.

Is this why you set up the project Qantara? “Certainly. This is an initiative aimed at assisting the most vulnerable – unaccompanied minors, pregnant women, the sick – among those in transit. It is through this project, whose name in Arabic means ‘bridge’, that we are trying to put into practice the four verbs proposed by Pope Francis: ‘welcome’, ‘protect’, ‘promote’ and ‘integrate’. Caritas has developed genuine expertise in terms of welcoming and protection, but it also promotes education, social life and integration among many of these migrants. It is an intense and vast task. The programme has involved more than 8,000 people in one year but, logically speaking, it is difficult to reach the roots of the problems that are to be found in their original countries and in the economic and commercial rules and regulations”.

What is the role of the Al Mowafaqa Ecumenical Institute which you lead together with a Protestant person? “It is a theological institute, of training in the Christian faith, with our feet on the ground. This is why the curriculum includes such subjects as Arabic, the study of the Koran, the sources of Islam and also Islamic culture, history, laws and spirituality. Its role is to promote the experience of ecumenism and Islamic-Christian dialogue and it also aims to be a bridge between the Churches of the North, mainly those of Europe, and those of the South. The ultimate aim is to prepare lay people, religious and priests, men and women, Europeans and Africans who are well trained and committed to the service of their respective communities”.

Casablanca. Hassan II Mosque.

Last year, on 30 and 31 March, Pope Francis paid an Apostolic Visit to Morocco, visiting the cities of Rabat and Casablanca, 33 years after Pope St. John Paul II. Speaking in the Cathedral of Rabat he spoke of “The importance of the religious factor in building bridges between people”, respecting differences and specific identities. “Faith in God”, the Pontiff remarked, “leads us to recognise the outstanding dignity of every human being, together with their inalienable rights”. We do this in as much as “we believe that God created human beings equal in their rights, duties and dignity and that He has called them to live as brothers and sisters and to spread the values of the good, of charity and of peace”. In this framework, the Bishop of Rome reaffirmed the urgency of recognising and protecting “freedom of conscience and freedom of religion”, which “is not limited just to freedom of cult but must also allow each person to live according to their religious convictions”.Continuing his intervention, Pope Francis then underlined that the hoped-for ‘solidarity among believers’ is called to place itself at the service of the entire human family, offering original contributions to tackle global emergencies such as that of ecology and that of migrations.

Pope Francis and King Mohamed VI.

Pope Francis said that it is necessary to move “to concrete action, especially a change of attitude towards migrants, that affirms them as people and not just as numbers”. The migrants fleeing war and poverty, the Bishop of Rome noted, “whenever conditions permit, may decide to return to their homes in conditions of security that respect their dignity and their rights. This is a phenomenon that will never find an answer in the building of walls, in spreading fear of others, or in denying help to those who aspire to the legitimate improvement of life for themselves and their families”.
Remembering that visit, His Eminence concluded: “Pope Francis has left his mark on the Church of North Africa. Commitment to dialogue and to the immigrants will trace the future journey of our Churches”.

Cécile Avril

The Ecological Awakening of the African Church.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

The Ecclesial Network for the Congo River Basin (REBAC, from its acronym in French) aims to be a response to the pastoral and socio-environmental challenges faced by the populations of this region in the heart of Africa. This ecclesial structure, following the indications of the encyclical ‘Laudato si‘, bets on a pedagogy of ecological conversion.

REBAC was founded in March 2015 in Windhoek (Namibia), during the continental meeting of the Justice and Peace Commissions of Africa and Madagascar. Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, archbishop of Kinshasa, urged the importance for the African Church to equip itself with a structure that would work for environmental defence, following the example of the Panamanian Ecclesial Network (REPAM). In May of that year, the publication of the encyclical ‘Laudato sì’, by Pope Francis, accelerated the creation of REBAC.

The first meetings took place in the Congolese capital. The debate between the bishops led to the creation of an organism whose action was limited, for greater effectiveness, to the 93 dioceses of six countries, those that host most of the tropical forests of the Congo Basin: Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cameroon and the Central African Republic. The new structure, which was called Ecclesial Network for the Congo River Basin (REBAC, from its French acronym), is part of the Justice and Peace sector of the SECAM (Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar) and is coordinated by the Congolese Jesuit Father Rigobert Minani.In 2017, with the aim of exchanging experiences, a delegation of African bishops visited their Latin American counterparts from REPAM. There they noted how the problems the Amazon faces are similar to those of the Congo Basin: mining and logging companies that force communities to relocate from their traditional lands, water pollution, fires, deforestation, erosions, loss of biodiversity. The African bishops lamented that while the Amazon reality aroused great interest and international solidarity, the Congo basin, the second lung on the planet, went unnoticed by the general public. However, it was not time to complain but to get to work and make themselves heard.

Presence in the Synod
When Pope Francis announced he had decided to convene a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Pan-Amazonian Region to be held in Rome in October 2019, people working for REBAC decided to focus on the preparation for that ecclesial event. That Synod, in fact, could be the perfect occasion to raise the world’s attention about the fundamental role in the fight against climate change played by the Congo Basin, which comprises an area of nearly 4 million square km, and which holds 6 percent of the planet’s forests.

The Congolese Jesuit Father Rigobert Minani (the first on the left) with Pope Francis and two Congolese Bishops at the Amazon Synod in Rome.

A cartographic study of the pastoral and socio-environmental challenges in the region was published in September 2019. Fr. Minani and two African bishops Marcel Madila, Archbishop of Kananga (DRC), and Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo, started from this document to make the voice of Africa heard in the Synod. But the presence of REBAC was not limited to the speeches at the Synod Assembly. A REBAC delegation headed by four other bishops and different experts in pastoral and ecology established and maintained numerous contacts with the press and released documents and brochures on the reality of the Congo basin. Fr. Minani, in fact, acknowledges that “the work of raising public opinion carried out outside was more effective than the presence inside the Synod”. And he adds: “we wanted to warn the world that while everyone is concentrated on the Amazon, there are unscrupulous international interests that are exploiting Africa and causing serious environmental problems”.

Still much to do
Currently, REBAC has resumed awareness-raising work in dioceses. Funds have been collected to develop a pastoral for the promotion of integral ecology that, as the Pope points out in ‘Laudato si’, incorporates the human and social dimensions into all environmental evaluations. REBAC’s goal is to provide each diocese with sufficient structures and training to develop an ecclesial response to environmental issues that affect them, such as the abuse by mining companies or deforestation. “The Church must be able to sit down with others and identify the causes and those responsible for ecological problems, and at the same time it should be able to offer solutions and sensitize the local population to a responsible use of natural resources. We’ll try to spread awareness through the coordination of REBAC”, says Fr. Minani.

But there is still much to do. One of the problems is the low involvement of religious congregations in REBAC. Created at the initiative of the local African Church, this structure also needs the participation of congregations which, due to their international presence, would help to make Africa’s voice heard outside the continent. But perhaps the greatest difficulty encountered by the network has been the low ecological awareness of African populations, which makes it difficult to defend ecosystems. Fr. Minani regrets to confirm the weakness of Africa, where “elephants and many other animals are killed, forests are burned or cut down and nobody complains. We have a population that suffers every day from the consequences of climate change and does not know why. People are not even aware that ecological problems are partly a consequence of human activity and that, therefore, we could do something about it by acting differently”.

Besides, the survival of the population in Africa sometimes depends on practices that are harmful for ecosystems. For example, the surroundings of large African cities are turning into deserts because the population, due to the lack of electricity, needs to cut down trees to get wood for cooking. Furthermore, burning forests to create fresh farmland is practiced regularly in Africa with complete unconsciousness of the pernicious effects it has on ecosystems. “One of the tasks of REBAC,” says Fr. Minani, “is raising awareness and offering alternatives. We are developing simple and realistic programs that maintain a dynamic relationship between ecology and people’s lives”.

Synergies
REBAC seeks partners in each diocese in order to carry out its work. Collaboration with politicians is very difficult because, as REBAC staff report, “they seem more interested in cutting down trees and making money than in protecting populations and ecosystems. We approach them very timidly”. “However, there are other ecclesial and non-ecclesial organizations that denounce the environmental attacks or are in a position to do so, and we are building synergies and joining efforts with them”, says Fr. Rigobert.

One of these organizations is Caritas, which leads a program of accompaniment for Pygmy populations in several of the countries where REBAC operates. The Congo basin is home to more than 30 groups of Pygmy people living in diverse situations and experiencing diverse problems from social integration to marginalization. These communities are part of the populations most vulnerable to changes in the jungle, their natural habitat. REBAC aims to consolidate its presence, over the next three years, in the six countries where it operates by giving concrete responses to the environmental crisis that has already seriously affected the green part of the African continent.

Enrique Bayo

Afghanistan. A country in pieces.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

The “historical accord” between the United States and the Taliban, without involving the Kabul government is in danger of failing since it leaves many questions unanswered. Meanwhile, the attacks continue. There is now a new enemy: Covid-19.

It was signed in Doha, the capital of Qatar, on 29 February, by the American envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and by the Second- in- Command of the Taliban Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, to bring peace to Afghanistan. The conflict which began on 7 October 2011, as a reprisal for the eleventh of September terrorist attacks by Al-Qaeda, caused 157 thousand deaths and cost two billion dollars over a period of twenty years. There was no representative of the Afghan government, whose legitimacy is not recognised by the Taliban, present at the signing.
What concessions did the Americans grant to the Taliban? The reduction of foreign troops from 13,000 to 8,600 within 135 days, and complete withdrawal before the end of April 2021; the end of sanctions against the Taliban before the end of the year; persuading the Afghan government to agree to an exchange of prisoners – 5,000 Taliban for 1,000 government prisoners; the promise of “not to violate the sovereignty of Afghanistan by the threat of force, the use of force or interference in internal Afghan affairs “.

US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar shake hands after signing the peace agreement in Doha.

In exchange, the Taliban agreed to restrain threats against the security of the United States and its allies by terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda, who will no longer be able to use Afghan territory as a place of refuge. The main conditions of the accord also include intra-Afghan negotiations for a political agreement. According to Said Ibrahimi, a researcher into the Regional Afghanistan-Pakistan Project at the Centre for International Cooperation of New York University, “Peace can only be guaranteed if the (Afghan) government, the various political factions and the Taliban accept a political compromise supported by regional actors ”. Marvin G. Weinbaum, Director of the ‘Afghanistan and Pakistan’ desk at the Washington Middle East Institute, is more pessimistic and says that “the agreement has little to do with the Taliban since it is only a political cover to allow the United States to withdraw in security and without losing face.“ “Having decided to withdraw, the Trump administration signed an accord with grave defects and the continuation of the violence – Weinbaum continues – the withdrawal of foreign troops will, in a short time, lead to the end of the Afghan security forces. The result will be a chaotic civil conflict.”

Weinbaum stresses: “Power-sharing is impossible because the Taliban are only interested in dominating and restoring their own Emirate. They have never said they will accept anything less. Even if their idea of power-sharing is that of a more inclusive government, they will want to dictate the conditions for its formation: agreeing to nothing that will, with certainty, rest upon popular sovereignty, pluralism and the institutes associated with them.”
Among the major criticisms voiced against the American envoy Khalilzad is the fact that he did not insist that the Taliban cut off relations with al-Qaeda (they were simply asked “not to cooperate”). A further criticism made against the USA concerns the freeing of 5,000 Taliban prisoners, among them some of the leaders of the movement. In the view of the Kabul government, the prisoners were “his main resource for an exchange “to compel the Taliban to come to the negotiations table without pretending too much.

Danger of civil war
On 17 May last, the Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah signed a power-sharing agreement, putting an end to political uncertainty. Ghani will still be president while both men will choose a similar number of ministers. Abdullah will conduct peace talks with the Taliban, when such talks begin. It is hoped that the accord signed in the capital Kabul will contribute to maintaining the balance of power that existed before the contested presidential elections of last year.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani (L) and rival Abdullah Abdullah.

“The political crisis between Abdullah and Ghani was posed a danger equal to that of the Taliban “, Ibrahimi points out. “If it had not been for the agreement to create an ” inclusive government “, one would not have excluded the possibility of civil war.”
An opinion poll by Asia Foundation, quoted by Ibrahimi, shows that 93.1% of Afghans fear the return of the Taliban. In the nineties, under Taliban rule, the economy collapsed and “the rations supplied by the UN were the only source of food for a large part of the population “. The Taliban police would beat women in public, accusing them of immodesty if they did not wear the burka. Men were arrested for “trimming their beards”. Thieves had their hands cut off. Those accused of adultery were condemned and executed in public. Those rules “are still being followed in the areas under Taliban control “, Ibrahimi affirms.

“The defeat of the Taliban in 2001, despite its defects, allowed much progress to take place – the Afghan researcher states – Nine million children are going to school and 35% of them are girls. Afghanistan has the freest press in the region, with tens of radio and television stations, newspapers and private magazines. There is a dozen private universities in the country. Afghans now have access to various areas such as culture, sport and martial arts in which women, too, compete. All of this shows that the changes are not temporary but run deep in socio-political and mentality terms.”
Under the Taliban theocracy, Ibrahimi states, the election of a president and the peaceful transfer of power would never have been possible. “This does not mean that the post-Taliban regime is perfect. Out of four presidential elections, three were contaminated by extensive fraud. Afghanistan is one of the ten most corrupt countries in the world. The economy is based on the largest production of opium in the world, according to the United Nations, despite the nine billion dollars spent since 2001 to persuade farmers to destroy their harvests – drug trafficking and extortion are the main sources of income for the Taliban.”

A study by Asia Foundation shows also that 66.1% of Afghans approve of the quasi-democracy established after the American invasion. For example, 86% of people support education for women and 76% approve of them working outside the home. How can we understand, then, that 89% of people accept the negotiations with a group of fanatics who want to restore a tyrannical “Emirate”?
Ibrahimi replies: “The people fear the return of the Taliban. If they try to regain power by force, it is very likely that the international community will withdraw and reduce development aid. In any case, most Afghans support talks with the Taliban because the ardently desire to see an end to their suffering.”
After nineteen years and an investment of more than two billion dollars by the United States for the benefit of Afghanistan, the question must be asked: what went wrong and what went well? The academic Marvin Weinbaum replies: “What went well is that powerful personages were able (in 2002), under pressure from foreign powers, to accept (at a conference held in Bonn) a plan for government, at that time with Hamid Karzai as interim president and a constitution. It was also an obvious advantage to have popular support and hold presidential elections in 2004, without controversy. During those early years, everything seemed to be going well, since the Afghans had accepted not only Karzai but also the presence of international forces.”

“Many, including American military functionaries, believe that the fatal mistake was the absence of the Taliban at the Bonn Conference – Weinbaum recalls. Some rebels wished to surrender and take part in the talks in Germany but the Bush administration chose to classify them as terrorists and issued arrest warrants. The irony of destiny: some of those imprisoned in Guantanamo are now part of the team negotiating with the American envoy Khalilzad.
Another political error is that there never was complete agreement as to who the real enemy was. “Al-Qaeda, which planned and carried out the 11 September attacks, or the Taliban, who only offered sanctuary to Bin Laden? Is Pakistan, patron of the Taliban, an ally or an adversary? And how should Daesh and other Jihadist groups be classified, not to mention the warlords financed by the CIA? The American administration has never been able to answer these questions,” says Weinbaum.

The Coronavirus enemy
Now, the country in which almost a quarter of the population (9.4 million) is in need of humanitarian aid, has to face an ever more implacable enemy: Covid-19. Recently, the minister of health Ferozuddin Feroz estimated that 80% of Afghans, that is, 25 million people, may contract the new disease.
The province with most cases is Herat, bordering on Iran, from where thousands of migrants and refugees are returning. The virus is also spreading swiftly in the areas controlled by the Taliban.

Hamdullah Nomani, former Taliban minister and now vice director of the health commission of the rebels, has confirmed that “In the areas under our influence, those who have returned from Iran must be placed in quarantine at home for fifteen days. They are forbidden to go to places of worship, to the market or any meeting place. Anyone showing symptoms of Covid-19 is obliged to go to the nearest hospital “, he said.
Nevertheless, it is still uncertain what action the Taliban are willing or able to take against the virus and how much of their campaign is pure propaganda.The ongoing war, poverty, a poor health service and a large number of internal refugees together render Afghanistan one of the countries of the world most exposed to the virus. The country has just 400 ventilators available.

Marvin Weinbaum is pessimistic: “The Coronavirus will speed up the departure of foreign forces if health conditions deteriorate too much. When the United States withdraws, there will be a power vacuum which many will try to fill. It is true that its neighbours want see stability and see no advantage in the disintegration of Afghanistan. But if there is a chaotic civil war, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and even India and Saudi Arabia, will become involved in a conflict by proxy. As for Al-Qaeda and Daesh, they will use it to set up more operative bases “.
The hopes of Ibrahimi and Weinbaum are based on global cooperation, with the United Nations and regional actors, for a political solution to the conflict. It remains to be seen if the Taliban are interested in international mediation, or in gaining time to seize power.

Margarida Santos Lopes

Corporate Responsibility in times of COVID-19.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

The economic system imposed by globalization has progressively ignored the real concerns and needs of citizens.

In the European Union, the governments of member states have been adopting labour rights cuts, the privatisation of health care system, salary cuts and promoting private pension schemes into their economic policies following the advice of the market economy. Instead of designing fiscal adjustment policies applied to those who generate the most profits, governments have put the pressure on social cuts. In a subtle way, the multinationals have been putting pressure on governments to carry out social, labour, health and cultural adjustments by pointing to public spending as a problem.

The COVID-19 crisis is highlighting the shortcomings of an economic system that will necessarily have to change in the future. For almost two months most of the world’s population has been thrown into a quarantine without any precedent in recent human history: closed shops, factories on standby, paralyzed transport, closed borders and confined populations that have transformed a world use to haste into a world forced to hear the cranks of the clock inside their homes, with no other horizon than the hope of defeating the pandemic.

In the crisis of COVID-19 there are many who call for an urgent return to economic activity. On the one hand, public authorities feel pressured by citizens who need to recover their jobs, economic income and freedom of movement. On the other hand, public authorities are also pressured by large companies that have been forced to reduce their productions, close down their factories and as a result have drastically dropped their profits.

Faced with the impatience to show positive economic results to their investors, it is the large companies that put the most pressure on the governments by alerting them to the economic losses, massive layoffs, drops at the stock markets and the negative consequences for economic recovery. Governments are being forced to minimize health risks in order to return to what the globalized world understands as normal, that is, the world of unlimited economic growth at the expense of any other value, including health.

In Africa, despite the fact that the number of infected and victims is lower than in other continents, the COVID-19 crisis is endangering the lives of the most vulnerable. The health crisis caused by the pandemic could become a serious social and economic problem for Africa. The economic characteristics of the African continent make them dependent on rich countries. Most of the countries in Africa depend on the economic income from exports of their natural resources such as oil, iron ore and copper. The demand for such raw materials has fallen dramatically by developed countries.

In the case of oil, the demand has fallen from international refineries, and the prices have drop out as never before. The price of oil has become negative due to the inability to store excess production in refineries. Other agricultural products and commodities are suffering from a drop in production or are stored due to a decline in new demands or are blocked at seaports due to international transport and customs restrictions in importing countries.

The spread of the pandemic both geographically and temporally has an economic impact on Africa that will mainly affect the most vulnerable through the decisions of politicians. Therefore, in view of these realities, political decisions in times of COVID-19 must have as their only concern the health and food security of the population, ensuring the social and labour rights of workers.

Any political decision that gives priority to the economy over health will bring more problems to the most vulnerable, especially in developing countries, and prolonging the consequences of the pandemic; it will increase the health crisis and deepen economic inequalities. Therefore, decisions must be agreed upon by all political, social and economic actors. More than ever, governments must focus on the public interest and respect democratic spaces in decision-making.

The race to find a vaccine against the COVID-19 must be an international strategy coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO). The vaccine cannot be a privilege for rich countries or an advantage for those pharmaceutical companies or countries that discover it. More than ever the pharmaceutical and health industry must be at the service of the entire world population and the common good
of the humankind.

Companies must be committed to fighting the pandemic. The different productive capacities and their distribution channels must be oriented to the service of the citizens in everything that the public authorities may demand of them. Likewise, companies must respect all health standards in the prevention of the pandemic and guarantee the health of their workers. Companies that provide essential public services such as health, water, electricity or telephony must adapt to the needs of the population and their economic situation.

Multinational companies have a duty to support the local communities in which they have operated prior to the pandemic, supporting through national programmes all initiatives that help to alleviate the economic havoc it may cause. In this regard, the United Nations has made an international appeal to the private sector to mobilize all its economic resources in the service of those most affected.

The responsibility of companies cannot be limited to economic donations but they have to develop all their capacities to ensure that the workers do not lose their jobs, supporting the education sector through solidarity educational initiatives and supporting families with less economic resources. Banks and financial institutions must apply moratoriums on payments as well as a reduction in interest in cases where the pandemic has left them without economic resources.

Combating the effects of COVID-19 depends on everyone’s efforts according to their abilities. More than ever, companies must show their social function as a source of wealth but also their responsibility and commitment to the health and worker rights. Governments and Companies have to work together around the world to build a human economy that truly matters to society, rather than fuelling an endless pursuit of profits, investing in national care systems to address the damaged caused by COVID-19 and introducing progressive taxation, including taxing wealth and legislating in favour of workers.

José Luis Gutiérrez Aranda,
Trade Policy Officer,
Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network (AEFJN)

Youth on the frontline against Covid – 19.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

In the time of Coronavirus, young people have organised to prevent COVID-19 from spreading and supporting their communities.

In Cameroon, Achalake Christian, the coordinator of Local Youth Corner, has launched the “One Person, One Sanitizer” operation to prevent the spread of coronavirus, especially among the poor. He’s working with young people to produce and distribute free, homemade hand sanitizers using World Health Organization standards. He has teamed up with people of goodwill, the coalition of youth civil society organizations, medical doctors, pharmacists and a laboratory scientist. “We have assembled a team of six young experts and turned our office into a laboratory where we are working three days a week, producing 1,000 sanitizers a day. We aim to distribute over 25,000 bottles, particularly to communities who do not have access to clean water. Youth activism cannot go into lockdown at a time of need.”They said.

As Uganda intensifies the fight against COVID-19, rumours and false information about how to avoid catching the virus are spreading fast. But many young people are leading the way for communities across the country – including a young musician from the Karamoja district called Airjay, who lost full use of his sight when he was three months old.
“While I am blind in both eyes, I can feel the pandemonium that this pandemic has caused in my community, and to help, I am raising my voice, in the form of songs of awareness to contribute towards the government’s efforts to keep us safe.” Airjay has recorded two new songs, “COVID-19” and “Corona”.
In “COVID-19”, he shares advice on hand washing, social distancing and sanitizing, and appeals to local organisations to support members of the community to access soap and hand sanitizers as many cannot afford them. In “Corona”, he sings about how Karamojongs have suffered many disasters in the past including droughts, famine, and more recently locust invasion and appeals to security forces not to make brutality
yet another one.

Based on the concept of mutual aid, which relies on communities working together to ensure each other’s well-being, Wevyn Muganda, an activist and writer, and Suhayl Omar, a community organizer, journalist and student, founded Mutual Aid Kenya to provide aid to vulnerable people who are not properly assisted by government systems.
When the first case of COVID-19 was discovered in Kenya, Wevyn began engaging in digital advocacy, making sure that her fellow Kenyans were well informed of the potential risks and solutions. When it became more apparent that several members of the population were ill-prepared and ill-supported, she and Suhayl knew they had to do more, and the two began working together, leading to the creation of Mutual Aid Kenya.

Due to the current situation in Syria, many experts are concerned about its ability to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic as it reaches more and more countries. In a push to supplement struggling official responses, many civil society groups have taken it upon themselves to ensure that Syrians are prepared for COVID-19. Dana Shubat has been lending herself to this effort. She participated in a mask and hand sanitizers distribution campaign that took place in the 10 days leading up to the quarantine. In addition to this, she has taken to her social media to provide correct information and sources to the public, posting over 100 times a day on various pages and profiles. Currently, Dana is using the knowledge that she has gained as a medical student to support engineers who are designing medical supplies to be 3D printed to help fill the gaps in the country’s health care system. She is also providing support to special needs students via WhatsApp, continuing her role as a volunteer for the Special Olympics. Dana’s work extends even further still. She has been translating COVID-19 manuals into Arabic and has joined the Young Sustainable Impact (YSI) Program 19, an innovation program aiming to solve problems related to the COVID-19 crisis.

In Botswana, Pretty Thogo is coordinating a platform that brings together the World Bank Africa Youth Transforming Africa initiative and the Youth Alliance for Leadership and Development in Africa which are organizing regular roundtables for youth to discuss development, and spark some youth-grown solutions to influence policymaking in Africa. During its first online roundtable in April, the initiative featured medical and communications experts, and helped young Africans to learn more about COVID-19 and how to identify trusted sources of information.

Five Oxford students in the UK are part of a global group of Zimbabwean students and young professionals who have founded the Zimbabwe Covid-19 Support Hub. They are postgraduates originally from Zimbabwe. They collect and share information from authoritative sources, including accurate health advice, government information on the spread of the virus in Zimbabwe, and government measures.
The website also collates details about how to access and support community-based projects, and the organisations to contact for assistance.The website states: “We are a group of Zimbabwean professionals and researchers in the diaspora. We all have family and friends in the country. We are living through COVID-19 in other countries, but are deeply concerned about the threat of the virus to Zimbabweans. Zimbabwe faces challenges of poverty, a weakened public health system, high rates of HIV-AIDS and other underlying medical conditions, food insecurity, unemployment and fiscal instability that make the COVID-19 threat to Zimbabwe particularly severe.”

Soap and water are among the most powerful weapons to fight the coronavirus. In Haiti, Scout groups are working to support the country to combat the spread of this virus. As many communities struggle to access clean water and information on the virus, the Scouts have been traveling to and around the capital, Port-au-Prince, to reach out to people directly. Drawing people to them by singing catchy songs made to highlight preventive measures and symptoms, the Scouts have been carrying around portable sinks and installing hand-washing stations to help give Haitians more alternatives to contaminated water sources. These Scouts hope that these measures will help combat the spread of the virus and encourage people to be aware of the measures that they can take to help save lives. (C.C.)

Photo Gallery – Snapshots from Africa

Advocacy

Baobab

Youth & Mission