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South Sudan migrants in Australia. Integration, thorns and rap.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

Being a small community, they try not to lose their own cultural identity. Motivated by a rapper, a photographer and a woman singer.

“We are not as bad as you think we are, why are you making our life hard?” rapper Krown sings as he proudly affirms his origins. From Melbourne with his musical video Let Us Live, the twenty one-year-old emerging artist responds to some local media guilty of using double standards in the information they provide about his community
which, though small, has, in recent years, become the most talked
about in the country.

Renowned as one of the most successful multi-cultural experiments, today’s Australia is confronting some racists involved in a debate on the theme of accepting and, especially, the theme of the integration of refugees.According to the 2016 census, there are 7,700 residents who were born in South Sudan but it is estimated that there may be as many as 20,000, counting native Australians born to South Sudanese families. It is Melbourne, followed by Sydney, that has the most and it is here that the media frenzy starts: in March 2016, at the annual Moomba festival, there were violent clashes whose leaders, some of the South Sudanese, were said to be members of a presumed African gang called Apex. Despite the fact that Victoria State police definitively pointed out, in April 2017, that that gang is only presumed to exist and that it is rather a matter of episodes of unorganised youth crime, many mass media still obstinately refer to ‘gangs’. In this way, the South Sudanese become associated with every criminal episode that takes place.

According to the crime statistics agency of the state of Victoria, crimes committed by Sudanese (including South Sudanese) in the three years 2016-2018 amount to little more than 1%, while more than 70% is to be attributed to native Australians. Despite this, in January 2018, the minister for internal affairs Peter Dutton stated that “the people of Melbourne are afraid to go out to restaurants because of the African gangs”. All this culminated in July 2018 when the National South Sudanese-Australian Basketball Association had to cancel its annual tournament because of the absurd restrictions (on timetables, the number of spectators allowed, etc.) imposed by the directors of the stadiums, fearing episodes of violence.
That same month, hundreds of exponents of the African communities, led by the South Sudanese, gathered to protest, chanting “enough is enough”, outside the headquarters of Channel 7, a TV channel and one of those mostly to blame for the continual mystification of the facts about the ‘gangs’. The Daily Mail Australia and the Herald Sun together published almost 200 articles in the past three years on “African Crime”.

According to Krow, whose real name is Wol Riak, one of the leaders of the South Sudanese protests, “the media have had a negative impact on the hopes of our families for a better future for their children who already find it hard to integrate”. Achol Marial, president of the South Sudanese Community Association in Victoria states: “As a result of our mobilisation, there has been an improvement in the terminology used by the newspapers in their stories about us. The police too, with whom we have organised monthly meetings, are very cautious in dealing with cases involving Africans and have improved their operational guidelines”.
Most of migration to Australia starts with countries bordering Sudan: Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya have 800,000; 280,000 and 115,000 South Sudanese refugees, respectively. The humanitarian programme of the Australian government by which the possibility of relocation is granted, involves a Refugee Programme and a Special Humanitarian Programme. The first establishes refugee status according to the criteria of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). It selects and accepts the majority of the applications for asylum made to the Department of Immigration which has the final say. It is also possible to seek asylum without going through the UNHCR.

The second Programme admits those who, while they are victims of human rights violations, cannot be defined as refugees but are sponsored by an Australian resident, whether related or not, or by an organisation. It is in this way that 74% of humanitarian visas were granted to South Sudanese during the years when most refugees were coming to Australia.
Once permission has been granted to relocate, there are considerable difficulties in cultural adaptation, especially within families: there is frequent conflict over parental roles caused by the new reality of equality among parents; this situation continually forces migrants to come to terms with the past and the present. The recent tendency of Australian society to try to assimilate new arrivals without understanding their origins has the effect of hindering the formation of a feeling of belonging. A 2014 study carried out by Victoria State University analysed the experience of South Sudanese mothers while bringing up their children in Australia. Tensions emerged between the local culture and the family self-image and this was marked by aversion to the western sense of self, transmitted by parenting practices. Many mothers displayed fear of losing their children both literally and symbolically.

Stressed by media attention and broken up into dozens of ethnic-based associations, often having to deal with internal tensions reflecting those present in South Sudan, the South Sudanese community finds it hard to shrug off the nickname of ‘refugee’. Its children belong to the diaspora, continually searching for a new identity. At times they are trapped between their memories of their native land (which they left all too soon in their lives) and a completely different Australian daily life. Among those who affirm their own identity, already developed, are the exponents of the South Sudanese artistic scene who, not without great effort, are beginning to achieve a sort of recognition that smacks of redemption and acceptance. “Most of my work explores the history of a pre-existing art that places at the centre our blackness and our visual language”, explains photographer and painter Atong Atem. He has already had various exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and New York and proposes the theme of decolonisation through his work Studio Series: “The first photographs of African subjects belong to the colonial ethnography, giving a distorted and problematic view of it. I turned the lens towards ourselves and overturned that ethnographic tendency just to see what would happen”.
The series is composed of photo-portraits whose subjects, decidedly African and black, immersed in a mixture of colours, even if they may feel lost in different dimensions, belonging to the first or second generations of migrants, proudly keep their own culture alive.
The message contains an autobiographical reference: Atong Atem was born in Ethiopia of South Sudanese refugee parents, was brought up in Kenya and relocated to Australia. “I am pure South Sudanese.
This is my complete identity”.
Krown’s music may deal with the modern social questions of his generation such as Waiting for Payment – in which he criticises the unemployment cheques given to unemployed South Sudanese because they create dependency and prevent people from entering the world of work, already sceptical towards them – that of Ajak Kwai is a leap into the ancestral Dinka tradition.

Originally from Bor in South Sudan, she suffered several bereavements due to the conflict with Khartoum and arrived in Australia in 1998, when she had just turned twenty two. In an effort to correct a speech problem, as a child she started to sing, learning songs handed down from her ancestors which she now sings for her audiences in three different languages: Arabic, Dinka and English. In 2014 she was named the best Afro-Australian singer. In her album Cows, Women and War she shows what it means to be a woman of the village, tied to the land.
“It is through the idea of the land that we can best connect with Australia – not the Australia of the British colonists but that of the aborigines who share the same sufferings as ourselves”. Even though she has family members in Bor, Ajak has not gone back there since she left her country twenty years ago and seems to have no desire to do so: “The aborigines fared worse than the South Sudanese. Unlike myself, they have no country to go back to; but everything I knew as a child was destroyed in the war. I want to hang on to my memories just a little longer”.

Jacopo Lentini – Photos by George Dale

The president Trump’s plan for ‘Peace to Prosperity’.

Sunday, 1 March 2020 8:00

“President Trump announced the launch of his Deal of the Century to achieve peace between Israel and Palestine.” “Donald Trump’s peace plan isn’t a plan for advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. It’s a plan for scuttling them.” “The administration’s peace plan tears up the playbook of prior presidents who have tried and failed to make real progress on peace in the region.” These and more supporting or opposing, calm or furious opinions from politicians and experts will fill the air in the coming months. However, advocacy is empowering people to speak for themselves, so what is the interested communities reaction? Here an example.

Mae Elise Cannon, 29 January 2020, Churches for Middle East Peace. “Earlier this afternoon, the Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) staff gathered around a laptop in our office – just a mile or so from the White House – to watch the President and Prime Minister Netanyahu announce the much anticipated “plan” for Israelis and Palestinians. As I listened to the speech, I was devastated. I was heartbroken as I thought of all the pain, suffering, and injustice that this plan will perpetuate.

The plan presented by President Trump and further fleshed out by Prime Minister Netanyahu is nothing less than a recipe for endless oppression and injustice. Palestinians for far too long have suffered under Israeli military control, a reality which today was denied and ignored. The proposed plan would further entrench the Israeli security establishment, ensuring that generations of Israeli young men and women will serve in a military tasked with continuing control of the Palestinian people. The inevitable result will be more human rights abuses, trauma, and violence. This cannot stand.

In addition, as Christians, we must not stand by and let our faith be perverted. It is clear that Christian values are being weaponized in an attempt to give a veneer of moral legitimacy to a plan that is, in fact, meant to facilitate further Israeli control over Palestinian lives,
land, and resources.

The use of Judeo and Christian religious and spiritual imagery to justify political aims and agendas is idolatry. Referring to the modern geopolitical state of Israel as “a light unto the world,” and glorifying “places inscribed in the pages of the Bible,” without seriously addressing the injustices suffered by those who have lived under decades of occupation, flies in the face of what the Prince of Peace taught us. This appropriation of religious ideals diminishes the true spiritual significance of the land we call Holy and is a betrayal of the Christian faith.

At first glance, some of the language of the plan sounds promising. For example, we heard, “No Palestinians or Israelis will be uprooted from their homes.” Certainly a good thing! However, when the repercussions of the plan are understood more fully, it becomes clear that another reading is possible. Palestinian citizens of Israel might not be moved out of their homes, but it is very possible that they would be disenfranchised, and the territory their homes are on would be deemed a part of the triangle communities of the “future Palestinian state.” This would be a part of the proposed “land swap” meant to maximize the amount of land under Israeli control while minimizing the number of Palestinians living on the land.

Speaking of “opportunities for Palestinians” to have a prosperous future without recognizing the root causes of the suffering experienced by generations worldwide obfuscates the problem and presents a distorted “solution.”
While Palestinians at times have not contributed constructively toward peace, we must be clear: the root of their despair is decades of dispossession, violence, and lived humiliation — a perpetuated dynamic that is not without consequences for Israeli society. For Israelis to have hope for a future without fear, where their legitimate security needs are met, there must be a peace plan where U.S. and Israeli governments recognize and commit to just resolutions in response to the legitimate grievances of the Palestinian people.

What we also did not hear was an articulation of the basic rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination, freedom, equality, and dignity in a land to which they have centuries-old ties — something that money can’t buy. So where do we go from here?
We must redouble our efforts to advocate for a durable and just peace that, unlike this and other plans of the past, centers justice, equality, human rights, and freedom for all in Israel and Palestine.
Please join us in prayer.

Let us know your thoughts and desire to stand in solidarity with all people in the Holy Land, especially those who were not present at the “peace table” today. Please stay tuned in the coming days and weeks for positive actions you can take to engage in advocacy as part of the CMEP community and in your networks. As we prepare for the work ahead, I offer this prayer: Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Working together. Justice can Prevail. Peace is possible”.
See, CMEP’s Executive Director Responds to the Trump “Peace” Plan

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

The Indian Ocean.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

In this new re-establishment of international balances in which Asia is acting as the leader, the Indian Ocean, the theatre of numerous conflicts in recent decades, has assumed a role of primary importance.

It does, in fact, function as a logistical connecting platform assisting Asian economic development since it connects Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, facilitating the passage of abundant loads of energy to be used to maintain production in the major global economies.
It is no coincidence that the US administration, in elaborating its new strategy of Chinese containment, replaced the term ‘Pacific Asia’ with ‘Indo Pacific’ in referring to the area from the western coast of India to that of the United States.

The geopolitical and geo-economic importance of this area is based upon two elements: the first concerns the security of the Chinese economy which depends upon the Indian Ocean as its principal transit route, and this has forced Peking to develop a maritime strategy focussed on two oceans, the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, identifying two fundamental logistics bases in Pakistan and Sri Lanka; the second concerns the Indian strategy. India, having suffered over the years under the strategies of the various powers, each with its own hegemonic aims, considered it opportune to adopt a new approach with the aim of making of this area a resource and not a threat, elaborating its own maritime doctrine according to which ‘control of the sea is the cardinal concept around which the Indian navy is structured’.

To this end, it intends to utilise its own maritime power to help keep the region stable and protect the maritime communication routes along which 83% of the crude oil imported by the country travels. For India, indeed, the maritime lines of communication are of crucial importance due to the turbulent state of its bordering neighbours which makes it impossible to use land routes. While developing its maritime strategy, India insists on maintaining its own autonomy, despite its close military cooperation with the United States, confirmed by numerous military agreements regarding the sharing of logistic infrastructure whose objective is Chinese containment.
The concept of autonomy for India is indeed of crucial importance in that it allows it to dialogue with China on maritime affairs and guarantees its own room for manoeuvre with respect to the US mechanism, based on the ‘Indo Pacific Strategy’ which includes India as well as Australia and Japan. Furthermore, India has strengthened its position as a regional leader by instituting the Indian Ocean Naval Symposium composed of 24 members for the purpose of promoting cooperation between maritime security agencies.
Bearing in mind the role being played by India and China at the global level, it is very clear that the economic security of this area is of vital importance also for those countries that maintain economic relations with these new actors. The area, being in a central position, connects the East, the South, the South East, Western Asia, Africa and Europe. The two powers, after a critical period, resumed their dialogue, giving priority to the stability of the area as well as agreeing fully on certain global issues.

The naval policy promoted by China also aims at ensuring its use of the maritime routes of the Indian Ocean since it has developed in the area considerable economic cooperation relations with the countries of the Persian Gulf and Eastern Africa. At the same time it is creating what is known as the ‘String of Pearls Strategy’, or the construction of a network of port ‘garrisons’ along the vital Persian Gulf-China maritime route. This explains why Peking is working to consolidate relations with such countries as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Thailand, all of which are strategically placed along the supple lines of the Indian Ocean. It is through this close network of partnerships and, even more, through huge investments in the construction of the modern port of Gwadar in Pakistan and the modernisation of the port of Sittwe in Myanmar, that Peking is trying to create new land routes for the transport of goods as alternative routes to the Malacca Straits which constitute a choke point that still cannot be defended against any action by the USA. Equally strategic is the project for the construction (still under way) of the port of Colombo in Sri Lanka, facilitating the containment of India which is already placing obstacles in the way of Chinese economic expansion by launching the Mausam Project. But the Chinese port network is not confined to its nearby Asian coasts. It extends along the coast that includes the Indian Ocean and the coast of Western Africa, reaching that of the Mediterranean. In this regard, we note that, at Bagamoyo, in Tanzania, the Chinese are building a port that will be added to the list of those built in Guinea, Ghana, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Djibouti, South Africa and Egypt.

India, too, like China, is vitally in need of developing a vast infrastructure network capable of connecting it with the Centre-South of Europe, passing through Iran, central Asia and Russia. This network must necessarily circumvent Pakistan, India’s historical rival, whose geographic position constitutes a heavy obstacle for the country of the Ganges.The problem is aggravated by Sino-Pakistan cooperation which led to the new port of Gwadar, forcing New Delhi to increase cooperation with Teheran by investing in the Iranian port of Chabahar, in the region of Balukistan, 100 km from its rival structure at Gwadar.
In addition, India has planned to construct a ‘North-South Corridor’ capable of connecting India to Northern Europe, passing through Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia. With this project, the Indian vessels would sail from Mumbai and dock at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, in the Straits of Hormuz, a stretch of water at the entrance to the Persian Gulf, and then despatch goods overland.
The goods would pass through Baku and Astrakhan, reaching Moscow and Saint Petersburg and then enter Europe.

Besides the countries mentioned, their bordering countries would also benefit by reduced prices and availability of goods in an area that is strategic for the future of the world economy. In this context, India, whose rate of growth is among the highest in the world (now more than 7% per year), will play a crucial role in its own development.
The new central position and strategic importance assumed by the Indian Ocean have doubtless created competition based upon economic development and investment in infrastructure. This challenge, launched by major powers in the area, is also being taken up by smaller competitors such as Oman, favoured by its geographical position, which hopes to increase its influence and assertiveness in the immediate future, in a strategic area of the first order.

Filippo Romeo

10 Ways We Pretend War is Not a Crime.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

Advocacy, more than economic interests, is about consciousness and knowledge. It is about building a strong democracy, holding those in power accountable. It is about focusing on questions left out or hidden, on how information is shared or concealed.

So, as maybe you know, but most people do not, a Peace Pact was signed on August 27, 1928, the Kellogg-Briand Pact, an international agreement to outlaw war. The inspiration, vision and endless labor behind it came from a mass movement begun and led by a lawyer from Chicago named Salmon Oliver Levinson. Obviously the pact did not succeed and a few months ago, on its anniversary, David Swanson, executive director of World Beyond War, listed 10 Ways we pretend war is not a crime. With the dark clouds thickening at the start of 2020 it can be useful to summarize his list.

1-. Normalization. “Many people can’t imagine a world without war,” says D. Swanson. “Our entertainment, our education, our mass media, and our politics treat violence, often extreme and sadistic violence, as normal and unremarkable, and participation in war as an admirable and praiseworthy ‘service’ completely regardless of whether the war participated in is an evil murderous catastrophe.”

2-. Exceptionalism. Swanson points out that media report as if we have “a right to kill people anywhere, as ‘needed’,” as well as a right to defend ourselves against what we deem ‘aggression.’ This gives us grounds for bombing the offending nation. If civilians and children die, it “is not a crime when a U.S. president does it.”

3-. The near total absence of consequences. The International Criminal Court, till now, has only prosecuted ‘War Crimes.’ “While occasionally low-ranking members of the military are punished for particular atrocities, there is no accountability for those who launch wars or commit crimes within wars, unless they are African.”

4-. The good war problem. “We have not only a faith in the possibility of the good war, of bombing for peace and justice, but a requirement, to believe in the existence of good wars.”

5-. Secret agencies plan and fight wars, and media outlets ignore them. “The CIA and all of its relatives in the U.S. government and around the world have normalized lying, spying, murdering, torturing, government secrecy”, lawlessness, and distrust of foreign and our own governments, and our ability to “participate in self-government, and acceptance of perma-war.”

6-. Treaties are not just ignored and violated but also torn up and rejected, generating enemies and avoiding disarmament. By the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation nuclear-armed nations committed not to transfer nuclear weapons to other nations or encourage other nations to acquire nuclear weapons. The U.S. “keeps nuclear weapons in other nations and has given nuclear technology to other nations.”

7-. Just War Theory. Theories of the Sts. Ambrose and Augustine describing the four conditions that must be met in order for a war to be just (the roots of just-war theory go back to the Roman orator Cicero) “have saturated western culture and made their way into the minds of us all,” until recently. Even though, in the conference held in Rome on April 11-13, 2016 “Nonviolence and Just Peace”, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace moved away from just war theory.

8-. The U.S. Presidency has been given imperial powers. Swanson says that, “It is the opinion not only of the current president, that anything a president does is legal.”

9-. Laws like the U.N. Charter are ignored or forgotten, or are circumvented through the use of excuses, pretenses, and obfuscations. It should useful to ask what are the obligations under the U.N. Charter. There cannot possibly be obligations of peace.

10-. Laws like the Kellogg-Briand Pact are ignored. However, this pact bans all war and is a treaty to which the governments are parties. That makes it the supreme “law of the land under the U.S.” and other signatories countries’ Constitution. It is a treaty that has not been ended or abolished or withdrawn from. Therefore, what David Swanson says regarding the U.S. is valid for all countries that signed it.
See the entire article, Ways we pretend war is not a crime

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

Philippines. Make a difference.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

Boys collect plastic bottles on the streets while others take them from the polluted waters of Manila Port. Families that live by collecting rubbish. A Priest and a Sister are trying especially to help the children to live with dignity.

The bigger lads are always faster than little Charles in grabbing the best bits of rubbish. Along the streets there is another group collecting Coca-Cola bottles and plastic containers. When the bag is full, they take it to the recyclers to receive a little money to buy something to eat.
Then the sound of the rubbish lorry can be heard. The lorry comes from the well-to-do quarters of the city. The boys jump aboard where they search the rubbish, breaking open some plastic bags in search of food. Charles is seven years old and runs after the lorry but he is too small to climb on board. Then the lorry goes round a corner and out of sight. “There is nothing we can do”, says his cousin Josette. Looking at her thoughtfully he replies, “I must learn how to swim”.

Manila is near the sea and a large amount of rubbish accumulates in the port basin. Sometime previously, a friend told him that if he knew how to swim he could earn some money. Charles is living there without any parents. He never met his father. He only knows he was in prison for years. His mother has a new family in another city where she has moved. Only his grandparents helped him, but they themselves are very poor. They live in a hut made of planks of wood and corrugated iron sheets. Tondo is a Manila slum. Both the land and the water are being increasingly polluted. The Philippines is the world’s third-largest ocean polluter; half a million tons of plastic are dumped into the sea there every year.Charles has decided to learn to swim. In a corner of the slum area there is a small bridge over the water and Charles dives in. In a short time he can manage to stay afloat, and he will soon be able to swim some distance.

It is now time for the boy to start work. He wants to collect as much rubbish as possible from the port. Taking a running jump, he dives into the water, trying to make his way through the algae to where he sees a bottle. The surface of the water is covered with oil dumped by ocean-going ships that dock at the port and there is also a cloud of black smoke. At last Charles manages to grab the plastic bottle. When he tries to swim back he goes under for a moment and swallows some of the oily water before reaching the bank, gasping for breath. That evening, after a day spent at his work, he has a large yellow bag full of plastic bottles. He drags it through the narrow streets of the shanty town and sells it for fifty pesos to the dealer. That is his day’s pay. He uses the money to buy some rice and runs home. “Nana, Nana, look and see how much I earned today”. The grandparents are proud of him but are ashamed they cannot offer Charles a better life.

Charity in action
Every Sunday Father Reynaldo Daguitera, a Canossian working in the parish of Saint Paul the Apostle celebrates Mass at Happy Land, a small quarter with twelve thousand slum dwellers. He tells us: “The parish is located in the densely populated area of Tondo with over 100,000 parishioners. It is close to the port and has sixteen Barangays (quarters) in zona 8 of the first district of Manila.

There are about 30,000 illegals in different colonies (Happy Land, Temporary housing, Aroma, Tambakan etc.). Some families live under a bridge. Most of them lack the bare necessities: clean water, electricity and sanitation”.He continues: “Because of the close presence of a large dump to Smoking Mountain shanty town, an increasing number of people, especially children, search through the rubbish for something to help them survive”. However, Father Reynaldo is moved by what he sees: “Seeing Charles and his friends swimming and collecting plastic in poisonous water breaks my heart”.Father Reynaldo is well known in the shanty town. He spends time going through the narrow streets, greeting everyone and offering words of comfort and encouragement. He often visits the families and shares whatever food they have. The people are happy to have Father Reynaldo in their homes. The priest knows that his sermons are credible only if charity is transformed into action. He wants to make a difference and, together with some volunteers, he has decided to organise food for the children, the too many children underweight and malnourished. The priest is helped by an eighty-year-old Catholic man who gets up early each day to prepare breakfast for a dozen or so children, starting at 6.30 am.

That was the first step. The children also need their lessons. Study first, then enjoyment, is the priest’s motto. The three R’s are the order of the day. Then there will be singing and dancing. Charles and the other children enjoy it all.
One day Charles found a treasure in the sea of plastic. Father looked at him in disbelief. He had brought home the door of a broken-down fridge and could not understand why. Charles dragged the door to the port and into the water. He had never seen a fridge before but knew that the polystyrene could be used to make a small boat. As proud as a ship’s captain, Charles now rows his boat to collect the plastic.
Seeing Charles rowing so strongly, Father Reynaldo smiles but, at the same time, is worried for Charles and the many boys and girls of the shanty town. He knows he cannot really change much to free the children from the vicious circle of poverty and plastic.

The priest set to work and found more supporters. He also persuaded Sister Mary John Mananzan to collaborate. In the past, the Sister was involved in many projects and is a genius at improvising.
They continue serving breakfast to the children and in the afternoon they have school classes followed by games. Father Reynaldo has convinced some young doctors to devote some hours each week to organise a small clinic where they can receive patients, especially children. Sister Mary assists with the women regarding hygiene in their homes. They may be poor but they must be clean. They are also working with university students on a sanitation project.
Meanwhile, Charles dives in once more and comes out with another plastic bottle. “I have to continue collecting the bottles, otherwise we will have nothing to eat at home”, he says in a tone bitter beyond his years.”
Beatrix Gramlich

The Church in Northeast India. Building Bridges.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

From being a tiny minority, the Church in the Northeast region of India has grown exponentially since the beginning of last century. Today, it comprises about two million Catholics with 15 dioceses.

The first missionaries in North-eastern India adapted themselves to the people and their culture amidst hardships and difficulties, and their words had persuasive power with the villagers. People from the most interior places came forward to accept Christianity. Frequent visits to the communities and intense relationships with people made a big difference. Priests and sisters moved from village to village, stayed among the people, visited homes and educated the community in their faith. They took a number of young people into hostels and gave them a more systematic training in Christian teachings and traditions as they pursued their studies.
Catechists deepened the faith of the people in their own homes. They moved to new villages, approached new families and communities, shared the Gospel in intimate exchanges, and invited them to accept the message if they found it acceptable. And many did accept the message.

From very early times there were associations for youth, mothers, parents, and other specific groups. Meetings and training programs were held every month for the catechists, retreats and other animation events for different categories of the laity every year, and also for the parish as a whole. The annual parish feast was not only a celebration but also a three-day reflection on Christian teaching. The marriage preparation course lasted ten days or longer.
There were continuous programs in parishes all through the dry season so that one could move from one event to another without break. Our traditional faith-formation events were intense and effective. They motivated individuals and communities. No wonder that the Church growth was visible, steady and sustained. New contacts were continuously made and maintained.

Educational Ventures
At the early period of our mission history, there were very few institutions. However, almost from the beginning some form of educational service was offered at every parish centre, supported by humble boarding houses both for boys and girls. It took time for Primary Schools to grow into Middle Schools and High Schools.

Today there is a High School at almost every parish centre. Even considering these limitations, we have built up an educated laity in impressive numbers, producing leaders in every field, including the political, and a good proportion of the bureaucrats.
Colleges have come up in different places, and today, there are also two Catholic universities in the region.
Furthermore, the Catholic educational institutions always served an evangelical purpose, of both deepening faith in Christian youth and exposing others to the values of the Gospel, and offering them a chance to make an intelligent choice.

Medical And Social Services
Health assistance was given in a small way by the pastoral sisters from the beginning; standard hospitals came up only of late. But gradually their number has increased and their scope widened. These bigger health institutions reach out to the villages and poorer urban centres with health assistance, health camps, and health education programs. They intervene in times of emergency like floods and epidemics.

Social services began as assistance to good health in the villages. Gradually it has grown to embrace a vast variety of services related to development. Social workers reach out to the villages and organize collaborative efforts with the local communities to solve their common problems. Women’s training centres too have increased in number, giving lessons in tailoring, kitchen garden, child care, cooking, house maintenance, family duties etc.

Work For Peace
Another context where the Christian message manifests in concrete terms is the Church’s work for peace. Though this work is a necessity in all social contexts, we were dragged into it in a big way during the Bodo-Adivasi conflict in 1996, when over 250,000 people had to take shelter in temporary camps and relief work was done for them on a massive scale in collaboration with the other Evangelical Churches. What began as a relief-work collaboration developed into ecumenical peace-work collaboration with the name Joint Peace Mission Team of Northeast India.
There has been, in addition, a certain amount of theological reflection on the theme of evangelization in our region, and theological publications. Such publications have been on themes like evangelization, inculturation, tribal culture, indigenous communities and their traditions, tribal ethos, tribal values, tribal spirituality and related anthropological considerations.

A Dynamic Force In Society
All these activities put together undoubtedly make an impact on the wider society, and the Church in the region as a whole is respected as a force for good by the majority community. Her influence in civil society is greater than what our numbers stand for. The public is aware that the Christian leadership is well educated, that the Catholic community is well-motivated, that the Christian youth is upwardly mobile, that the Christians are doing immensely precious things for society, and that they are going to be effective in whatever good work they will take up. For these reasons they respect the Christian community.

In the hill states where the Christians constitute a significant number, the Catholic Church undoubtedly wields even greater influence. In order for this to continue it is necessary that the missionary team gives importance to its cultural and social insertion into the local community, both at the personal and social levels. This will mean frequent interactions with the people of the neighbourhood no matter what their persuasion (members of other religions, agnostics, diverse ideologies).
I would consider the engagement with the thinking element of society to be another important aspect: the thought-provokers, the opinion-shapers, the value-setters, the goal-proposers, the ideals-planters, the vision-projectors, the energy-sustainers, the soul-inspirers.
It is when missionaries have entered into companionship with such stalwarts that they gain a certain moral authority in society. It is here that missionaries seek to be present with a humble but effective contribution. In the present context of serving the larger society in a multi-religious and secular situation, this is a realistic goal which we can seek to move forward.

Building Bridges
It is a great mission to initiate a meaningful dialogue with individuals and teams that shape the collective mind of a society. Our aim is to build up a common ground with the real world around us and lead reflection a little further. These are all spheres of life where diversity of opinion is possible. Our mission is to promote intelligent thought and mutually stimulating discussions that will lead to responsible decisions.
Our mission is to be present where we are needed most: even at the crossroads of ideologies, in social trenches, in areas of confrontation, and amidst the burning exigencies of man. Yes, Jesus’ message ought to be brought to life and proved capable of yielding a hundredfold.

This mission is amazingly complex: listening, enriching, correcting, supplementing, and co-thinking with one another. Let Christians of various traditions talk to each other; let believers listen to each other. Socially committed agnostics too have a message for us. Let people of all different points of view learn from each other.
We Christians believe that history is not shaped in the battlefields only, but also in lecture halls, thinkers’ clubs, study groups, workshops, school rooms, libraries, laboratories, artists’ dark rooms, adoration chapels, and cloistered convents, in catechist training centres, and during the village visits of missionaries. That is why we are present in all these places with diverse approaches.

Northeast’s Contribution
The Church in Northeast India, which was once considered by some at the national level as being in an unimportant corner of India, has moved to a respected position today. Many national events of importance are held now in Northeast India.
Furthermore, vocations are rising in the Northeast while they are declining in the traditionally vocation-rich areas. With the size of the family growing smaller in the older Catholic pockets of India, the Northeast seems to be the hope-filled area for vocations increasing the number of congregations. What is even more encouraging is the fact that this young Church has been quickly sending out missionaries to the ends of the earth. This trend is bound to grow, even though the present number is still small.

What will the hills and valleys of the Northeast contribute? Will it be its missionary dynamism in a spirit of joy? It is not easy to judge at this stage. However, the calibre of the Northeastern contribution will depend on the quality of the togetherness and the collective thinking that the Church in the region will cultivate and strengthen along with its traditional joy and enthusiasm.

Difficulties Bring Redemption
We in India are living through difficult times these days. We may have to look forward to more difficult times if the Hindu right takes the destiny of the nation into its hands. Hindutva radicalism as a cultural force is sure to remain around us. Though we see that the communities of the Northeast are not much attracted by this extreme ideology, they are bound to be influenced. Rather than take our worry to excess or seek to address the problem only in the way of public protests, we will have to learn to dialogue with the moderates among them, who in turn can soften their group’s exaggerations. If Christianity has survived 2,000 years in India it was because our society was tolerant, and it is likely to remain so in the future.

Thomas Menamparampil
Archbishop emeritus of Jowai, India

Somalia: Endless War.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

The country has been struggling with extreme weather changes, violence and disease for nearly 30 years and is increasingly subject to severe climate shocks that are worsening a prolonged humanitarian crisis. Here are seven things we should know about the crisis
in Somalia:

1. It’s a complex crisis
The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is one of the longest and most complex in the world. The country is experiencing both armed conflict and worsening climatic shocks across different regions, a dangerous combination that has resulted in massive displacements, both within Somalia and across its borders. Through 2018, more than 880,000 Somalis became displaced from their homes. 300,000 fled from fear of violence and attacks, and over 500,000 mostly farmers and pastoralists were displaced due to the impacts of climate shocks such as flooding or drought. Pastoralists raise and herd livestock as their main source of income and are commonly located in drylands. Pastoralist communities represent 60 per cent of Somalia’s population.Last year, an additional 575,000 Somalis were displaced from January to November adding to more than four million Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance. Providing aid is difficult because the many internally displaced people are located in areas with active armed conflict and limited infrastructure.

2. People are suffering from the impact of extreme weather conditions
In 2011, 260,000 people died from a famine in Somalia. Half of them were children. Five years later, Somalia experienced another prolonged drought from 2016 to 2017 that displaced over a million people. Last year, the impact of drought threatened hundreds of thousands lives, placing additional strain on communities, stretching available humanitarian resources and displacing 300,000 people. Displaced people, particularly children, mothers and the elderly are now facing serious hunger, health and protection risks in an area already receiving little to no humanitarian assistance due to insecurity and conflict.

3. The country has experienced extended violent conflict
Somalia has experienced armed conflict for nearly three decades. In recent years, non-state armed groups have carried out bombings, suicide attacks, armed assaults and kidnappings. At the same time, military operations have resulted in the sporadic death, injury and displacement of civilian populations. In some areas, civilians are required to pay fees to armed groups or are pressured to participate in hostilities, and in others, clan-related conflict is increasing among pastoralist and farming communities as natural resources decrease due to flooding and drought. All of these aspects make for a very challenging environment to deliver assistance. For several years, violence has prompted populations to flee to urban areas where aid is more accessible.

4. Poor health and communicable diseases are killing people
Massive displacement and food insecurity have a major effect on the health of the population. 1.5 million people need humanitarian assistance. Almost one million children risk being acutely malnourished, carrying severe implications for their future health and that of subsequent generations. This is among one of the factors that cause one out of seven children to die before they reach five years old. On top of that, Somalis are exposed to serious risks from the outbreak of diseases such as cholera, measles and diarrhoea, spread easily in congested living conditions and where there is a lack of clean water and sanitation.

5. People are fleeing to the big cities
The different factors within Somalia’s crisis are forcing people to move to urban areas to seek humanitarian assistance. Many urban migrants live in camps or informal settlements and have limited access to information about their rights and available services. Families set up makeshift shelters wherever they can, putting them at risk of violence, exploitation, abuse and disease. The need for space, food, water and shelter places strain on resources in urban areas. The capacity of host communities with limited systems in place are then stretched, leading to forced evictions and extreme vulnerability among displaced populations. Over many years, Somalis have also fled to neighbouring countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Yemen. Some people are now returning to Somalia, either in the hope of re-establishing their lives or due to a lack of safety in the country they have fled to for protection.

6. Somalia is hosting other refugees
Somalia also receives refugees from its neighbouring countries. The country currently hosts 39,000 refugees, mostly from Ethiopia and Yemen. In the coming months, Somalia expects to receive over 90,000 returnees that have been seeking refuge in Kenya and Yemen.

7. Women, children and minorities are the most vulnerable
Women, children and members of minority groups are particularly vulnerable during displacement. Women and girls, especially those living in informal urban centres, are at risk of gender-based violence, and often have less access than others to opportunities to earn a living. A lack of sufficient infrastructure forces many women and girls to walk in dangerous areas to find water or firewood, exposing them to additional risks and causing many to seek support from aid agencies. Female-headed and child-headed households, and members of minority groups become more vulnerable due to the absence of their social and community networks. Displaced people that belong to different clans than that of their host community face an increased risk of violence and abuse. One third of those who need assistance are children, most of whom are out of school. This makes them more vulnerable to exploitation through child labour, including possible use in hostilities.

Tria Garcia

Saving the Planet and Ourselves.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

Australia, Philippines, California and Central and South Africa have been recently hit by severe drought and endless forest fires. Thousands are suffering. Plants and animals perish. This we must and can stop.

The experts and advocates saving the planet call it an “ecocide” where the ecology and environment is being destroyed before our eyes. There is always hope that humans can change their destructive lifestyles and convert from using coal and fossil fuels that drive industrial production to renewable sources of energy such as geothermal, solar and wind power.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has declared recently that action and important decisions must be made now to cut the greenhouse emissions that are pumping deadly gases into the atmosphere. The coal-fired power plants and factories burning oil are the main culprits as well as the millions of diesel- and gas-powered vehicles around the world.

The change to renewable sources of electricity has to be urgently accelerated if we are to hold the rising temperature to 1.5 degrees and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. That is to produce no more CO2 than the forests and oceans can absorb and offset by planting trees, using carbon capture technology and a zero tolerance for greenhouse gasses.

The greater risk, according to some climate advocates, is what UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said. It is that the “point of no return is no longer over the horizon.” What he means is the point when the climate gets so hot that it is not possible to stop or reverse it. When the planet has heated up to melt the permafrost, billions of cubic feet of methane gas will rise into the atmosphere and thicken the blanket around the planet so no heat can escape and the sun will bake us as if we are in an oven. The ice in Antarctica and the Arctic is melting so fast there is too little ice to reflect the sun’s rays back into space. It could lead to disastrous drought globally and food crops will fail and mass starvation will be the result.

The scientific evidence is clear. The years 2014 to 2023 will be marked as the hottest years in 150 years. That indicates that the climate has warmed one degree centigrade since the levels in 1850-1900. The forecast of temperature rise will be between 1.03 and 1.57 degrees above pre-industrial levels in the coming years. However, if nothing is done now, by the year 2100, the increase will reach a critical disastrous 3.2 degrees increase. If the industrialized nations act now to change, then the increase will still be a very dangerous and a disastrous 2.9 degrees increase.

The biggest polluters on the planet are the United States and China. India is not far behind. President Trump does not believe the scientific evidence that the climate is changing since he lives in permanent climate-controlled environment with air conditioning. China wants to be a global power as powerful as the United States and keep building coal-fired power plants to produce and sell to the world and grow economically and militarily.

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in addressing the climate injustice, many small island nations must have support and there must be “economic and environmental justice for all.” The President of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific said that they are fighting for life as oceans rise due to melting ice caps and are inundating their low-lying islands.

Another deep concern posed by the rising waters around the Marshall islands is the huge concrete dome known as the Runit Dome that encases 3.1 million cubic feet of deadly radioactive debris and soil including the death-dealing plutonium. Susanne Rust of the Los Angeles Times reports the United States detonated 67 nuclear bombs between 1946 and 1958 in the Marshall Islands.

Several islands were vaporized and thousands of islanders were evacuated and exiled. Many were suffering the severe effect of radiation. The huge dome is gradually under threat from the rising oceans and the radioactive waste will likely seep out and contaminate the ocean waters and the marine life. It could be goodbye to the Marshalls and their wonderful resilient people. We hope not and if global action is taken to curb global warming there is a chance they and mankind will survive.

Fr. Shay Cullen

The Atlantic Ocean.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

In ancient times, the Atlantic Ocean was believed to be a mysterious extent of water that could not be crossed, until Columbus came up with the idea, as foolish as it was ingenious, of sailing across it.

The discovery of the Americas, together with all the historical vicissitudes that occurred during the following centuries, encouraged growing and continuous exchange between one side and the other, earning for this ocean an unquestionable strategic position as the centre of interest of all the major powers of the time.
With the Second World War, the United States acquired effective dominion over the Atlantic as it became the leading maritime power at the head of the Atlantic Alliance, in contrast with the land-based coalition reunited by the Warsaw Pact.

The importance of the control of the Atlantic for the United States did not mean it had only to protect its own coastline but also the security of Europe since any collapse of interchange with the old continent would have seriously damaged the US economy and made it vulnerable to the Soviet threat. At the same time, protecting Europe amounted to protecting its own power, as well as guaranteeing Washington (as is the case also today) its representation as a power present in Eurasia.
The implosion of the Soviet system altered the equilibrium of the international chessboard, and the Atlantic Ocean also lost the priority that marked it out for all those years. Nevertheless, the value of the commerce on the ocean remains unchanged in the vitally necessary economic interchange between Europe and the Americas.
This new scenario has led the US to review its maritime priorities and to reduce its investment in the Atlantic area through a change in location of some commands and a reduction in the number of personnel, vehicles and armaments deployed in the area, in order to redirect these resources elsewhere. If we consider that geo-politics follows the law of physics according to which ‘nature abhors a vacuum’, even in the case of downward spirals, these moves almost immediately encouraged the rivals of the US to take advantage of them.

China, especially, by means of a series of economic investments is looking ahead to the Atlantic, positioning itself in some areas that we may describe as highly strategic, being nothing less than main entry doors. Their aim is to respond to the encircling movement being implemented by the United States in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, even if Chinese action has hitherto been only economic. China, in fact, has invested in Greenland in the rare soils sector and is carrying out research in Iceland with which it has made a contract of free exchange, and also in Sweden, Norway and in the Svalbard Archipelago. It has made an important contribution to the development of the port of Tangiers which has increased its influence over the Atlantic side of the Straits of Gibraltar, and it has involved Portugal (the only Atlantic state among the participants) in the Silk Road Project by stipulating scientific cooperation accords in the oceanographic sector, while in Cape Verde it is engaged in infrastructure projects.
Apart from economics, China has also worked on the diplomatic front, persuading the Dominican Republic, Salvador, Panama, Costa Rica, Granada and San Tomé e Prìncipe to withdraw their diplomatic recognition of Taiwan. On the military front, they have conducted military exercises with the Russian navy.

Unlike the Chinese, the Russians have been conducting military exercises in the Atlantic since 2006. Among the major exercises organised by the Russians were a simulated attack on the Norwegian Arctic Command at Bodo and submarine exercises in the waters of Scotland, Sweden and Finland, reaching as far out as the Bay of Biscay and the Gulf of Mexico. The latter, due to its geographical position, is considered the jugular vein of the United States. Neither must it be forgotten that a bastion of Russian power is concentrated on the peninsula of Kola which looks out over the Barents Sea where air bases and nuclear armaments are located and which naturally opens out to the North Atlantic.
It is clear that Moscow’s moves are not calculated so much to bring about war, also because the Russian navy is not equipped to engage in conflict on the high seas, as to test the soft underbelly of the United States. In response to these challenges, NATO is conducting air patrol exercises; it has reopened the radar station at Sana Vord and Oslo and expanded the Arctic Station on the island of Jan Mayen. Furthermore, in 2018, the Second Fleet was reactivated at Norfolk. One of its many duties is to guard the 26 internet cables on the seabed which connect the United States to Europe, Africa, South America and the Caribbean. (F.R.)

Brazil. Frevo, infectious joy.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

If the samba is the sound of Rio de Janeiro, the frevo is that of Recife in North-East Brazil, where it began towards the end of the nineteenth century: a rhythm inseparably tied to the exuberance of the Pernambuco carnival, which, in 2012, became part of the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

The word itself expresses its essence: it means to boil, indicating the euphoric effervescence of the frenetic carnival dances. With the passing of years, the frevo became emancipated, accepting the influence of jazz and the songs of songwriters while influencing such great masters as Gilberto Gil and Chico Buarque de Hollanda, and, more recently, Lenine, Sivuca and Dori Caymmi.

It has several basic types: the frevo de bloco, accompanied by an orchestra and large or small dancing troupes; the frevo conçao which has the form of a song; the frevo de rua meaning that of ‘the street’, created especially for carnival spectacles; and the frevo fusion, which combines this popular and biting rhythm with the elegance of jazz or that of classical music, or even with the energy of rock music.
A recent addition has been the so-called frevo Opus Dei, characterised by clearly faith-inspired lyrics.
Wind instruments, drums and other percussion instruments are at its heart. With the joy and sometimes the anger often found in the lyrics, the extrovert bodily expression constitutes its basic emotional framework. It is almost impossible to stand still while listening to it.

Among its best known exponents is the Spok Frevo Orchestra: it has 18 members conducted by Inaldo Cavalcante de Albuquerque, known as Spok, a saxophonist and Vaglia composer, a major exporter of frevo to the West. He is a native of lgarassù, in the same state of Pernambuco, close to Recife where he developed as an instrumentalist, composer and teacher. It was there, in 1996, that he launched his project of a spectacular wind orchestra which has toured the world for years, exporting all the exuberance of the traditional music of North West Brazil, with an irresistible mix of Brazilian music and virtuoso jazz. This is a band that has obviously found its natural dimension performing in concerts and live shows, rather than in its recordings, to the extent that they have made only a handful of albums to date. The best known of these are the sparkling debut album Passo de anjo made in 2004 (to which we must add the live version released in 2008), and the Ninho de vespa recorded in 2015.

The century-old heritage of this music – more than anything else an approach to living – has most probably found in the Spok Frevo Orchestra, its best testimonial anywhere in the world.
Of course it is not only music, but dance. In his book Frevo, Capoeira e Passo, Valdemar de Oliveira writes, ‘Frevo doesn’t invite you. It drags you. Its effervescent rhythm is something magnetic, against which it is difficult to resist’.

The dance was inspired by capoeira movements (Brazilian martial art) and have more than 120 different movements! Jumps, coordinated fast leg movements, leg flexions and tumbling are some of the examples. It’s not so easy to try.
But there are people that are capable of dancing this with perfection who are called passistas (frevors dancers). They wear colorful clothes and when they are dancing, they use small umbrellas to perform the movements and acrobatics. It’s very beautiful to watch!

Franz Coriasco

Zimbabwe. Street children in Harare.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

Hundreds of street children roam the centre of Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, living in subhuman conditions. Many of them are second generation victims: their poverty is a consequence of their orphanhood. Their parents died from HIV and now they are all alone without family, living on the street and, in some cases,
in a foreign country.

Samora Machel Avenue, so named in honour of the father of Mozambique’s independence, crosses the centre of Harare from east to west. Luxurious hotels, some colonial houses surrounded by high office buildings, traffic jams, bustle of the streets … the typical urban landscape of any African capital.Fuel shortages cause long lines of cars waiting for refuelling, especially during peak times in the late afternoon. Some drivers take advantage of the wait to buy shoes from a street vendor or have someone wash the car by hand in five minutes. The wide areas of the Total gas stations become improvised markets, which are widely spread throughout the continent.

“The street kids know it and take advantage of that”, says Marvelous, who is 35. He works at a gas station in Harare and explains to us: “When they stop at a red light, drivers must watch carefully ahead and behind their car, if they get distracted, in few seconds they’ll be surrounded by children. Most of them ask for alms, but there are also those who try to steal anything they may find inside a vehicle.

The zvigunduru
Many of the unemployed youth in Harare have turned to drugs and they are often referred to as zvigunduru, which in Tsonga, the local language of Zimbabwe, means ‘sleepers’, as they spend most of their time sleeping or lying down after consuming drugs. One can see the zvigunduru lying down mainly in the alleys where there are hotels, gas stations, and banks. The area around the Number One hotel is one of their favourite places. It’s better not to get lost inside that area, which is in fact the street children’s territory, where laws are dictated by those who have nothing to lose.

Marvelous knows almost all those kids by their first name. “Look, that kid’s name is John. He is a good kid and does not take drugs”, he says pointing at a kid wearing a shabby white shirt and a worn out pair of trousers. By drugs, Marvelous refers to toriro, the local drug that causes aggressive behaviours, since the effects of cocaine are potentiated by mixing it with bicarbonate. John says he is 10, but he looks a little bit older; he does not speak much since he distrusts white men and journalists alike. “What I want to do is to go to school”, he keeps on saying. He tells us that his mother, who is from the city of Gweru, in the centre of the country, married an immigrant from Malawi, who abandoned her soon after he was born. “I grew up with my maternal grandparents, but there was not enough food for everyone and so I decided to come to Harare hoping to have a better life”.

John tells us that he survives thanks to the coins he gets from drivers and that he and another dozen young people spend the night in the alleys of this area. “I’m not afraid because Mad is with me”, says John, pointing at a boy standing a few metres from us.
At dawn, the older children leave the alley and reach the avenue where they beg for money or food. Then, at mid-morning they come back bringing bread, tetrabriks of juice and a bottle of maheu, the maize-based local drink. They are soon surrounded by all the other children and all of them eat greedily because they know that that may be the only decent meal of the whole day. But, when kids can’t get any food or money from people, then one can see them searching for food in the garbage bins outside the numerous Spar supermarkets of the area despite the security staff trying to keep them away because customers are frightened by them.

The victims of the epidemic.
Not far from the alleys in the Number One hotel area, is the colonial style Catholic cathedral of Harare and on the other side of the Fourth Street stands one of the most prestigious mission complexes in Zimbabwe. It includes the school of the Dominican Sisters, which is attended by more than 1,000 schoolchildren, and the main house of the order in Zimbabwe. Sister Angela is a nurse. She was born in Germany and has been living in the African country for 56 years. “There are more and more kids living in the streets of the city centre”, she tells us in the shadow of a jacaranda in the beautiful garden of the school. “Many of them are currently arriving from border countries, such as Mozambique and Malawi. There are many orphans among them.
The African continent is experiencing the boom of the AIDS epidemic, which swept over Southern Africa at the end of the last century and the beginning of the current one. Many children are orphans because AIDS killed their parents”.

Several humanitarian and non-governmental organizations based in Harare are working to help these children. Keepers Alert is an organization directed by the local writer Patience Chiyangwa, and it offers support to orphans and street children through the House of Smiles. “Street kids come daily to this centre to take a shower, wash their clothes and feed themselves and we also offer computer classes, to those who are interested in them”, Chiyangwa tells us.
Harare, the ancient capital of Rhodesia, was, and still is, a beautiful city with wide avenues lined with jacarandas.
Today, the violet shade of its flowers offers shelter to hundreds of children and teenagers abandoned to their fate in a notorious alley that is only 100 metres distant from a central avenue that bears the name, paradoxes of life, of an African liberator.

Xaquín López – Photos: Sonsoles Meana

Why the Hippo lives in the Water.

Saturday, 1 February 2020 8:00

Many years ago the hippopotamus, whose name was Isantim, was one of the biggest kings on the land; he was second only to the elephant. The hippo had seven large fat wives, of whom he was very fond. Now and then he used to give a big feast to the people, but a curious thing was that, although everyone knew the hippo, no one, except his seven wives, knew his name.

At one of the feasts, just as the people were about to sit down, the hippo said, “You have come to feed at my table, but none of you know my name. If you cannot tell my name, you shall all of you go away
without your dinner.”

As they could not guess his name, they had to go away and leave all the good food behind them. But before they left, the tortoise stood up and asked the hippopotamus what he would do if he told him his name at the next feast? So the hippo replied that he would be so ashamed of himself that he and his whole family would leave the land, and for the future would dwell in the water.

Now it was the custom for the hippo and his seven wives to go down every morning and evening to the river to wash and have a drink. Of this custom the tortoise was aware. The hippo used to walk first, and the seven wives followed.
One day when they had gone down to the river to bathe, the tortoise made a small hole in the middle of the path, and then waited.

When the hippo and his wives returned, two of the wives were some distance behind, so the tortoise came out from where he had been hiding, and half buried himself in the hole he had dug, leaving the greater part of his shell exposed. When the two hippo wives came along, the first one knocked her foot against the tortoise’s shell, and immediately called out to her husband, “Oh! Isantim, my husband, I have hurt my foot.” At this the tortoise was very glad, and went joyfully home, as he had found out the hippo’s name.

When the next feast was given by the hippo, he made the same condition about his name; so the tortoise got up and said, “You promise you will not kill me if I tell you your name?” and the hippo promised.
The tortoise then shouted as loud as he was able, “Your name is Isantim,” at which a cheer went up from all the people, and then they sat down to their dinner.

When the feast was over, the hippo, with his seven wives, in accordance with his promise, went down to the river, and they have always lived in the water from that day till now; and although they come on shore to feed at night, you never find a hippo on the land in the daytime.

(Nigerian Folktale)

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