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Economic and Social Crisis.

Today, Guatemala continues to deal with a highly precarious social situation that places the country in the last rank in Latin America as regards human development, where the rates of violence and that relating to child malnutrition remain high.

These conditions affect almost the majority of the population which has about 17 million inhabitants. Of these, 41% are indigenous and their percentage is progressively increasing in rural areas; 30% are mestizos; 4% are white; and 11% are Creole. The indigenous people, more than the others, continue to live in a condition of poverty and marginalization, even if the conditions of the rest of the population are not so different. As noted by the United Nations, in fact, around 75% of family groups live in conditions of poverty; 60% of the population has no access to drinking water; about 44% of the population over the age of 15 are illiterate, a percentage that rises to 70% in women; while infant mortality
is around 27.8%.

Guatemala City is the capital and largest city of Guatemala. CC BY-SA 4.0/Andy9696down

Guatemala City is the capital and has 2.5 million inhabitants. Spanish is the official language of the country although, due to its diverse ethnic composition, 24 others are recognized: 22 Maya, Xinca, and Garifuna. However, even though most of these languages are spoken by a few thousand people, this linguistic diversity creates administrative problems as well as mobility opportunities. From the point of view of religion, Catholicism is professed by 75.9% of the population.
The great situation of economic and social crisis that Guatemala is forced to deal with is undoubtedly generated by the high level of internal conflict that has upset the balance of the country for many decades. In this climate, criminal gangs also find fertile ground, keeping the rate of violence high by constantly carrying out murders, armed robberies, and kidnappings for the purpose of extortion. The homicide rate, in particular, remains one of the highest in Latin America, making the country extremely insecure due to the crimes committed by the mareros.

Illustration: Molly Crabapple

Two of America’s most notorious gangs – Mara Salvatrucha, or MS13, and 18th Street Gang, or Barrio 18, both of which originated in migrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s – have a particularly strong influence in Guatemala. They are transnational groups, which recruit their soldiers from a very young age, often in elementary or middle school. For this reason, 18th Street has been renamed the army of children for whom belonging to these groups is equivalent to being part of a cohesive and protective community and which often replaces families whose parents are migrants fleeing the precarious conditions in which the country finds itself.
Furthermore, Guatemala, due to its location, is used by drug cartels as a logistics platform and transit area for drug trafficking from the south to the north of the American continent.
Despite this, Guatemala remains one of the most important economies in Central America but in the absence of a consistent inflow of public and private capital and a sound justice system capable of guaranteeing social peace, it appears very difficult to achieve ambitious results in terms of development, as well as exacerbate the inequalities of which the country stands among the highest levels in the world.

The highlands of Quetzaltenango. CC BY-SA 4.0/chensiyuan

Agriculture is the dominant sector of the country’s economy, even if only 3% of the population own 2/3 of the agricultural land. The economy is heavily dependent on exports and, consequently, suffers from price volatility with all the resulting problems. The main trading partners are the United States, which absorbs 40% of national exports, the other Central American states, and also (recently) Japan and South Korea.
The agricultural sector today accounts for 12% of GDP, employs 40% of the population and concentrates mainly on the production of corn, coffee, sugar and bananas. With reference to this sector, it is important to underline that a diversification process has been under way since the early 2000s aimed at encouraging the cultivation, for example, of fruit and flowers destined for the US and European markets.
Over the years, the agri-food and textile sectors have also recorded moderate development linked exclusively to the internal market. Tourism also plays an important role but is, however, held back by the lack of infrastructure and transport. The really significant revenue item on the national budget consists of remittances from the United States, where more than one million Guatemalans work.
Guatemala also plays an active part in the integration organizations of the Central American region, in particular in the Central American Integration System (SICA) and in the Latin American Economic System (SELA). (Open Photo: 123rf.com)
(F.R.)

Niger. Challenging Climate Change.

Climatic conditions make agricultural work in the Sahel more and more difficult. One of the countries most affected by this reality is Niger, where a large majority of farmers work in precarious conditions. Many initiatives are emerging to respond to local and regional challenges. The role of young entrepreneurs.  

Mahamadou Abdou is delighted with the visit. For months, no technician has visited his plot of land to listen to his advice, which was once a regular business of the state’s technical services. This gardener from Gamkallé, a suburban area of ​​the city of Niamey, the capital of Niger, cultivates half a hectare of land with little knowledge, and without technology or external support.
Like many other Sahelian farmers, Abdou watches the soil that feeds him become more arid and less arable every year.
In this geo-climatic belt that crosses the African continent from east to west – from Djibouti to Senegal and which acts as a transition between the Sahara Desert and the Sudanese savannah – the phenomena of desertification as the degradation of fertile soil due to productive activities and desertification (the natural transformation of a zone into a desert) threaten to merge the Sahara and the Sahel into one region, making life even more difficult for the people who inhabit this
particular part of the world.

Two women walk through a desertified area outside Niamey. Photo: Carlos Nombela.

As demonstrated at COP15 – the United Nations conference against desertification held in May in Abidjan (Ivory Coast) – the African continent is the most vulnerable to climate change, which is the main cause of agricultural land loss due to degradation. Studies have shown that reforestation in some areas of the Sahara-Sahel area could help reduce higher temperatures, favouring the development of indigenous vegetation, and warn of the need for immediate action.
There are many political commitments and efforts which, based on scientific evidence, seek to address this phenomenon. The Great Green Wall (GMV) for the Sahara and the Sahel is perhaps the most publicized. Led and approved in 2007 by the African Union, this mega-project aims to green 150 million hectares, which would block 250 million tons of carbon, and create one million jobs. All this must be achieved by 2030. Eleven countries participate in the project. In Niger, one of the countries most exposed to this crisis, the goal is to green 3.6 million hectares on 4% of the territory through remediation techniques such as assisted natural regeneration and the planting of two tree species particularly resistant to drought: Bauhinia rufescens and Senegalia Senegal.

A Nigerien woman watering her garden. Photo: Usaid

One problem that afflicts the Nigerien agricultural sector is the lack of control, information, and sensitivity. The state does not have the resources to control the markets for plant protection products. As the Niger Chamber of Agriculture Network (RECA-Niger) declares, across the country, there are many products not approved by the Sahelian Pesticides Committee (CSP) and many fake products whose labels closely mimic those of approved products. “Many of them are highly toxic”, says Adamou Haougui, a researcher at the National Agricultural Research Institute of Niger (INRAN) and a member of the CSP. “An example of this are products based on organophosphates. We find them in all eight regions of the country, and they are a real risk to people’s health”. Unapproved products are priced lower than approved ones, which attracts customers. All of these products require a minimum of knowledge and awareness for their use and, again, the Nigerien state does not have the ability to impose this requirement.
Once again, the Nigerien state does not have the capacity to take charge of the situation. A study published in 2018 showed that Nigerien farmers far exceed the recommended doses of pesticides and fertilizers. They treat crops too frequently and rarely respect carry-over time, which is the recommended period of time from the last treatment to harvest. All this has serious consequences for the health of people – exposed to all types of poisonous and carcinogenic products – and for the environment, which is irreparably degraded and polluted.

Hopes for change
One thing to keep in mind is the rural exodus. Life in much of the country can be extremely hard and young people often decide to move to cities, where there are more career opportunities. Niamey is the main urban centre and, as such, attracts thousands of citizens every year. In 2020, the city’s growth rate was 3.22% and is expected to reach 5.25% annually by 2030. As a result, the city is home, among others, to the country’s most educated young people, many of whom have obtained masters and doctorates from the best universities in West Africa.
Given the importance of agriculture in Niger – and in countries throughout the region – and the challenge represented by such a technically and technologically underdeveloped sector, agronomy is, after health subjects, the most studied degree, followed by those  related to the environment.
As a result, more and more young Nigeriens see agriculture and the environment as a good way to earn a living and to offer sustainable solutions to their continent’s serious food and climate crisis.

Fruit tree nursery in the commune of Bande, Zinder, Niger. Photo: B Traore, ICRISAT

Abdoul-Kader Issoufou is one of them. This young entrepreneur founded the Agri’Innov’Inspire company in 2016 after two years of specialization at the Shongaï Center in Porto Novo (Benin), a point of reference in the training of young people in organic production techniques on the continent. “Agri’Innov’Inspire is a research, incubation and training centre in the agri-food sector, but our ultimate goal is to create a great agroecological training school in Niger, to give the new generations the opportunity to become trained farmers, which this country urgently needs”, explains Abdoul-Kader Issoufou. His company attracts more and more interested organizations for the quality of his work.
Kadidiatou Souley Yéro holds a PhD in geography and works at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD); she worked on the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to study the causes, predict desertification, and take corrective measures. At the end of 2021, Souley Yéro created a small organization called Terroir d’Ici (our land) and started a reforestation project of very specific areas with endemic wood species to provide food and income. “We have an infinite number of local plant resources that, in addition to improving our soils, can be used to obtain food and economic benefits. We work with the local population to choose the most interesting plants”.

Many initiatives are emerging in Niger to respond to local and regional challenges, but good ideas and training are not everything, and local entrepreneurs face a big problem: getting funding. There are several ways of financing: on the one hand, there is the government, whose support is almost non-existent; on the other hand, there are the banks. They offer loans, yes, but at such high interest rates that few venture to apply for them. Finally, another source of funding is represented by international development organizations, such as NGOs, whose attention is increasingly directed to this type of entrepreneurial initiative, but whose strategies are very rigid and are based on a predefined terrain, leaving little room for manoeuvre. This is a common cause of the failure of their interventions. (Open Photo: Carlos Nombela)
Carlos Nombela

Turkey and the earthquake: what are its implications for the future?

Between the night and early afternoon of Monday 6 February, two violent earthquakes struck south-eastern Turkey and north-western Syria, causing what Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the greatest disaster recorded in the Country since 1939, the year in which the earthquake in Erzincan killed about 33,000 people and injured more than 100,000.

The two tremors, respectively of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 and with their epicentres in the cities of Gaziantep and Kahramanmaraş, in southern Turkey, were followed by over 100 aftershocks, also felt in Lebanon, Israel and Cyprus. After 24 hours, the overall toll between Turkey and Syria had already exceeded 8,000 dead, with figures destined to grow (to date, they have exceeded 41,000 victims).

In the tragic nature of the event and despite the constantly changing weather, it is already possible to wonder about the consequences of the earthquake in the political landscape of the two countries. This is especially true for the Turkish context, which is preparing for parliamentary and presidential elections in the coming months.

The first doubts arise about maintaining the election date, currently set for May 14th. In addition to the future verification of “stable” physical and territorial conditions in order to be able to follow up on the vote, it is not excluded that Erdoğan may prolong the state of emergency, declared on February 11, to respond to the seismic crisis, with a possible postponement of the electoral round at a new date yet to be determined.

This choice could be consequential to the management of the crisis by the Turkish government. Since the first shock on the night of February 6, the Ankara government immediately took charge of the emergency at a national level, mobilizing rescue teams with a contingent
of 3,500 soldiers attached.

At the same time, President Erdoğan welcomed the immediate international aid promised by over 50 countries, to which were added the mobilisations of the “Tarikat”, charities and Islamic brotherhoods that support the Islamic party, and the President’s decision to declare seven days of national mourning.

This proactive and “inclusive” emergency response certainly highlights the current government administration, also possibly triggers a sense of national solidarity under the guidance of Erdoğan and strengthens his leadership. Furthermore, this interventionism stands in total contrast to what happened following the huge earthquake in north-western Turkey in 1999, where the army, an important component of the power structure of the time, first mobilized to rescue its own ranks, without intervening conscientiously in a situation that caused the death
of more than 20,000 people.

The government response this time, while mindful of the tragic event of 1999, has however been much criticized internally both for the slowness of the relief interventions and for the lack of a political response in the prevention of disasters and the development of adequate emergency services to be adopted in such situations.

In light of these elements, as underlined from the very first hours by many observers, the seismic event could also have a decisive impact in the next electoral round. In particular, it is presumable to hypothesize that several factors will complicate, rather than facilitate, the stability of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the coming months.

In continuity with the 1999 earthquake, there will be many inquiries into “responsibility” for what happened, looking at building codes and safety standards. Although Turkey approved anti-seismic legislation in 2018, many public contracts in the country have been awarded to companies managed by figures close to the President often accused of involvement in corruption and systematic nepotism.

A first element that would endanger Erdoğan’s credibility and which could, on the contrary, work in favour of the opposition, especially that of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and long-time critic of corruption in the Turkish national procurement system.

Not surprisingly, the earthquake has weakened the country in a period of already complicated government management. Turkey is facing its worst economic crisis since Erdoğan and his AKP came to power in 2002, with annual inflation above 84%, a depreciation of the lira by 30% against the dollar last year and a deficit which reaches almost 5% of GDP.

Elements which, in conjunction with the rise in energy prices and basic necessities caused by the war between Russia and Ukraine, have dented the President’s popularity and consensus regarding the work of his party, which has dropped to 31% against 42.56% in 2018 according
to the MetroPOLL agency.

While remaining firm in his controversial position on interest rates – according to which low rates help to fight inflation – in recent months the President has focused on spending to try to revitalize the economy, promising an increase in the salaries of civil servants, raising pensions by 30%, offering early retirement to 2.3 million workers and
increasing energy subsidies.

Added to this is a January increase in the minimum wage of up to 55% compared to July 2022 to bring it to 8,500 Turkish lire (about 425 euros), together with the promise to build half a million houses
for low-income families.

In continuity with this internal “welfare” policy, some international political decisions must also be seen, such as the strategic will to seek new détente with the Gulf countries, above all the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, so as to allow new economic-commercial agreements and the possibility of income. These choices, together with the mediation role assumed by Turkey in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, have had the first positive implications for Erdoğan’s figure internally, but they may not be sufficient in post-earthquake times.

Ankara’s rapprochement with the Gulf countries may have encouraged the latter to intervene to help the Turkish earthquake victims with various emergency interventions, but such aid can do very little to mitigate the colossal effects of the earthquake.

Like a large part of the international community, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have in fact promised a substantial package of funds to both Turkey and Syria (which reaches 50 million dollars for each of the two countries from the UAE alone), together with various humanitarian emergency interventions such as the establishment of air bridges and field hospitals, urgent relief supplies and the deployment of search and rescue task forces.

However, this does not limit the difficulties and structural criticalities in providing assistance both in the short term – given the complexity of reaching the sites hit by the earthquake, isolated even more by the collapse of roads and damage to connections – and in the long term, where inevitably such measures would not be sufficient.

The legacy of the earthquake could increase popular resentment caused by the country’s economic woes, with a possible exacerbation of other thorny social issues, first and foremost that of Syrian refugees. The growing hostility of public opinion towards the presence of almost 4 million Syrian refugees residing in Turkey prompted the President to announce, on March 2022, a comprehensive plan for the “voluntary return” of 1.5 million Syrian refugees to northern areas of Syria under Turkish control, over a period of 15-20 months and
on the basis of 8 sequential steps.

However, the earthquake also destroyed a good portion of the Syrian territory contemplated in Erdoğan’s repatriation plan, thus making it much more difficult, if not impossible, to implement Ankara’s plan in the short term. Neither must we forget the fact that it could now be difficult for the Turkish government to justify any diversion of funds to northern Syria occupied by Turkey, as well as to continue with the intention of launching a new military operation, threatened after the attack in Istanbul last November, in the areas north-eastern parts of Syria controlled by the Kurds, a further element that seemed to be able to help Erdoğan in recovering internal consensus.

Consequently, the repercussions of the earthquake of recent days will make the Turkish pre-election political climate even more tortuous, further complicating the position of Erdoğan and his AKP on the internal chessboard. Post-earthquake management will therefore be crucial for the President for the future of his political stability, already shaky due to the difficult economic conditions of the country.

The coming days will reveal how much Erdoğan will still be able to turn adversity to his advantage and how much leadership and authority he enjoys in being able to demonstrate his political strength to the Turks. Some have seen, in fact, in the President’s choice to inform Meral Aksener, leader of the nationalist opposition Good Party, rather than Kilicdaroglu, of the management of the relief, a first attempt to use the crisis to sow further division in the oppositions currently in dialogue in the so-called ” Table of Six”, a forum that brings together the main opposition parties.

Aksener has never denied his lack of acquiescence in Kilicdaroglu’s candidacy and collaboration with the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), whose support is essential for the victory of the opposition. All elements that Erdoğan could now create leverage in his favour, but which may not be enough to deal with the scale of the earthquake tragedy. (Photo: EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid)

Angela Ziccardi/CeSI

Yvette Mushigo, Breaking the Silence.

The Congolese activist and jurist Yvette Mushigo is the coordinator of the Synergie des Femmes pour la Paix et la Réconciliation (SPR), a network of associations operating in Bukavu (DRC) for women to know and claim their rights.

“There are many types of violence that are perpetrated against women. From discrimination in employment and sexual exploitation in the mines to homelessness and rape by armed groups, through the lack of border protection or sufficient food security to raise children”, says lawyer Yvette Mushigo.

Almost a decade ago, some European organizations in collaboration with Congolese institutions launched the Femme Au Fone (FAF, which means ‘woman on the phone’) project. The approach was as simple as it was effective. When a woman was subjected to or witnessed some kind of assault, she would send an SMS message on her cell phone to report it.

The project envisaged a computer program to process and monitor the information and a weekly radio program in which the violence reported in the first person was analysed, as well as the reactions of the listeners in making them public.

For two years, FAF established the basis for systematic violence against women to cease to be normal. “Women practise the principle of listening, something therapeutic. When they say it, they realize that they are not the only ones who have suffered violence”, says Yvette Mushigo.

Once the silence is broken, they know they must achieve financial independence to get out of the vulnerability in which they are trapped. Due to the high unemployment in the area, there are cases where the support of the family falls on the woman.

“It is a woman’s right to inherit, to work, to access health care… This is the advocacy work we do because the authorities have an obligation to provide it. I have turned towards social justice to provide women with knowledge and preventive tools so that they do not find themselves in unjust situations that are difficult to reverse”.

The DR Congo is one of the richest countries on the continent in terms of mineral resources, yet nearly 70% of its population lives below the poverty line. In the east of the country, the difficulties of survival are multiplied by the armed conflicts that have been affecting
the region for decades.

Mushigo points out that “in a patriarchal system that has always considered women in the background, teaching women their rights is seen as a provocation. Men consider it a threat to their authority in the place they occupy, that women should have their same rights”, and adds that women are even seen as “coercion due to their stability and that we can revolutionize society. But the authorities have an obligation to respond and ensure our safety by applying the laws”.

The Synergie des Femmes pour la Paix et la Réconciliation (SPR) network, involved in the FAF project from the outset, brings together 37 human rights organizations from Eastern DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi. Created in 2005, it uses the potential of women in the region to promote their rights and leadership and also contributes to peace-building.

Throughout this time, they have verified positive results in both women and young people from the cities of the Great Lakes, among which they confirm the existence of positive masculinity. Every year they organize a meeting, known as ‘Field of Peace’, to share the difficulties and situations of violence they experience in their places of origin, present possible solutions and feel part of a common struggle.

“You have to show men and women that when they are in good conditions everyone wins, which also allows men to avoid that violence to which they are subjected psychologically and economically from the social environment”, explains Mushigo.

The lawyer is convinced that training in women’s rights must be carried out in a mixed way to advance in coexistence with common values.

Yvette Mushigo has two brothers and five sisters, all of whom are college graduates and have similar access to career opportunities and personal development. She shares with her father, a teacher, the pride of working in the SPR. In her house, with her three daughters and her eldest son, gender equality is a reality.

“We are committed to internalizing principles such as the distribution of household chores. My son makes his little sister do her homework. He also does the cooking when I travel. He knows that he will receive the same inheritance as his sisters. All my children have the same privileges”.

The ‘impossible women’ of the SPR – as they are sometimes called due to their efforts to change what is consolidated – are the protagonists of a collective effort in which the community, made up of people with different realities and needs, is in a privileged place. They have experienced the extent of their strength and are unwilling
to relinquish their power.

Fibla García-Sala

China. Matteo Ricci: the Dialogue of Friendship with the Celestial Empire.

The father of the Chinese Church has been declared venerable by Pope Francis. The great Jesuit from Macerata (Italy)  brought the Gospel to China through friendship and cultural and scientific dialogue.

“For me, China has always been a benchmark of greatness. A great country. But more than a country, a great culture with inexhaustible wisdom. As a child, when I read something about China and this had the ability to inspire admiration in me. I admire China. Later, I delved into Matteo Ricci’s life and saw how that man felt the same thing I felt and in the exact same way – admiration, and how he managed to enter into dialogue with this great culture, with this age-old wisdom”. Words of Pope Francis in an interview with Asia Times (February 2, 2016).

The Great Wall begins in the east at Shanhaiguan in Hebei province and ends at Jiayuguan in Gansu province to the west.

And this was the gift which on 17 December 2022, his 86th birthday, Francis – who never hid that his first desire as a Jesuit was to go on a mission to China – gave to the Church in China and to all those, and there are many, who awaited in hope, an important gift: during the hearing granted to Card. Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the dicastery for the causes of saints, “He authorized the same dicastery to promulgate the decree concerning the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Matteo Ricci, a professed priest of the Society of Jesus; born on October 6, 1552, in Macerata (Italy) and died on May 11, 1610, in Beijing (China)”. The father of the Chinese Church, known in China as Lì Mădòu, a great scientist, the ‘sage of the West’, is therefore ‘Venerable’. (Venerable means that the Catholic Church recognizes the ‘heroic virtues’ of the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci. This is a fundamental stage in the road that leads to beatification.)
Matteo Ricci was a pioneer of the encounter between China and Europe. His missionary story can be read as a progressive ‘ascent’ to the capital, Beijing, starting from that first missionary residence in Zhaoqing, near Canton, where on 10 September 1583 he had first set foot in China.

Chinese characters. Matteo Ricci was a pioneer of the encounter between China and Europe. Photo: Pixabay

He reached Beijing on 24 January 1601; he was 48 years old and had been in the country for 18. In the capital of the celestial empire, he had been preceded by his fame as a man of science and letters.
Many doctors and teachers, philosophers and astrologers wanted to meet him. And many Chinese, especially mandarins, accepted the Gospel and asked for baptism.
Welcomed to the forbidden city for his scientific and cultural knowledge, he found confirmation of his method of apostolate which was none other than the missionary strategy of the Jesuits. He was convinced that if the elite, including the emperor and the court, had adhered to Christianity, the entire Chinese people would have converted. The chronicles tell that in the delirium that preceded his death, he spoke of a mission, mentioning the conversion of the emperor who had welcomed him, but who had never agreed to meet him.

Like Paul of Tarsus
There are those who, rightly, have compared Ricci to the missionary Paul of Tarsus. Like the ‘apostle’ Paul, the Jesuit suffered and gave all of himself for the proclamation of the gospel which was his reason for being in China. He created Christian communities, adapting methods and strategies to acquisitions resulting from experience, and so also from errors and failures.
Neither Ricci nor Paolo aimed to baptize the first person they met on their way. Paul even boasts that he does not baptize (see 1 Cor 1:14.17). Rather, they aimed at creating solid, self-sufficient communities of disciples of the Master of Nazareth, capable of expanding by creating opportunities for evangelization. Communities located in urban centres rather than in small communities or in the countryside.

Fan pattern Chinese style handicrafts gift. Photo: Pixabay

Ricci was not spared criticism which even went so far as to reproach him for disguising the religious nature of his mission under the guise of a scientist, and the Christocentric character of Christianity: to speak of God, but not of Christ, who died and rose again. But his only will was to proclaim the gospel starting from Chinese culture. Ricci represents a turning point in the knowledge of China and interreligious dialogue. His example has broken the boundaries between worlds separated by a great distance that he, in his spiritual and cultural journey, tried to bridge through a new way of evangelizing. He had the intuition that in order to carry out his mission, friendship was fundamental, which alone could allow him to fully understand Chinese culture, its customs and traditions. This is how in 1595, after a series of failures that threw him into a state of ‘melancholy’, as he himself pointed out, he decided to write his first book in Chinese (which he had learned perfectly).

Ricci’s grave in Beijing’s Zhalan Cemetery. CC BY-SA 4.0/Markringo

The title says it all: Jiaoyou lun, De Amicitia (Friendship) in which Chinese and Western wisdom intertwine, fully revealing the ideal of cultural communion that he had in mind. De Amicitia was his missionary manifesto.
‘Friendship is in fact a Confucian virtue: the fifth of the five social relationships, but the only one based on freedom – writes sinologist, historian, and theologian Gianni Criveller in AsiaNews. The Christian humanist Ricci appreciated friendship as an evangelical and humanistic value, and it was precisely around this common value that he built a network of friends that allowed him to found Christian communities in five important cities in China’. Ricci’s desire to create a deep friendship with the intellectuals of the Ming dynasty was great. He believed in the existential power of dialogue which transforms the soul of the person, even if it involves suffering, loneliness, and dedication.

Being listened to
Ricci made this radical change in his method after a fifteen-year presence in China, in the mid-1590s. Coming to the difficult choice of changing his clothes (from the dress of Buddhist monks to the silk one of Confucian scholars) and his manners (from a shaved head to a beard and hair down to his ears, but not his nails, as he should have) to live like a man of letters. He abandoned Buddhism to enhance the relationship between Confucianism and Christianity; for him, many passages of the classical Chinese texts were compatible with Christian teaching. This is how he placed himself, day after day, listening to a millenary culture, welcoming it in order to be welcomed in turn
and to be listened to.

“Ricci appreciated friendship as an evangelical and humanistic value”. Photo: Pixabay

A clear example of friendship is that with the great scholar Xú Guāngqĭ who will be baptized with the name of Paul. The bond with Paul was essential, not only to increase his popularity within the court in Beijing but also to reflect on the very importance of the feeling of friendship. The method, today known as inculturation, is absolutely central to understanding how much the feeling of friendship affects the possibility of converting others and, at the same time, of understanding them in a sincere and pure way. It was not easy for Ricci either, always aware of the difficulties of preaching in the celestial empire, convinced that the method required gradualness and prudence (many articles of faith were difficult to accept for those who came from such different traditions) as well as great suffering and humiliation. This strengthened his conviction that shrewd and cautious friendship with the literati was the fundamental key to the dialogue between Christianity and Confucianism. Only by studying the customs of the men of letters, their traditions and their philosophy was it possible to achieve conversion, that is to transform or change the soul of the men of letters.

Venerable Ricci gives hope for the future of the Christian faith in the land of the middle empire. Photo: Pixabay

But Ricci, too, had to change, overturn his own existence and turn towards Chinese traditions, maintaining, in his heart, the idea of reconciliation and dialogue with the other. Inculturation, therefore, is a dream, a vision, in which friendship represents the link between distant worlds, between different men who, following different paths, can reach the same goal. In Beijing, on imperial soil, Ricci was buried at the end of a life that had seen him as a missionary in China for 28 years: the only foreigner to whom the emperor granted this privilege. Today the Jesuit from Macerata, included in China’s high school textbooks, is remembered in the Millennium Museum, together with Marco Polo, as an important foreigner in the country’s history. But Ricci was above all a missionary and the communities he founded have preserved and transmitted the faith and, despite persecutions and difficulties of all kinds, are still present among the people of China. The Catholic faithful of that country knows this well. Venerable Ricci gives hope for the future of the Christian faith in the land of the middle empire. (Open Photo: 123 rf. – Matteo Ricci. The father of the Chinese Church. (Jesuits Archive)

Elio Boscaini

Kenya. ‘Making Our Dreams Come True’.

In northern Kenya, in the Samburu region, many young girls are married off to adult men at an early age against their will.
A Centre run by nuns welcomes them to give them dignity
and a possible future.

Nothing made Lilian suspect that her childhood would abruptly end that day. Returning from school, she saw some women near her house preparing food. As she neared her home, she could see people she had never seen before. Too late, the 11-year-old realized that the guests had come for her. That same day, her parents had married her to a man. In return, his family would receive three cows, ten goats and some money. From now on, that forty-year-old stranger would be her husband.Shortly after, the man and his friends took her
to his village and kept her at his mother’s house.
After four weeks, the girl was supposed to move in with him. But Lilian didn’t want to and ran away at the first opportunity.

Men from the tribe of Samburu in Kenya. 123rf.com

For generations, the Samburu people, closely related to the Maasai, have lived in northern Kenya. It is a tradition among the Samburu semi-nomadic shepherds who live in the North, to marry ten-to-twelve-year-old girls to adult men.In return, the men pay a price to the girl’s family in the form of animals and money. “The girls have no say in the matter. They are treated as bargaining chips”, says Sister Teresa Nduku of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Nyeri (also known as Missionary Sisters of Mary Immaculate).The nun runs an Early Marriage Rescue Mission Centre in the small town of Suguta Marmar, in the Samburu region. It borders the Samburu National Park.Officially, marriage to minors is prohibited in Kenya. But many Samburu don’t care about the law. For them,
tradition is much stronger.

Sister Teresa Nduku at Mary Immaculate Girl Child Rescue Centre in Suguta Mar-Mar, Samburu County. (Photo: Evans Habil/Nation Media Group).

At school, Lilian had heard about the Centre. On the run from her ‘husband’ she decided to head for the Suguta Marmar Centre, a full day’s walk and a dangerous road due to the presence of wild animals. In the evening she finally reached the Centre, completely exhausted but relieved. At the moment, there are 62 girls fleeing forced marriages who have found hospitality in the Centre. The nuns take care of the girls and organize their schooling and provide them with therapeutic support. “The girls who come to us are often traumatized and heartbroken”, explains Sister Teresa, who is trained as a teacher and therapist. She also holds a BA in ‘Rights, Equality and Protection of Children’ from the Catholic University of East Africa. “When we work with them, they start to develop and become confident girls”, says the nun.
A group of girls sit under a tree on a stone bench and prepare lunch. Lilian is also helping. She has been living at the Centre now for a few months. But the dangers are always there outside the door. Meanwhile, thanks to Sr. Teresa she was able to reconcile with her family. Lilian’s brother Lthau-sen has promised her to return the bride price to her ‘husband’. Lilian’s dad has been dead for a few months and her brother wants her to finish school. He wants her to have a better life than his.

Village and houses of the Samburu tribe in Kenya. ©hecke/123RF.COM

In the meantime, however, Lilian’s ‘husband’ does not give up. Lilian is his property. He wants her back.Twice he had Lilian kidnapped. The first time he sent some young Samburu. They entered at night and dragged her off with them. The next morning, Sister Teresa, Lilian’s mother, her brother, and the police started looking for the girl. Lilian succeeded in escaping her captors after a few days. She managed to warn Sister Teresa and her brother. He joined her first and watched over her until the nun could pick her up. Later, Sr. Teresa decided to sleep at the Centre. “I decided to do this …. to ensure their safety,” explains Sister Teresa. “I also alerted police officers and asked them to stand guard near the Centre”.  But all the precautions did not help.
A few months later, some young men ambushed Lilian on her way home from school and dragged her away with them. Again, Sister Teresa informed the police. After a few days, an officer contacted her and told her that Lilian was safe and in police custody, 200 kilometres from the protection Centre. She had managed to escape again.

Sister Teresa Nduku, speaks to girls who were rescued from early marriages. (Photo: Evans Habil/Nation Media Group)

A stranger had found her weak and hungry by the side of the road and had taken her to the police station. “He was a good Samaritan”, says Sister Teresa. She immediately set off to fetch the girl.Lilian isn’t the only one in danger. Two other girls were also taken from the shelter. For this reason, Sister Teresa wants to build an electric fence around the buildings and the garden to keep away wild animals and kidnappers. “Girls really want to live in peace and in security”, says the nun.Lilian is very upset by the events. But her desire to go to school remains unaffected even after her ‘husband’s’ kidnapping attempts. “I want to go to a boarding school in another part of Kenya,” she says, “away from here where ‘he’ can’t find me.” Sister Teresa would be delighted to grant this wish.Sarah was luckier than Lilian. The 15-year-old no longer has to worry about her safety. She had been married off at the age of eleven. The chosen ‘husband’ was a man of fifty! During the wedding preparations, it was Sarah’s brother Franklin who intervened. He took his sister to the police. The family was sentenced to a heavy fine. But Sarah’s brother does not regret his intervention.
“In the eyes of the elders, I broke a taboo. Afterwards, I had to hide for some time”, Franklin says. “But I went to school. I know that education can change your life. I want my sister to have that chance too. I want her to get a good job. One day she will shame those who are against us today”. Today Sarah lives in the reception Centre. Thanks to the mediation of Sister Teresa, she was reconciled with her parents. Her family was able to repay the bride price and now allows her to go to school.At school, many of the girls at the Centre are among the best. “These girls are very smart”, Sister Teresa says, and you can tell how proud she is. Since its foundation in 2002, 450 girls have found refuge in the facility. Some have undergone professional training. They work as policewomen or teachers or have started their own businesses.

Sister Roseline Lenguris is the first and only Samburu of h Sisters of Mary Immaculate of Nyeri. order. (Photo: Evans Habil/Nation Media Group)

Sister Roseline Lenguris is the first and only Samburu of her order. As a girl, she refused to marry and joined the order. The village elders, therefore, expelled her from the community. But Sister Roseline did not let herself be dissuaded from her path. After years of being ostracized by her village, today the community respects her.
The girls at the protection Centre admire Sister Roseline. When she comes to the Centre, they want to meet her. They are especially proud of a poem written by one of them: ‘We! Yes! Survivors of child marriage and genital mutilation. We want to change our community. Let girls get an education. We are girls with a vision! Help us make our dreams come true’. And they all have dreams. Sarah wants to be a surgeon when she grows up. Lilian wants to become ‘a nun like Sister Teresa’ and teach at a school. After a short pause, she adds “I, too, want to help many girls to be themselves and to choose their future by fulfilling their dreams”. (Open Photo: Young African girls from the Samburu tribe. 123rf.com)

Bettina Tiburzy/Kontinente

 

 

Books. Spring Reading.

Three interesting books for this spring.

The modern world is built on commodities – from the oil that fuels our cars to the metals that power our smartphones. We rarely stop to consider where they come from. But we should.
In “The World for Sale”, two leading journalists Javier Blas and Jack Farchy lift the lid on one of the least scrutinised corners of the economy: the workings of the billionaire commodity traders who buy, hoard and sell the earth’s resources.

It is the story of how a handful of swashbuckling businessmen became indispensable cogs in global markets: enabling an enormous expansion in international trade, and connecting resource-rich countries – no matter how corrupt or war-torn – with the world’s financial centres.
And it is the story of how some traders acquired untold political power, right under the noses of Western regulators and politicians – helping Saddam Hussein to sell his oil, fuelling the Libyan rebel army during the Arab Spring, and funnelling cash to Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin in spite of strict sanctions. The result is an eye-opening tour through the wildest frontiers of the global economy, as well as a revelatory guide to how capitalism really works.
Javier Blas and Jack Farchy are journalists at Bloomberg, where Blas is a columnist specialising in energy and commodities while Farchy is a senior report covering natural resource.
The World For Sale, Money, Power nad the Traders Who Barter the Earth’s Resouces,Javier Blas & Jack Farchy, Penguin Books, 2022, London, 410 pages.

The history of the last half-century in America, Europe, and other major economies is in large part the story of wealth flowing upward. The most affluent people emerged from capitalism’s triumph in the Cold War to loot the peace, depriving governments of the resources needed to serve their people, and leaving them tragically unprepared for the worst pandemic in a century.
Drawing on decades of experience covering the global economy, award-winning journalist Peter S. Goodman profiles five representatives “Davos Men” – members of the billionaire class – chronicling how their shocking exploitation of the global pandemic has hastened a fifty-year trend of wealth centralization.

Alongside this reporting, Goodman delivers textured portraits of those caught in Davos Man’s wake, including a former steelworker in the American Midwest, a Bangladeshi migrant in Qatar, a Seattle doctor on the front lines of the fight against COVID, blue-collar workers in the tenements of Buenos Aires, an African immigrant in Sweden, a textile manufacturer in Italy, an Amazon warehouse employee in New York City, and more.
Goodman’s revelatory exposé of the global billionaire class reveals their hidden impact on nearly every aspect of modern society: widening wealth inequality, the rise of anti-democratic nationalism, the shrinking opportunity to earn a livable wage, the vulnerabilities of our health-care systems, access to affordable housing, unequal taxation, and even the quality of the shirt on your back. Meticulously reported yet compulsively readable, Davos Man is an essential read for anyone concerned about economic justice, the capacity of societies to grapple with their greatest challenges, and the sanctity of representative government.
Peter S. Goodman is the Global Economics Correspondent for the New York Times, based in London.
How The Billionaires Devouted The World, Peter S. Goodman, Custom House, 2022, New York, 472 pages.

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 War in Ukraine, a global hunger crisis, the West’s cost of living crisis – the eruptions of 2022 were all too predictable. In Price Wars, Rupert Russell lays out just how these crises are connected and how many such events plunged the 2010s into a decade of turmoil.
Entering the eye of the storm – from the trenches of Russian separatist-controlled Donbas to bomb disposal squads in Mosul to cattle raiders in Kenya – Russell discovers a butterfly effect of chaos in the real world being driven by chaos in the commodities markets.

The price of food and oil has the power to bankroll foreign invasions, plunge continents into poverty and spark revolutions, civil wars and refugee crises. And these prices, whistle-blowing hedge fund managers and Nobel Prize winners told him, have become irrational. In this thrilling expose of the dark financial forces that rule our world, Russell takes us on adventure into the inner workings of global disorder unlike any other.
Rupert Russell is a writer and filmmaker. He has filmed in twenty countries and made two award-winning documentaries. He has a PhD in Sociology from Harvard and has published in the Independent, Dazed and Salon. Price Wars is his first book. (Open Photo: 123rf)
Price Wars, How Chaotic Markets Are Creating a Chaotic World, Rupert Russell, Orion Publishing Co, 2023, London, 340 pages.

Japan and the Philippines Closer to Responding to China.

The two countries are preparing to increase cooperation in the military and strategic fields. Both countries share the same concerns about China and have unresolved territorial disputes with Beijing.

 For the first time since 1945, the Japanese Air Force participated in the military exercises of the Army of the Philippines which were held from November 27 to December 11. Tokyo Air Force General Izutsu Shunji stressed the importance of Japanese pilots participating in Philippine Air Force manoeuvres to enhance Japanese defence capabilities, while Connor Anthony Canlas, Commander-in-Chief Air Force Manila expressed his satisfaction, welcoming the two Japanese F-15s that took part in the war simulations for two weeks, emphasizing that Japan and the Philippines are now allies. An alliance in fact and certainly not accidental, considering how the Philippines were occupied by the Japanese during the Second World War, suffering the violence of the imperial troops who aimed to exploit the resources of the archipelago (primarily oil) to establish the Greater Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.

A Japan Air Self Defense Force F-15. CC BY-SA 4.0/ Angelique Perez

Dreams of imperialist greatness vanished and were relegated to history books in favour of decidedly more modern needs: China and its expansion in the Pacific.However, Japan and the Philippines are not only united by alignment with Washington and a common sense of insecurity deriving from Chinese ambitions to oust the United States from the Pacific, but also by territorial disputes that both countries continue with against Beijing for sovereignty over small islets in the middle of the ocean. Japan is trying to resolve a diplomatic conflict with China over the Senkaku or Diaoyu Islands dossier, in whose waters fishing boats and coastguard vessels from their respective captaincies compete to guarantee access or to prevent it depending on the situation. There have been numerous attempts to resolve the issue, but Japan, which officially has sovereignty over the Islands, has always refused arbitration on the matter. What is certain is that China and Japan could be tempted by the immense reserves of raw materials potentially present under the oceanic crust of the islands rather than by their waters teeming with fish.

Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida

A different bone of contention is that of the Spratly Islands. A different case to that of the Senkaku/Diaoyu because in the case of the Spratly, there is a legal solution. In 2016, the International Court of Arbitration ruled in favour of the Philippines, dismantling Chinese territorial claims to the archipelago. Claims which, however, continue in the face of an unfavourable judgment (not binding in themselves as arbitration, but still an expression of current law): at the time, Xi Jinping declared that Chinese territorial claims would continue despite the sentence and the English-language press linked to the Communist Party of China went so far as to accuse the judges of having passed judgment on political grounds.
The war in Ukraine, with its (more or less exact) comparisons with the situation in Taiwan, prompted Japanese Prime Minister Kishida in recent months to visit various countries in South-East Asia.
In fact, Japan entered into military cooperation with Vietnam in 2021 (another country that perceives China as an uncomfortable neighbour) and with Thailand and Cambodia in 2022.

Senkaku Islands. CC BY-SA 3.0/ BehBeh

The main objective was to consolidate the Japanese role, but also and above all to make Beijing understand that Tokyo’s understanding with the various regional players in the Indo-Pacific is high.
Of all the local countries, however, the Philippines is, in all probability, the one with which Japan has the most understanding on the basis of the respective open fronts with Beijing.In the case of the Philippines, in particular, Beijing has shown that it is willing to override international law to continue on the path of revisionist and potentially aggressive foreign policy. However, it is difficult to say whether and to what extent the alliance of Indo-Pacific countries sharing diplomatic frictions with Beijing will intervene in the event of a direct confrontation with China, especially concerning the ‘hot’ issue of Taiwan. (Open Photo: The Izumo DDH-183, the first ship of the Izumo-class helicopter destroyer (22DDH) of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (Izumo DDH-183). CC BY 4.0/Kaijō Jieitai)

Enrico Breveglieri

 

 

Uganda. Acholi Marriage. Not before Sunset.

The Acholi people live in Northern Uganda. They have a rich and diverse cultural heritage. Most of it is expressed in a wide variety of rites, dance, and music. We look at Acholi traditional marriage.

Marriage is still one of the biggest ceremonies among the Acholi. Preparing for a traditional marriage among the people of Acholi can take a whole year. Before a marriage can occur, the parties involved in a marriage are supposed to have agreed on the terms of the marriage.
It usually starts when a young man has identified a girl he likes and is ready to marry her.
Though in the past, young men had no say in whom they wanted to marry because their parents would decide on which girl and family he is going to marry; young people were not given any chance for courtship or getting to know each other like it is today.

“The parents of the boy would find a hardworking, well-disciplined young lady. Photo: CC BY-SA 2.0/Rod Waddington

The parents of the boy would find a hardworking, well-disciplined young lady and they would look for the family she comes from. From there they would investigate it to see if the people in the family were well-behaved and hardworking, and if it is what they are looking for, they will contact the girl’s parents and pronounce their intention for the visit.
The girl’s father, brothers and uncles sit together and draft a letter which is referred to as an assessment letter. In this letter a list of things supposed to be presented at the ceremony of the traditional marriage, is indicated. There is no standard bride price among the Acholi as it depends on the family.
Among the items requested, if a boy has had a child with the girl before paying the bride price, he will be requested to pay what they call, luk pa latin or lutino (fine for having child or children with girl before marriage); if he has lived with her before paying the bride price, he will be asked to luk pa nyako (fine for living with the girl without marrying her).
Other requirements include hander kerchief,  ayenya (when the girl stays with a boy without marriage and her parents find her at his home), obal kare (sitting allowance), lapeny dog nyako (acknowledging the groom), luk loducu (fine) a lamp, carton of match box, washing and bathing soap, envelope with money to respect mother of bride, suit for father of bride, chair for father of bride, gomesi (cloth for bride’s mother), sugar, tea leaves, transport fare for relatives from a distance (onyon coro), two goats for paternal aunt, two goats for maternal uncle, money to make mother’s dress, a big sauce pan, goats (depends on family between 10 onward), cows (depending on family from 10 onwards) then money, this also depends on the family.

Preparing for a traditional marriage among the people of Acholi can take a whole year. Photo:123rf

However, a princess’ bride price differs from the ordinary Acholi girl, in addition to what is usually requested, the groom will be required to also bring leopard skin, beads, bangle, a spear, and a shield made from the ears of an elephant or an equivalent in monetary terms.
When the groom’s family receives the assessment letter they will reply stating to the bride’s family when they would visit to bring the bride price. This time they will prepare themselves and make sure they have everything requested for by the bride’s family. When taking the bride price, it is a difficult time for the groom’s entourage unless they have a good negotiator because bride price in Acholi is all about negotiation skills and being humble to your in-laws if you fail to negotiate, and to take what they have requested for you can easily be sent away without the bride. The elders in Acholi say a lady’s bride price does not enter a home before sunset (keny pa nyako pe donyo I gang idye ceng). On D-day, the bride’s family prepares to receive their guests; they cook Acholi traditional dishes which will include dek ngor (shelled and mashed pigeon peas, peanut butter with a sprinkle of shea butter); smoked meat in peanut butter (olel), chicken, boo (cow peas pasted with peanut butter), which will be served with millet meal (kwon kal), sweet potatoes, or cassava. Then there will be a lot of alcohol and other soft drinks.At sunset, when the groom entourage arrives, the number of guests is dictated by the bride’s family. They are welcomed by ululation from wayo (paternal aunt of bride) and songs. When they reach the compound of the bride, they are expected to go into the family house where the negotiation will take place.
All guests in the groom’s entourage will be requested to take off their shoes and get on their knees, as they enter the family house (ot pa maro) while crawling because the Acholi culture dictates that a young man has to show respect to his mother-in-law by crawling in the house. If anyone in the entourage enters the house walking, he will pay a cash fine which will be decided by his in-laws.

Acholi Village in the North of Uganda.

While in the house, the groom’s entourage sits down on mats already prepared for them because they are not yet allowed to sit on the chairs together with the bride’s relatives. Also, they are not expected to look around the house, and they should sit still not to turn around or look up and down lest they will be fined for disrespecting your mother in-law.
While in the house, the bride’s uncles and brothers will be waiting for groom and his people so that the negotiations start, which can go right into the middle of the night or the wee hours of the morning. The bride’s father has no say in this whole ceremony; he sits and just stares as his clan’s men make the decision on his daughter.
The mother of the bride and all the other women in the family will not be present while all these negotiations begin. After greeting the guests they are expected to walk out and only the paternal aunt will be present while these negotiations take place.
Once both sides have agreed and the bride price is paid, the paternal aunt will make a ululation to alert the other members of the family, outside this negotiation, that the bride price has been paid and celebrations can begin.

Acholi Dancers. CC BY-SA 4.0/Bettycath

All the while, the bride only comes to greet the visitors and to acknowledge that she likes the groom and will only return after the bride price is paid.  After the ululation, the entourage gets special treatment, but before the bride price is paid, they are ignored and no one gives them food or water to drink or any snack to eat.
This is the time the bride’s family will boil water for bathing for the groom’s entourage, give them water to drink, food, alcohol, soft drinks, and the merry making will begin. Both sides will come together as a family and will sing and dance together, they will sing songs to mock each other but will dance together and sing together in the mockery.
The merry making will go on for two or three days depending on the family of the bride. If the bride is from a wealthy family and they can entertain the groom’s entourage for more than two days they will go on.  Since the paternal aunt receives a goat, she is expected to prepare food and bring it to the groom’s entourage at the feast.
Lakwena (messenger) is a person who is sent to deliver messages to the groom family and vice versa. He, too, is appreciated with a goat from the groom’s family so he is also supposed to prepare a feast for the groom’s entourage after the feast from the bride’s family. Lakwena is always related to the bride could be an uncle or brother.
After all the feasts the bride will have another ceremony by her family to send her off to her husband’s home where she will be given cooking pots, dishes, and other household utensils to go start a home.

Another interesting culture about the Acholi and marriages is that a man can live with a woman without paying her bride price, but once she dies, her family will not bury her before the man pays him (bride price).
The Acholi traditional marriage is one of the most expensive marriages in Uganda which has sometimes scared away young men grooms because of exorbitant prices.
Today, the cultural institution (Rwot Kaka) in Acholi is working round the clock to see that marriage in Acholi is simplified. The deputy Paramount chief of Acholi stated that they forwarded the by-laws to parliament for guidance to effect punishments if someone disobeys the law.
According to the by-laws one will be required to present a lamp, litre of paraffin, laundry and bar soap, a carton of match box, a saucepan (nyal ber) stool and suit for the father-in-law, a gomesi for mother-in-law and cigarettes. Other items will include a goat for uncle, paternal aunt, another for preparing a marital home. Other requirements include facilitation for marriage committee, six goats and six cows for dowry bride price or an equivalent in money.
For a woman from a royal family, a groom will be requested to present a leopard skin, bangle, and beads and if an abnormal birth, the groom is expected to present a sheep and white hen for rituals.

Irene Lamun

DR Congo. Pope Francis. “Hands off Africa!”

“Africa: it is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be plundered”, says Pope Francis. And he invites the church to be close to the people with compassion, consolation and reconciliation. No scheming or compromises with power. “We must raise our voices for the people and for justice.” From Kinshasa, Celin Avil reports.

From the plane, Pope Francis can see the expanses of sheet metal shacks that surround Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which with its 15 million inhabitants is one of the largest urban agglomerations on the continent.
The ITA Airways Airbus A350 lands softly at Ndolo airport. The Pope is met by the damp tropical heat and an overcast sky. He is received by representatives of the government and of the local church. After brief greetings, Pope Francis leaves the airport for the Palais de la Nation north of Kinshasa on the banks of the Congo River. Along the way, there are thousands of people on the roofs, bridges and sidewalks.

Arriving at the Palais de la Nation, the Pontiff sits next to the President of the Republic, Félix Tshisekedi. “Welcome”: the Congolese president repeats it five times to the Pope, in French and in the other four national languages of the country, Lingala, Kikongo, Kingwana, Tshiluba. He describes the nation – 26 provinces in which over 450 tribes live – with a rich and harmonious cultural diversity, which has not been “a factor of separation”, but “a ferment for the advent of a land of peace and hospitality, as well as welcoming for the peoples of Africa and the world”. Regretfully, in the last three decades, says the head of State, this “has been undermined by enemies of peace and by terrorist groups, especially from neighbouring countries”, and unfortunately, for almost thirty years, the Democratic Republic of Congo has been tormented by violence, while armed groups, supported by foreign powers interested in the riches of the subsoil, commit cruel atrocities.

Pope Francis with the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Félix Tshisekedi. Photo: Vatican Media.

The head of State affirms that the Congolese people will continue to defend the integrity of their country and that the values of sharing, equity and responsibility can serve as the basis for building a more just and humane society.
Having expressed his thanks, Pope Francis immediately goes to the heart of the problem, recalling how over the decades, exploitation has changed form, from political to economic, leading to the paradox that the fruits of the earth make the country “foreign to its inhabitants”. The pontiff, with a determined gaze, repeats: “Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo, hands off Africa! Enough of oppression. Africa is not a mine to be exploited or a land to be plundered. May Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny! Africa deserves space and attention, respect and listening”.

‘Peace be with you’
The following day, in the large area of Kinshasa’s Ndolo airport, over a million people attended the Pope’s first and only public mass with a liturgy full of joy, dancing and singing.
Pope Francis addressed the faithful with a homily entirely focused on peace and its sources. “In a world discouraged by violence and war, Christians must do as Jesus did. Quite insistently, he repeatedly said to his disciples: ‘Peace be with you!’ and we are called to make our own and tell the world of this unexpected and prophetic announcement of peace”.

Over a million people attended the Pope’s first and only public mass with a liturgy full of joy, dancing and singing. Photo: Vatican Media

The pope recalls the example of Jesus: “He himself shows us three sources of peace, three sources for continuing to nourish it. They are forgiveness, community and mission”. For forgiveness, he says: “He knows your wounds, he knows the wounds of your country, of your people, of your land! They are burning wounds, continually infected by hatred and violence, while the medicine of justice and the balm of hope never seem to arrive. Brother, sister, Jesus suffers with you, he sees the wounds you carry inside and wants to console you and heal you, offering you his wounded Heart…Together today we believe that with Jesus there is always the possibility of being forgiven and starting over, as well as the strength to forgive yourself, others and history!”.
The pope speaks of amnesty of the heart: “May the time be right for you, who carry a heavy burden in your hearts and need to be relieved of it to breathe again” and he invites the faithful to write ‘Peace be with you’ in their rooms, on their clothes and outside their houses. He asks the community to stay together but “not to go ahead alone, seeking power, career, ambitions in society or even in the Church”.
The Congolese Catholic Church continues to be among the most vivacious in Africa, with a growth in the faithful who represent about 33% of the population which is 90% Christian and high Mass attendance, even among young people. And it can count on more than 4,000 diocesan priests and 11,000 religious engaged in the various areas of pastoral care. There is also no shortage of lay activism, with numerous lay associations and movements.

Victims of violence and war in the East
There was a moment full of emotion when meeting with representatives of the victims of the wars in particular from the east of the country, in Ituri, in North and South Kivu.
Hearing the terrible experiences recounted by the victims, Pope Francis’s face became sad and tears came to his eyes. Their stories seem impossible, extreme horror stories.
Francis thanked them for their courage, lamenting how the world is oblivious to all these tragedies.

Villagers going to the local market in Bogoro walk past a Bangladeshi patrol unit of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUC). UN Photo/Martine Perret.

Peace in the country depends on peace in the east. The Pope condemns violence at all levels. Personal and collective violence. He recalls that the causes are internal and external to the nation. His prayer is also for the conversion of the authors of these sad stories. Gun violence is provoked by the lust for possessions for their own sake.
He then addresses the perpetrators of violence and invites them to put an end to the war created and fuelled to enrich some at the expense of the poorest. Enough! Enough! But then, what are we to do? We must say no to violence with no ifs or buts. Hatred and violence are unacceptable, especially for Christians. God is a God of peace. Greed, envy, and resentment are the basis of violence, and they must be eradicated.
What is being asked is the disarming of the heart while maintaining the strength to be indignant in the face of evil and to denounce it. No to discouragement and fear. No more violence, resentment, or simple resignation. Yes, to reconciliation, to forgiveness, because these break the circle of violence.

The bishops, close to the people
Before departing from Ndolo airport, the Pope met the bishops of the 48 Congolese ecclesiastical circumscriptions and thanked them for the days spent in this land which, with its great forests, is the ‘green heart’ of Africa and lungs for the world.
The pope asks for them to be defended against the rapacity of humans. The forest is an image that speaks to our faith: we need to breathe the pure air of the Gospel. The Church is very important in the DRC, but it is also its lungs, breathing for the universal Church.

Pope Francis said to the bishops: “We must raise our voices on behalf of the people and for justice.” Photo: Vatican Media

The pope recalls that bishops are the voice of God who touches people’s wounds. Being close to God brings them close to people with compassion, consolation, and reconciliation.
The Pope also suggests some paths for effective pastoral care: uproot the plants of hatred and selfishness, of rancour and violence; overthrow the altars dedicated to money and corruption; build coexistence based on justice, truth and peace.
Pope Francis concludes: “Announce the Word, denounce evil, awaken consciences and comfort those who are afflicted and without hope. Console the people. Closeness and testimony go hand in hand. Closeness to priests, first of all, to pastoral workers and people to build harmony without putting yourself on a pedestal. No scheming or compromise with power. We must raise our voices on behalf of the people and for justice”. (Open Photo: Along the way, there are thousands of people on the roofs, bridges and sidewalks. Photo: Vatican Media)

 

 

Pope Francis to Congolese Youth.

Looking at the hands with which a different future can be built, Pope Francis suggests “five ingredients for the future”, like the five fingers.

In the stadium of the Martyrs of Kinshasa, 65,000 young Congolese welcome Pope Francis with songs and dances, with such unimaginable joy in a country torn apart by violence and wars. The consequences of conflicts are enormous, especially for young people.

They say as much to the Pope, emphasizing, in their testimonies, that “many of us are forcibly recruited into armed groups. In the country, many young people live in indifference and selfishness, making calculations and programs in their own interest. We want to be young people connected to human and Christian values, but the social media disorient us”. Yet, they want to ‘build a better world’, they want to work, build the Church and Congolese society in justice and reconciliation. And they are asking the Pope to be their spokesperson to the ‘leaders of the world so that they may really take care of young people’.

And Francis, after thanking them for their welcome and the many hands that greeted him, asks them to look at their hands saying: “Do your hands seem small and weak, empty and unsuitable for such great tasks? I would like to point out one thing: all hands are similar, but no two pairs of hands are the same; no one has hands like yours; you are a unique, unrepeatable and incomparable resource. No one in history
can replace you”.

And what are hands for? “To build or to destroy, to give or to hoard, to love or to hate? You see, you can shake your hand and close it; it becomes a fist; or you can open it and make it available to God and to others. Herein lies the fundamental choice”.

Looking at the hands with which a different future can be built, Pope Francis suggests “five ingredients to build the future”, like the five fingers. “The thumb, the finger closest to the heart, corresponds to prayer, which makes life pulsate”, says the Pope. And it’s not an abstract ingredient, but “the fundamental one, because we can’t do it alone.
We are not omnipotent, and when anyone thinks they are, they fail miserably. This is why we must root ourselves in prayer, in listening to the Word of God”.

The second finger, the index finger, is the one with which “we indicate something to others. The others, the community, that’s the second ingredient. Friends, don’t let your youth be marred by loneliness and closure. Always think of yourselves as altogether and you will be happy because the community is the way to feel good about yourself and to be faithful to your call. “

“Instead, individualistic choices seem tempting at first, but then they just leave a big void inside. Think of drugs: you hide from others, from real life, to feel omnipotent; and in the end, you find yourself deprived of everything. But think also of the addiction to occultism and witchcraft, which engulfs you in the pangs of fear, vengeance and anger. Do not allow yourselves to be fascinated by false selfish paradises, built on appearances, on easy money or on distorted religiosity”.

But we must also guard against the temptation to “point the finger at someone else, to exclude them because they are of a different origin from yours such as a different region or tribe, which seem to strengthen you in your group and instead represents the denial of the community. You know how it happens: first, you believe the prejudices against others, then you justify the hatred, then the violence and, in the end, you find yourself in the middle of a war”.

“But  – the Pope wonders – have you ever talked to people from other groups or have you always been closed in yours? Have you ever listened to the stories of others, have you approached their suffering? Of course, it is easier to condemn someone than to understand them; but the way that God indicates to build a better world passes through others, through the whole and through the community. That is how to build up the Church, broaden horizons, see one’s neighbour in everyone
and take care of others.”

“The central finger, the middle finger, which rises above the others as if to remind us of something essential represents, however, honesty. Being a Christian is bearing witness to Christ. Now, the first way to do this is to live righteously, as He wants. This means not letting yourself be entangled in the snares of corruption. The Christian can only be honest, otherwise, he betrays his identity.”

“Without honesty we are not disciples and witnesses of Jesus; we are pagans, idolaters who worship ourselves rather than God, who use others rather than serve them. But – I wonder – how do you defeat the cancer of corruption, which seems to expand and never end? St. Paul helps us, with a simple and ingenious sentence, which you can repeat until you remember it by heart. It is this: ‘Do not let yourself be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good'”.

The Pope appeals to young people not to “let themselves be overcome by evil: do not allow yourselves to be manipulated by individuals or groups who try to use you to keep your country in the spiral of violence and instability, so as to continue to control it without regard for anyone. But conquer evil with good: be the transformers of society, the converters of evil into good, of hatred into love, of war into peace”.

This can be done because “we are free to choose: don’t allow your life to be swept away by false ideas, don’t let yourself be carried away like a dry log in a dirty river. Be indignant, without ever giving in to the flattery, persuasive but poisoned, of the filth of corruption”.

The ring finger, the finger on which wedding rings are worn, is also the weakest finger, “the one that finds it hardest to work”. He reminds us “that the great goals of life, love above all, pass through fragility, hardships and difficulties. They must be faced with patience and trust. In our frailties, in crises, what is the strength that keeps us going?”

“Forgiveness.Because forgiving means knowing how to start over. Forgiving doesn’t mean forgetting the past but not resigning yourself to the fact that it repeats itself. It is to change the course of history. It is to raise those who have fallen. It is accepting the idea that no one is perfect and that not only me, but everyone has the right to be
able to start afresh”.

Finally, the little finger, the smallest one. “You could say: I am little and the good I can do is only a drop in the ocean. But it is precisely littleness, making oneself small that attracts God. There is a keyword in this sense: service. Those who serve make themselves small. Like a tiny seed, it seems to disappear into the earth and instead bears fruit. According to Jesus, service is the power that transforms the world”.

These five tips are like fixed points, like traffic rules without which there is disorder and confusion and time and energy are wasted as anger builds. “On the other hand, even in the midst of confusion, it does us good to give our hearts and lives a fixed point, a stable direction, to start a different future, without chasing the winds of opportunism. Come out together from the pessimism that paralyses. The Democratic Republic of Congo expects a different future from your hands because the future is in your hands. Thanks to you, your country will once again become a fraternal garden, the heart of peace and freedom of Africa!”.  (Open Photo: Vatican Media)

(C.A.)

How Climate Change Affects Girls and Young Women.

Drought, floods, abnormal heat waves. Today we are faced with a climate crisis that is unprecedented in human history, the consequences of which are there for all to see.

It is primarily the inhabitants of the poorest and most vulnerable countries and, more generally, those belonging to the most disadvantaged social groups, especially women, who pay the highest price for this situation. “Compared to men, women and girls are more likely to lose their lives due to extreme weather events. Furthermore, since climate change often leads to forced migration, loss of income and housing, this makes them more vulnerable to gender-based violence”, write researchers Betty Barkha and Katrina Lee-Koo in a paper recently published in The Conversation.
Children and young people also pay a particularly high price for this situation: “Climate change threatens their fundamental right to education, food, and recreation. Given the fact that younger people are less responsible for this situation than adults, climate change has been defined by the Human Rights Council as the gravest intergenerational injustice of our times”.

Climate change threatens the fundamental right to education, food, and recreation. (Photo: Unicef)

Floods, storms, and droughts amplify discrimination and gender inequalities, limiting or preventing girls, especially those living in the poorest countries and in the most vulnerable communities, from attending school. According to a study conducted by the Malala Foundation, in 2021 alone, due to the impacts of climate change, at least 4 million girls in middle and low-income countries were unable to complete their studies. And if there is no turnaround, climate change will be one of the factors that will force at least 12.5 million girls to leave school by 2025.The concrete impact of this situation is dramatic and, in various areas of the world, is already clearly evident. In the two-year period 2010-2011, the United Nations recorded an increase in early marriages in Ethiopia linked to the very severe drought that hit some areas of the country: in order to survive, the poorest families in rural areas gave their daughters in exchange for the payment of a dowry. Between 2018 and 2019 in Somalia, following migration from rural areas to the city due to floods, droughts and conflicts, student enrolment rates dropped from 45% to 29%.

In an increasingly warmer world, it is also more difficult to get supplies of water. (Photo: Unicef/Noorani

In an increasingly warmer world, it is also more difficult to get supplies of water: in many African countries, this task traditionally falls on the shoulders of women and girls, who are forced to undertake longer and longer journeys. In Botswana, 70% of the students who interrupted their studies during a period of drought were female. The lack of water in schools also prevents teenage girls from using the bathroom on menstruation days: not being able to take care of their hygiene properly, they often decide to stay at home, losing precious school days.
Working conditions are also exacerbated by global warming. Esmeralda, 15, lives in a rural area of Peru where the consequences of climate change are already evident. Hers is a peasant family and she is a delegate of the Movimiento Nacional de Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes Trabajadores Organizados del Perú: “We are no longer able to produce as in the past. Due to the consequences of climate change, women and girls have to work harder to support their families”. Esmeralda then explains how the scarcity of water has forced women and girls to go deeper and deeper into the Amazon jungle to find new sources, with the risk of being attacked and suffering violence and rape by men engaged in mining or in the illegal felling of trees.

Photo 123rf

But what do teenagers and young women think of this situation? How aware and informed are they of climate change and its consequences? In the first months of 2022, UNICEF ​​and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts carried out a survey that involved more than 33 thousand girls aged 10 to 25 in 90 countries on all continents.
The results indicate that 3 in 10 (28%) have no clear idea as to what climate change is and 1 in 10 (9%) have never heard of it. On the other hand, the topic excites the majority of respondents: 44% know what climate change is and 19% “could talk about it for hours”.
However, the picture changes slightly if you look more closely at some contexts: in Europe, the percentage of girls and young women who claim to have an excellent knowledge of the subject stands at 28%. In the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, there are many more (17% compared to 9%) who have never heard of climate change.

Taking concrete actions to protect the environment. Unicef/Dejongh

More than half of the girls and young women who participated in the survey (56%) said they were unaware of the disproportionate impact of climate change on the lives of girls and young women. Upon learning, nearly 8 in 10 respondents (79%) believe girls have the power to mitigate the problem.Half of the girls aged 10-17 who participated in the survey think that climate change is not taken as seriously as Covid, a percentage that rises to 63% for women between 18 and 25 years old. Most girls and young women (80%) say they have already done something in favour of the environment, such as participating in awareness campaigns, educating parents and peers, or taking concrete actions to protect it. However, this commitment is not recognized by the institutions: 6 out of 10 girls say that their governments have never consulted youth movements when it came to enacting policies to combat climate change. (Open Photo: Unicef/ Souleiman)

I.Sesana, R.Panuzzo, P.Ferrera
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