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Mexico. Towards a New Phase of Militarization.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

Three years after the establishment of the Guardia Nacional, created for the ‘prevention and fight against crime’, it has not produced the desired results. Violence on the increase. Journalists the first
in the firing line.

Under the presidency of López Obrador, the Guardia Nacional project eventually came into being. The new body was formed by a special presidential executive decree, signed on May 11, 2019, which provided in detail for the resources and personnel necessary to equip the new departments that would be formed. 50,000 men have thus passed from the armed forces and the Policia Federal and the project plans to reach at least 100,000 members of the Guardia Nacional.
The establishment of the Guardia Nacional was presented by the Mexican president as a tool to increase security for ‘the prevention and fight against crime’. In addition, the decree declares that after ‘2024 the armed forces will not deal with public security’.
But in the meantime, the reality is very different from the expected formation of a civil-led public security corps. It happened that the men of the Policia Federal, who passed through the Guardia Nacional, were fewer in number than those of the army.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the inauguration of the National Guard, on June 30, 2019 in Mexico City. (Photo : Mexico government)

And it is precisely the composition of the Guardia Nacional that has brought loud protests from civil society, NGOs, and the independent press since it is, in fact, a military and not a civilian police force. The over-criticized dissolved Policia Federal had, however, taken important steps to improve its functioning and counter the problems of corruption, the violation of human rights, and inefficiency. The tasks assigned to the new security force are very many, with dispersive results as compared to the objectives and resources provided for by the presidential decree, weakening also, in this sense, its impact on the increasingly precarious levels of security in Mexico. One of the first missions/operations was to send a large contingent of the Guardia Nacional to the US-Mexico border to block migrants from Central America, according to agreements made with the administration of Donald Trump. Agreements that were reconfirmed with the Biden administration, under the slogan ‘stay at home’ coined specifically to identify this type of migration policy.

The National Guard’s strength currently stands at about 100,000 troops. (Photo : Mexico government)

In 2021, a similar operation was conducted, by the army this time, on the southern border of Mexico. Along the border with Guatemala, 10,000 soldiers were deployed. As if the toll of daily killings and disappearances were not enough, the Guardia Nacional was also given the task of protecting ports and airports and controlling many road junctions of great importance, expanding their range of action. To date, there has been no improvement in security levels. The modest results show that nothing has changed, but rather worsened. Therefore, observers and analysts agree that the institution has (only) represented a phase of escalation in the process of the militarisation of Mexico. A truly unexpected move with a left-wing presidency, so much desired in the country, a move that shocked public opinion. To Mexican and foreign observers, it represents a de facto militarisation of Mexican states; Lopez Obrador is, therefore, the subject of strong criticism for ceding further room for influence to the armed forces, a level of influence that began to grow with the ominous declaration of the start of the ‘war on drugs’ in 2006. Organised crime and narco-gangs are spreading more and more. The big narco-cartels continue their perennial struggle for control of the plazas; they have infiltrated almost all aspects of the economy and are present in the trade of the famous avocados, the theft of gasoline from pipelines, and in public procurement.

The narcotics militias are organised in hyper-armed paramilitary formations, with self-built armoured vehicles, heavy weapons, and drones capable of launching explosives. The flow of weapons coming from the United States is incessant. Clashes with the military and between rival cartels have reached quasi-civil war levels in recent years. But it is not only the narco-cartels that destroy the lives of Mexicans: the fragmentation generated by these criminal formations has increased their numbers, generating countless criminal gangs dedicated to extortion and kidnapping. The devastating levels of violence are frightening and a dangerous sign that Mexican society seems to have almost become ‘accustomed’ to these constant brutalities, a very serious indicator of social cohesion that is falling apart. The murders are hardly counted and, likewise, the disappearances that are largely equivalent to further brutal murders. A heavy contribution is made by the immobility of justice. Over 90% of crimes are not prosecuted, fuelling distrust of institutions. Complaints of human rights violations are increasing every month, as human rights watch explains in its reports. Civil society resists and tries not to bend to this constant violence. One very important factor is connivance between many of the governors, with their powerful state apparatus behind them, and the drug cartels. Corruption and connivance in these areas represent an enormous problem for Mexico.

Most of guard troops, and all of the top officers, come from the army. (Photo : Mexico government)

Several former governors were later discovered to be instigators of murders, especially of journalists. But in essence, judicial investigations remain unmoved by the many tragic murders of journalists. Last January, 5 journalists were murdered, and one was very seriously injured as further proof of the disarray in the management of security in many Mexican states. Mexican journalists are forced to have armed escorts that are numerically insufficient for the purpose, and forced to put up posters saying ‘Prensa no disparen’ (we are journalists; do not shoot us) thus demonstrating clearly the extreme gravity of the situation. Of the many murders of Mexican journalists, only 5% were prosecuted by the police and judiciary. To date, about 1500 journalists come under the protection program, with an escort assigned to them. However, the ruthless hitmen have no scruples and thousands of information professionals are still without protection.

Marco Leofrigio

African Alphabets. A Great Cultural Heritage.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

Africa is probably the place in the world where oral tradition has had the greatest influence on the preservation and transmission of knowledge. The continent has a long tradition of writing which, in some places, has led its inhabitants to develop complex alphabets and ideograms, some of which have been created in recent times.

Egyptian hieroglyphs, called medu neter (words of God), are undoubtedly the best-known African writing system. It is an elaborate set of pictograms that combines logographic and alphabetic elements which the ancient Egyptians used to represent both meanings and consonant sounds. Hieroglyphs emerged from the preliterate artistic traditions of Egypt; they were used for the decoration and sacralization of sarcophagi and temples. Around 800 hieroglyphs are known to date back
to the pharaonic period. By the Greco-Roman period,
there were more than 5,000.

For many years, the earliest known hieroglyphic inscription was the Narmer Palette, found during excavations in the ancient city of Hierakonpolis in the 1890s, which has been dated to c.3200 B.C. The inscription was essential for the interpretation and translation of this ancient Egyptian writing.
The Meroitic was a script used during the ancient kingdom of Meroe, in present-day Sudan. It was developed in the Napatan period (about 700 – 300 B.C.), and first appears in the 2nd century B.C. To date, although it is known that it was originally derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs, it is poorly understood, owing to the scarcity of bilingual texts. The Meroitic alphabet continued to be used during the Nubian kingdoms, which rose after the collapse of the kingdom of Meroe, until it was definitively superseded by the Coptic alphabet with the introduction of Christianity into Nubia in the 6th century A.D.

The Somali language writing system
The Osmanya alphabet is a writing script created to transcribe the Somali language writing system invented between 1920 and 1922 by Osman Yusuf Kenadid, brother of the Sultan of Hobyo. Kenadid devised the script at the start of the national campaign to settle on a standard orthography for Somali. Although it enjoyed considerable popularity, it faced strong competition from the Latin and Arabic scripts.

©fotovlad/123RF.COM

In the sultanate’s local schools, news of the Osmanya alphabet’s creation spread rapidly, so much so that the Italian authorities, fearing it might spark anti-colonial revolts, arrested and imprisoned Kenadid in Mogadishu. His arrest marked the decline and fall into disuse of this script for the following 25 years. However, after World War II, when nationalist sentiments grew among Somali people, who created the Somali Youth League, and led to Somalia’s independence from Italian and British rule, there was a revived interest in the Osmanya script.
Later, in the 1960s, Shire-Jama-Ahmed, a Somali linguist devised a unique Latin script for transcribing the Somali language and presented it before the Somali Language Committee, an organization in charge of settling Somalia’s outstanding language issue and so, in October 1972, the government of President Mohamed Siad Barre decided to exclusively adopt the Latin alphabet. Despite this institutional attack, the Osmanya continued to be rather popular among the Somali population and some magazines and books written in this alphabet were even published.

The Ge’ez and the Beria scripts
Ethiopic is Africa’s oldest and most developed living alphabet. The Ge’ez or Ethiopic script was used during the times of the ancient Aksum empire, which between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D. exercised its hegemony in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabia. Later, the Ge’ez script was adapted to write other, mostly Semitic, languages, particularly Amharic and Tigrin. Several royal stelae with inscriptions in this Ethiopian alphabet have been preserved.

Ge’ez was at its height between the 5th and 6th centuries, when the Bible was translated, despite the fact that Tigrin began to replace it as the everyday language in the 9th century. The prestige of the Ge’ez alphabet survived and was maintained thanks to its use as a liturgical and court language. Thus, today it is still used in the rituals of the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches.
In the 1950s, a new alphabet called beria was proposed for the Zaghawa language spoken in Darfur and Chad, by Adam Tajir, a Sudanese school teacher, who based this indigenous alphabet on the brands used on camels and other livestock by the Zaghawa people; that is why the beria alphabet is also known as the ‘camel alphabet’. Although the Zaghawas live in one of the poorest areas in the world, some of them created a YouTube channel in 2012 with the purpose of teaching and spreading their language. They currently also advocate the Beria Keyboard Project, an initiative to bring the Beria Zaghawa language into the digital world, to allow Zaghawa speakers to write in their native language online, and to promote the preservation and growth of their language and culture.

Cameroon, Nigeria, and Guinea
Named after its first four letters, A-KA-U-KU, the Bamum script was invented in the late 19th century by King Ibrahim Njoya, the 17th king of the Bamum of western region Cameroon. This script was made with the intention to preserve and transmit the history of the king’s people, since back then the only method of transmission was oral. King Ibrahim Njoya realised the inherent risk of misinforming, thus during his reign, he ensured that all levels of his government and educational institutions learned and taught this script. In its initial form, the Bamum script consisted of 465 characters, but the final version was reduced to 70 characters and 10 numbers.

The sultan, Ibrahim Mbombo-Njoya. CC BY 4.0/Photokadaffi

Due to tensions between the French government and King Ibrahim Njoya, leading to his subsequent exile, the script fell into disuse and replaced by the French language. As a result of this, most Bamum have forgotten it. The current sultan, Ibrahim Mbombo-Njoya, promoted the creation of the Bamum Scripts and Archives Project in 2005, and converted his palace into a school where students are taught the alphabet created by his grandfather.
Nsibidi is an ideographic system developed in what is now southeastern Nigeria. It is mainly used by the Ekoi people. The first symbols appeared on ceramic fragments dated between 400 and 1400 A.D. Since then, more than 500 have been registered.
Knowledge of nsibidi came in 1904 when T.D. Maxwell wrote down the symbols and made them known to the scientific community. Before the British colonization of the area, the nsibidi was divided into a sacred version, forbidden to women, and a public version, for common use. Aspects of colonisation such as western education and Christian doctrine drastically reduced the number of nsibidi-literate people, leaving the secret society members as some of the last literate in the symbols. Nsibidi was, and still is, a means of transmitting
Ekpe symbolism.

West and North Africa
The adinkra code is a rich set of symbols developed over 400 years ago by the Akan people of Ghana. It is used to represent concepts and aphorisms. Symbols were stamped on textiles and ceramics to reinforce the oral transmission of a complex set of practices and beliefs.
The N’ko alphabet was invented by Guinean writer and inventor Souleymane Kante in 1947. It began to be used in the city of Kankan, as a script for the Mandinka language. From there, its use spread to the neighbouring countries and was quickly adopted to write West African languages belonging to the Mandinka group such as Bambara or Dyula. The script has a few similarities to the Arabic script, its direction (right-to-left) and the letters which are connected at the base. N’ko is currently considered a key element in the development of African indigenous historiography. The first works written by Kante, on topics as diverse as history, religion, economics, or astrology, are digitally preserved in the ICRA-N’KO Association. Mande Afro-descendants living in the United States established the N’ko Institute of America to teach reading and writing in this language and spread Mande culture and history through this alphabet.

The Tifinagh alphabet is still used to write Berber languages such as Tamazight or Tamashek in several areas of Sahara. Its oldest form dates back to the 3rd century B.C. and was used throughout North Africa until the end of Roman times. In 1965, young Berbers eager to promote their culture created a cultural association whose goal was to revive this native script in order to use it to transcribe all the variants of Berber languages which, until then, were usually written in Arabic or Latin characters.
There are currently two versions of this alphabet: the traditional Tifinagh, linked to the Tamashek language, and the Neotifinagh, a slightly modified version of the traditional script, which is used to write Tamazigh and which was recognized as one of Morocco’s official languages in 2003. The recognition was perceived as a revenge of the ancient Berber culture of North Africa against the Arab culture. Since then, the neotifinagh script has been introduced in Moroccan public schools while publications, although still scarce, continue to be produced in this alphabet.
In general terms, and despite having been subjected to persecutions in the past, the majority of native African scripts are experiencing a renaissance. This is due to the identification that the different peoples feel towards their languages and alphabets, which have therefore become banners of their identity claims. This trend encourages optimism regarding the preservation and continuity of Africa’s cultural heritage.

Carlos Micó Tonda

Colombia. A Left Turn.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

On May 29, the first round of presidential elections takes place in Colombia, the third-largest electorate in Latin America in terms of population.

It is a country that has been ruled for more than six decades by centre-right forces, following an agreement between them after a long period of political instability, dictatorships and violence, in which guerrilla organizations such as the M- 19 first and then the FARC, with drug cartels and paramilitary groups exercising violence outside the control of the state, were central players.

This decreased after the FARC disarmament agreement signed by former President Juan Manuel Santos in November 1996. But the continuation of the armed struggle by dissident sectors of the FARC, the ELN guerrilla group and new organizations that have arisen to control the illegal exploitation of mines, maintain a situation of violence, especially in the border area between Colombia and Venezuela, where the political strategy of President Nicolás Maduro plays a role in influencing
these groups.

The now former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe has been the central figure of the Colombian right so far into the 21st century. He was the “political godfather” of his two successors, first Santos and the current president, Iván Duque. The current Colombian constitution allows for re-election and then one can no longer become president. Uribe and Santos had two mandates, but Duque did not.

The party system in place until the beginning of the 21st century had its roots in the 20th century, and there were conservatives and liberals. They had shared power since the 1960s, achieving quite exceptional political-institutional stability for Latin America in the last decades of the 20th century, but coexisting with a high level of violence. This system began to break down under the leadership of Álvaro Uribe, who formed his own political force as a dissident of the Liberal Party, while the Conservative Party gradually lost votes and structure.

The last president of the Conservative Party was Andrés Pastrana, Uribe’s predecessor. The left lacked electoral strength during the twentieth century, in a context in which public opinion rejected the violence of the guerrillas. But social discontent has grown in the 21st century and, since 2019, there have been wide-ranging violent protests that have highlighted the questioning of the political and social system and the demand for greater equality.

As an alternative, the left was gaining strength and in the last presidential elections, a candidate of this orientation, Gustavo Petro, who was mayor of Bogota, the country’s capital, competed in the second round with current president Iván Duque, who won. So it was, that a competition between a centre-left and a centre-right coalition took place in a country that began to have an ideological and not just a political polarization, like that of the liberals and conservatives during the second half of the last century.

Since the protests began in 2019, Gustavo Petro has begun to lead the polls for the 2022 presidential election. His election seems logical while the region is turning left, whether it radicalises with the consolidation of regimes in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, or towards a moderate version represented by Lula in Brazil, Boric in Chile and Petro in Colombia, among others.

The Colombian candidate has differed greatly from the former in recent weeks, trying to capture the country’s moderate vote. The centre-right struggled to unify. The most prominent candidate of this force in the polls is Federico Gutiérrez, but his arrival in the second round still requires capturing the votes of other centre-right expressions.

But a centre has also emerged, represented by the candidacy of Sergio Fajardo. The difficulties of unification of the centre-right highlight the weakening of Uribe in this sector of Colombian politics.
The centre and the centre-right have so far failed to achieve electoral unification of their respective areas, as has Petro, who will undoubtedly be in the second round.

With just a few days to go before the elections, all the polls show Gustavo Petro as the winner. A poll conducted by the Guarumo polling agency and published on March 6 shows that the centre-left coalition of Gustavo Petro (Pacto Histórico) would get 36.6 per cent of the votes in the first round, split between Petro (32.7 per cent), France Márquez (2.5 per cent) and three other candidates (1.4 per cent).

In second place would be Equipo por Colombia, the centre-right coalition, with 19.3 per cent of the vote, split between Federico Gutiérrez (7.7 per cent), Alejandro Char (6.4 per cent) and three others. centre-right candidates (5.2 per cent).

In third place, the centre coalition (Centro Esperanza) would get 18.6% of the votes, split between Sergio Fajardo (9.1%), who would be the second most individually voted candidate after Gustavo Petro, and four other candidates (9. 5%).

Finally, outside these coalitions, the pro-government candidate Oscar Iván Zuloaga would get 5.3% of the vote and the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández 8.2%. For his part, the polling agency Invamer has released its latest poll with several run-off scenarios – to be held on June 19 – in which Petro wins by a large margin against any candidate.

The closest scenario for the Pacto Histórico candidate would be a runoff against Sergio Fajardo, with 55.8% for the former and 40.2% for the latter. Against the independent candidate Rodolfo Hernández, the difference in a hypothetical ballot is 56.6% in favour of Petro against 39.4% for the candidate of the League of Anti-Corruption Rulers; against Juan Manuel Galán, the centrist candidate, Petro would win 55.6% to 39%, and the same would be true for Federico Gutiérrez of the centre-right coalition Equipo por Colombia (58.8% to 36.3%), pro-government Óscar Iván Zuluaga (59.5% to 34.4%) or Alejandro Gaviria (61% to 33.4%), also from Centro Esperanza, in addition to Fajardo and Galán.

In conclusion, the centre-left leader, Gustavo Petro, leads the polls for the presidential elections of 2022; finally, the polls show three forces, one centre-left, one centre-right and one centre, but Petro wins in the first round against any other candidate, by an appreciable margin. (Photo: ©123RF.COM)

Rosendo Fraga/Nueva Mayoria

Jordan. A Hospital in the Land of Moab.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

Since 1935, at Karak, in the poorest province of the country, the Comboni Sisters have been running a hospital for the poorest people, especially refugees.

Karak is an ancient city located on the top of the mountains that flank the road of the Kings: an ancient through road that ends in the Valley of Moab. It is mentioned in the Bible as Qir Moab and during the Iron Age, it was one of the most important Moabite cities for travel and trade.
It is the land of Ruth and Noemi: their life is a biblical message of cultural integration, openness, and care for life. The city of Karak is 140 km from Amman and is located in the south of the country, on the edge of the desert that extends to the borders with Saudi Arabia. It is the poorest province in Jordan, with a population of 300,000.

Right here, where the heavy economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is compounded by the effects of an unprecedented water crisis, there is a hospital where since 1935 the Comboni Missionaries Sisters have been taking care of the poorest people, including the ethnic minorities who inhabit the region: the Bedouins of the desert, shepherds and goatherds, some of whom still lead a nomadic life, and also the Ghorans, descendants of African slaves deported centuries ago to the Coast of the Dead Sea and who still suffer different forms of discrimination.
Then we have the immigrants – Egyptians and Libyans, Kurds, Sri Lankans, and Pakistanis – and refugees who, in a country of ten million inhabitants, number more than a million. “Jordan is traditionally welcoming”, says Sister Adele Brambilla, manager of the hospital.

Sister Adele arrived in Amman in 1984, “in the incandescent climate that led to the outbreak of the intifada”, she explained. “In successive waves, from Palestine, with which until 1967 the kingdom formed a single entity, the refugees came: in ’48, when the State of Israel was born, then twenty years later, following the Six-Day War and again during the popular uprising of the eighties. Then, in 1991, it was then the turn of the Iraqis, at the time of the first Gulf War, and since 2011 hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing the conflict have begun to cross the border”. Thousands of people from geographically differing countries but all of them with similar stories of being uprooted and left in poverty. “To all of these, this country has opened its doors, but the available resources are limited – the Italian religious Sister explains. Refugees are among the patients treated daily at Karak hospital”.

Although Jordan suffers from the instability of the area and its borders are permeable to the influence of fundamentalisms that, from Syria to Iraq, have flared up in recent years, the condition of the Christian minority is still quite peaceful. “This is a Holy Land not only because of its biblical roots: further downstream, on the banks of the Jordan, Jesus was baptised by John the Baptist and the first Christians who fled from Jerusalem found refuge here. There is plentiful evidence of their presence in Petra where there are several archaeological sites and some ancient churches have been discovered,” Sister Adele adds. “In this area, where Christians are a minority (3%), made up of Latins, Greek Orthodox, Melkites and Protestants, the hospital was the first and for many decades the only one present”, she recalls. Today we have fifty beds: we have a department of medicine and general surgery and a maternity department as well as an emergency room, radiology, and a paediatric unit with five incubators. Only recently we opened several specialized clinics – urology, neurology, ophthalmology … to meet the needs of the poorer population who would otherwise have to go as far as Amman for treatment. Every year we have more than 30,000 patients”.

One of the commitments of the Comboni Sisters is to promote interreligious dialogue, based upon the common ground of service to the needy: “Our collaborators, numbering about eighty people including doctors, nurses, technical and administrative staff, are almost all Muslims. Working together, we seek to transmit Gospel values, beginning with the absolute dignity of human life”, says Sr. Adele.
The drama of the Covid-19 pandemic: “The country is experiencing a serious economic crisis which has also affected our work. On the one hand, the hospital has had to face extra expenses for prevention and protection from infection and, on the other, available funding has decreased: many NGOs have left the territory and those who remain have no funds to help us. In spite of everything, every day we witness gestures of generosity and solidarity that encourage us to carry on – tiny signs of hope but precious drops of water in the arid desert”. (Open Photo: View to the city of Karak from Al Karak hill. ©dchulov/123RF.COM)
Chiara Zappa/MM

Africa-Europe. The EU offers an alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

Confronted with China’s growing influence in Africa, at the last AU-EU summit, the Europeans have come up with their own initiative: the Global Gateway Africa. But will it deliver?

The main conclusion of the AU-EU summit which took place in Brussels on the 17 and 18 February was the announcement by the EU of the EUR 150 billion EU-Africa ‘Global Gateway’ investment package of grants and loans to be spent over the next six years to develop infrastructures in Africa, such as fiber optic cables, 5G networks, railways, highways ports and airports, in order to promote a strong, inclusive, green and digital growth. The ambitious EU plan aims at accelerating the green transition by promoting across Africa a 300 GW deployment of renewable energy and clean hydrogen production by 2030. To that effect, the Investment Package will also support market integration and sector reforms. According to this plan, the Investment Package will also promote the sustainable use of natural resources, biodiversity protection and nature-based solutions as the basis of a green recovery, including support to the protection of ecosystems. The expectation is to improve the livelihood of 65 million people, by capturing carbon, stabilising 3 million km² of land and ensuring water. Another aim is to increase food security by supporting agri-food systems and creating a conducive and transparent policy environment for private investments.

The 6th European Union-African Union Summit in Brussels. (European Union Media)

In the context of Africa’s high vulnerability to extreme impacts of climate change, the EU also plans to contribute to building climate resilience by supporting climate change adaptation and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response.
At the same time, the EU will finance projects in submarine and terrestrial fibre-optic cables, as well as cloud and data infrastructures to accelerate universal access for all to internet, while supporting regulatory frameworks promoting a digital transition.
In order to accelerate sustainable growth and job creation, the EU will increase investments to boost regional and continental economic integration, namely the African Continental Free Trade Area. Special emphasis will be made on the need to facilitate mobility and trade within Africa and between Africa and Europe through strategic corridors, by developing transport infrastructure.

Chairperson of the African Union Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat.

The EU package also ambitions to accelerate Africa’s industrial development by enabling partner countries to integrate their raw materials and resources into sustainable global value chains. The EU will also step-up cooperation with African countries to improve capacities in science, technology and innovation. Another important dimension of the future cooperation is the strengthening of education and of the health systems, with the aim of improving vaccination coverage by 2030, providing Africa with manufacturing capacities to meet local needs and demand.
To meet such objectives, the EU will seek to support African countries in scaling up their green bond markets, thereby helping them to attract greater financing from the international capital markets and institutional investors. In addition, substantial re- channelling of part of the EU’s Special Drawing Rights to Africa is envisaged.
This Global Gateway Africa Initiative is part of the wider Global Gateway plan to support infrastructure development worldwide announced in December which plans to mobilise €300 billion between 2021-2027 for projects, in the digital, climate and energy, transport, health, education and research sectors.
The ambition is to provide an alternative to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative launched in 2013 to develop infrastructure development to secure access to natural resources and raw materials and export processed products which has already financed over EUR 1,000 billion in infrastructure and industrial projects around the world. The Global Gateway is composed of EUR 135 billion in investments from the European Fund for Sustainable Development, EUR 18 billion in grants under other EU external assistance programmes and EUR 145 billion in planned investments by EU countries development finance institutions.

European Council President Charles Michel.

Such European initiative could enhance virtuous competition between China and Europe and thereby help drive down the cost of projects and provide African countries with better borrowing deals, says Kenyan trade policy expert Patrick Anam. But for some other experts, the Global Gateway looks like a ‘Paper Tiger’.
Europe can hardly compete with China in terms of investment quantity but claims to provide more quality and transparency. Ironically, the former colonial powers claim to offer an alternative to Chinese finance, which it criticized for saddling governments with unsustainable debt, while portraying the EU as ‘forging links’ instead of ‘creating dependencies.’ EU officials quote the case of Malaysia which has recently been forced to cancel three Chinese projects include a railway line of several billion dollars
Development experts coincide however that the Global Gateway is a mere packaging exercise of funds that have already been programmed by European Development Finance institutions. For Simone Tagliapietra, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank, this view misses the point since the EU and its 27 member states are already the world’s leading providers of official development assistance with a total of EUR 66.8 billion in 2020. What Europe really needs is not new resources, but to use them more efficiently.
The main challenge the EU must face is the fragmentation of its action into countless initiatives, undertaken at both EU and national levels, which leads to overlaps and inefficiencies, says Tagliapietra. Accordingly, the real question is how well coordination between EU member states and institutions will work.

Caculo Cabaça Dam on the Kwanza River in Angola. (photo: Xinhua)

Because of this fragmentation and of the pressure of environmentalist groups which turned the European Parliament against large dams, the EU has marginalized itself from huge hydropower projects, including Grand Inga on the Congo River (40 GW), the Grand Ethiopia Renaissance Dam on the Nile River (6 GW) and Caculo Cabaça on the Kwanza River in Angola (2.5 GW) which are being financed by other resources including domestic, Chinese and Brazilian ones. “Sadly, Europe misses the point, in the energy field, it lacks vision. Can one imagine to develop plans which exclude Africa’s main clean energy asset, Grand Inga?”, asks former Belgian Cooperation Agency AGCD boss, Paul Frix.
Then, the EU attaches lots of conditions to its aid, including the adhesion to the rule of law, the respect of human rights and the respect for international standards of intellectual property while it also refuses to fund projects including the use of fossil fuels. The EU claims it wants a ‘partnership between equals’ but obviously, the hand of the one that gives is above the other.

Big ship in port of Dakar in Senegal. Africa. ©123mn/123RF.COM

This attitude does not fit necessarily with African expectations. Some African experts stress that whereas China has built roads, bridges and dams over the last 20 years, the EU has come up with a lot of red tape. Many EU aid projects include specific amounts to train African administrations in order to enable them to adapt to the bureaucratic procedures of the European Commission. Some African intellectuals resent the EU’s attitude of lecturing its partners.
Yet, many questions remained unanswered. How will the Global Gateway be managed and implemented? “At the moment, nobody really knows how it will work”, comments Paul Frix. One thing is for sure. The EU’s Global Gateway Africa initiative is also very much about Europe’s self-interest. During her State of the Union speech in September 2021, the EU Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen made clear that the EU wouldn’t finance any project at any cost. “It does not make sense for Europe to build a perfect road between a Chinese-owned copper mine and a Chinese-owned harbour”, she warned. Such statement reflects namely EU’s rising interest for Africa’s critical minerals resource such as rare earths elements used for the batteries of electric cars whose market is booming. (Open Photo: © Can Stock Photo / michaklootwijk)

François Misser

Kirill I, The African.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

There are over one hundred priests serving on the African continent who have left the Patriarchate of Alexandria (Egypt) to move to that of Moscow. The Russian Patriarch Kirill I, very loyal to Putin, was responsible for the manoeuvre, in opposition to Tawadros II of Alexandria.

There are one hundred and two priests serving in 8 African countries who have moved from the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria to that of Russia. With this change, the Russian Patriarchate officially created its own Exarchate in Africa. Twelve countries in the two dioceses of northern and southern Africa: Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria, Libya, Central Africa, and Seychelles.

Archbishop Leonid of Yerevan and Armenia.

The Moscow Synod appointed Archbishop Leonid of Yerevan and Armenia as ‘Metropolitan Klinsky and Patriarchal Exarch for Africa’ with instructions to administer the Metropolis of North Africa and to temporarily administrate the Exarchate of South Africa.
With a single move, the architect of this manoeuvre, the Patriarch of Moscow Kirill I, has achieved two objectives. He appropriated international support for the autocephalous Church of Ukraine, the result of the Orthodox schism of 2018 (triggered in 2014 by the Russian occupation of Crimea) and recognized by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, and dealt a severe blow to the authority in Africa of the Patriarch of Alexandria, Tawadros II, who last August, on the Turkish island of Imbros, had extended his hand to the autocephalous metropolitan Epiphany of Kyiv, marking the definitive breaking-point with the Russian Church, already matured in 2019.

The Patriarch of the Kremlin
Previously, fellow students at the Soviet University of Odessa, Kirill I and Tawadros II are therefore now at loggerheads. In his conversion campaign in Africa, the Patriarch of Moscow knows he can count on the unconditional support of the Kremlin. Kirill I is, in fact, part of the circle of those most faithful to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has very close relationships with oligarchs and managers of the country’s most influential companies, including the oil giant Gazprom.

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill I with President Vladimir Putin.

This loyalty has been recognized by the government, which in 2019 paid out about 43 million dollars to renovate his residence in the former imperial palace in St. Petersburg. The Moscow Church has been cultivating contacts in Africa for years. The latest conquered lands, as reported in an Africa Intelligence report, are Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, and South Africa. Among the parishes in Alexandria, there is that of Sergius of Radonež in Johannesburg (South Africa), led by Archpriest Daniel Lugovoy. Another hot front is Madagascar, where the Russian ambassador Andrey Andreev is raising funds to entrust a new church to priests linked to Moscow.

Great Lakes disputed
The 102 refugees are the result of diplomatic pressure ordered on the occasion of a previous synod held in Moscow on 23 and 24 September last. Since then, Kirill I’s choice in Africa, Bishop Leonid – chosen not by chance for this role after representing the Russian patriarchate in Alexandria between 2004 and 2013 – has never stopped. In mid-November, he was in Dar es Salaam, where he met Metropolitans Dimitrios of Irinoupolis, the reference person for eastern Tanzania, and Jeronymos of Mwanza, for western Tanzania. During his visit, he was accompanied by the Russian ambassador to Tanzania, Yuri Popov, who in this country, particularly promotes the interests of the state company Rosatom in the local uranium fields. Leonid’s blitz had been anticipated, a few weeks earlier, by a tour of visits by Tawadros II, who had first flown to Kampala (Uganda) for a meeting with President Yoweri Museveni, then to Tanzania together with the Egyptian ambassador Mohamed Gaber Abulwafa and the Greek honorary consul William Ferentinos, and finally to Johannesburg for an interview with the South African president Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Russian Orthodox Church in Johannesburg. Photo: Raskolam.net

The Great Lakes region is the chessboard where the stakes between the two churches are highest. Between late July and early September, the deaths first of Metropolitan Nikoforos of Kinshasa and then of his counterpart from Kampala Jonah Lwanga, opened a delicate game for their succession. Those who manage to grab those comfortable chairs will, in fact, have access to one of the largest concentrations of Orthodox faithful in the entire continent. Moscow is very much interested. The governments of Rwanda and Uganda are among the main African buyers of Russian-made weapons, while the Alrosa group, specialized in diamond mining, is increasingly active in DR Congo. These are fast-growing businesses that the Kremlin wants to protect by guaranteeing religious leadership in the region.

The Central African front
While, in southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Angola and Mozambique remain under the control of the Patriarchate of Alexandria, which in this area depends on the Cypriot Archbishop Seraphim, the contest is still open in the Central African Republic. The small Orthodox community of the country has come under the Russian sphere of influence. And in the capital Bangui, the seventh Russian centre for science and culture is under construction, under the watchful eye of the private security company Wagner. This is also a sign that the current campaign is not just religious.

War in Ukraine

Patriarch Kirill has sent his strongest signal to justify his country’s invasion of Ukraine describing the conflict as part of a struggle against sin. In his sermon recent he referred to gay pride parades organised in the west as part of the reason for the war.
On 12 March, Rev Prof Dr Ioan Sauca from the World Council of Churches wrote to Patriarch Kirill, appealing for him to mediate in order to help end the war. The Patriarch did not respond to this request, but in his reply spoke of a “large-scale geopolitical strategy aimed, first and foremost, at weakening Russia”. Meanwhile, Saint Nicholas of Myra church in Amsterdam is the first Russian Orthodox Church to break with Moscow. On 9 May, 280 Russian Orthodox priests from around the world signed a letter appealing for an end to the war and reconciliation.

Rocco Bellantone

Mexico. The Monarch Butterfly.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

When we talk about the monarch butterfly, we touch on legend, mythology and the history of the species.

The pre-Columbian cultures considered the monarch butterfly sacred. Her image can be found in figures, vessels, ornaments and jewels. Butterflies were also used as tribute and offerings, and bread and sweets were even baked in their form.
The Chichimecs called their mother goddess of sacrifices and wars Itzapapalotl, or the “obsidian butterfly.” In Teotihuacan the great temple Quetzalpapalotl, was built in her honour. The inhabitants of Texcoco, under the reign of Acolmitzi NezahualcOyotl, built the palace of Quetzalpapalotl on the shores of Lake Texcoco, where they did research on the sky, plants and animals.

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Among the Aztecs, the butterfly, or papalotl, was a sacred being that symbolized death. It was butterflies who, in their flight, transported the souls of the fallen in battle.
The residents of Xochimilco represented their god Xochiquetzal, symbol of fire and the soul, with the body and wings of a butterfly: the representation of love and beauty, it was considered the protectress of plants, painters and artisans. Both the necklaces on the giant statues at Tula and the Aztec calendar depict the butterfly as a representation of fire.The Mazahuas call them the daughters of the sun and, like the Otomis, Matlazincas and Mexicas, identify them today with the return of the spirits that come back year after year to visit them during the festivities of the Day of the Dead, around the end of October and the beginning of November, the season when the monarch butterfly
arrives in Mexico.

The Monarch
The monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is the best known of all the butterflies in Central Mexico. Its orange wins, outlined in black with white specks, dominate the winters in some parts of the dense forests on the border region between the states of Mexico and Michoacan.
An exceptional species, the monarch butterfly surprises with its astonishing biological adaptability which allows it to migrate with extreme precision every year.

©BackyardProduct – Can Stock Photo Inc

The monarch butterfly’s origins date back to more than 200 million years ago, when Africa and South America were a single continent. With the separation of the continents and subsequent ice ages, the monarch migrated in search of the milkweed (Asclepia sp), that it needed to feed its larvae. Once established in the northern part of the hemisphere, when the temperatures dropped, the butterflies emigrated south to winter in Mexico in the temperate forests of the Transversal Volcanic Axis in what are now the states of Michoacan and Mexico, where they can enjoy broad biodiversity and a benign climate. This migration is reversed when the temperatures in the south increase.
An interesting aspect of the monarch butterfly’s conservation in winter is its protective colouring. To form its colonies for hibernation, it alights on trunks and branches of conifers and folds its wings to show their undersides and blend into the colours of the tree bark and foliage, thus avoiding its predators.

Habitat
The monarch requires a healthy, undisturbed forest, with trees like fir, pine, evergreen oak and cedar, among other species, to be able to develop its biological functions and guarantee its survival. The low brush of the forest undergrowth is also fundamental for retaining warmth during the night. A humid forest with moss and lichen, a variety of types of plants with nearby sunny areas, without noise or external disturbances make up a propitious habitat for the species.

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The forests where the monarchs alight in Mexico have very specific microclimatic characteristics, appropriate for their habitat. Because of their altitude, from 2,700 to 3,400 meters above sea level, these forests do not go through marked changes in temperature, with a mean of 15°C and 50 percent relative humidity.
If the relative humidity were higher and the temperature lower, the monarchs would run the risk of freezing to death.

Migrant
During the summer and part of the autumn, the monarch lives in the forests of southern Canada and the northern United States. In mid – or late autumn, when climatic conditions become severe there, the monarchs begin their migration to the south, taking advantage of prevailing winds from the north. Some experts say that the monarchs take two routes: west of the Rocky Mountains toward California near Pacific Grove and Monterey, and east toward the forests of the states of Mexico and Michoacán. The massive return trip that takes an average of two months goes in exactly the opposite direction when Mexico’s temperate forests begin to heat up in spring.
Regarding the monarch butterflies’ sense of direction on their migratory routes some experts hypothesize that they direct their flight by the sun; another says that they take their lead from the magnetic waves emanating from the Transversal Volcanic Axis. (Open photo: 123RF.COM)

Joel Rodriguez Zuniga

The United Arab Emirates. The Pearl Necklace.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

The history of the United Arab Emirates is unique in the scenario of the Near Middle East due to the incredible change that has taken place in such a short period of time.

Where today there appear cities full of futuristic buildings and commercial centres bordering on science fiction, and where an exaggerated lifestyle is predominant within its glittering megalopolis, there was once a remote and poverty-stricken conglomeration of villages surrounded by the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, subject from time to time to various dominations and divided among themselves by various tribal conflicts. Their economy was largely based upon fishing, the search for pearls, low-scale commerce and piracy supported by the local sheikhs while today, the economy is supported by high rates of development and also benefits from important investments in the sector of technological development.

United Arab Emirates Map © pbardocz /123RF.COM

The factors that determined such a sudden and surprising change of direction were varied and cannot be ascribed solely to the discovery of oil as happened in the fifties and sixties of the twentieth century which doubtless played a role of primary importance. Also of fundamental importance was the exceptional negotiating talents of Emir Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyān and the visionary spirit of the Sheik of Dubai Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum who, in the words of Afshin Molavi, an Iranian-American author and expert on global geo-political risk and geo-economics, where there was once a small stream, saw a motorway leading to the centre of the world. So it was that the latter, taking a loan of many millions from his close neighbour Kuwait, already rich with income from oil, began to implement his vision starting by a draining the course of a river to make it navigable. Afterwards, his work continued with the construction of stores, schools, and roads. He left his dream as a legacy to his son Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum who, again according to Molavi, continued it, transforming the vision of his father into a city of millions of people with skyscrapers lit up during the day, making it a worldwide hub for port, airport and financial activities attracting tourists and finance from all over the world and which, among many other things, can boast a skyline similar to that of Manhattan, as well as several artificial islands.

Sheik Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum.

However, apart from oil and the vision of Sheik Rashid bin Saeed al Maktoum, the geopolitical posture assumed by the United Arab Emirates in the geopolitical context of the epoch was of fundamental importance. The same applies to the role of the United States in the aftermath of the World War, in that regional context and, in particular, of the satellite states by means of the economic leverage of the free market and security, which were asked in exchange for a total realignment of their strategy. This strategy, set up by the United States, was obviously financed by oil which ought to have sustained both their own industries and those of the states allied to them. In this context, the area of the Persian Gulf functioned as a strategic reserve and, as such, had to be defended and overseen. Therefore, for the Arab Emirates to take up the defence of such an arrangement even for the purpose of obtaining the greatest possible advantages such as greater room for individual manoeuvre has certainly been a crucial element for its development without which they would have found it difficult to achieve such great results and splendour.

Aerial view of modern skyscrapers and palm trees in the middle of ocean in Dubai cityscape. ©ibrester/123RF.COM

Today, we are going through a further phase of geopolitical transition with the United States which has brought in a policy of disengagement in the region, the effects of which are having a notable impact on all those countries, among them the United Arab Emirates, which had benefitted from the previous system.
Therefore, the latter, well aware of the new equilibrium that is emerging, in addition to working to shore up Washington’s strategy with regard to China as well as Turkey and Iran, have developed personal strategies for the defence of those areas critical to the security of the country, such as that of the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
Reaching the milestone of 50 years since their foundation – which took place on December 2, 1971, after the end of the British protectorate with the union in a federation of the sheikhdoms of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, um Al Quwain and Fujairah, while Ras Al Khaimah joined the Federation on February 10, 1972 – the United Arab Emirates enjoys a high level of development that places the country in second place in the economies of the region after that of Saudi Arabia.

Skyscrapers in reflection on blue glass. Dubai Expo 2020 Sign. ©alexeyzatevahin/123RF.COM

In addition to the economic aspects, important steps have also been taken from a historical, social, and political point of view and among these it is appropriate to include the visit of Pope Francis in February 2019, the normalization of relations with Israel in September 2020, and also the first universal exhibition in an Arab country in the Middle East: Dubai Expo 2020. These are eloquent signs concerning the route that the country intends to take in the coming years even if at the moment it is struggling with a major economic recession generated by the ongoing pandemic which, however, it is managing rather well. (Open photo: Etihad Towers in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates after sunset. ©monticello/123RF.COM). F.R.

The Honey Bird and the Three Gourds.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

One day, a God asked Mayimba the Honey Bird to meet with him. The God gave the Mayimba three gourds which were all sealed, and gave the Honey Bird the following instruction, “Go to the man and the woman I first created, and give them these three gourds. But you are not to open them on the way.
When you reach their village, you need to relay the message: ‘Open this gourd first, it contains seeds which you will need to plant for food.’ But, tell them not to open the other gourds until I arrive. When I will arrive, I will advise them on what to do with the other two gourds.”

Mayimba the Honey Bird started the very long journey to his friends, but he was overwhelmed with curiosity about what the gourds contained. When he could not resist the temptation anymore, he stopped flying and opened the first gourd that contained the seeds.
When he saw that this did just contain seeds, he replaced the seeds back into the gourd and closed it once again.

Mayimba the Honey Bird thought about continuing on his journey, but the other gourds were teasing his mind, and he decided to open the second gourd. The second gourd contained medicine, which had the ability to cure death, illness, tiredness and to tame wild and dangerous animals. But Mayimba had never experienced any of those things, so did not understand what they were, or how valuable they were. Mayimba placed them back into the second gourd and fastened it back up.

Mayimba the Honey Bird thought about just flying ahead with his mission and taking the gourds to his friends as instructed. Yet again, the third and final gourd kept occupying his mind. His curiosity was aroused and he wanted to know what was inside.
When he opened the gourd, the container was filled with death, disease and dangerous animals.When the gourd was opened, everything escaped and was dispersed throughout the world.

Mayimba the Honey Bird tried to recapture them but was not able to. He could not bring them back inside the gourd and it remained empty.
The God came along, as promised. He quickly saw that the Honey Bird had opened all the gourds, disobeying all the instructions he had given him. The God was very angry, yet together with Mayimba the Honey Bird he tried to recapture all of the evil spirits and being that the Honey Bird had released. But they were not able to do so. The God was furious, and said to Mayimba: “You have done a very wicked thing! This is your fault.”

Mayimba the Honey Bird was frightened when he heard the God disapproval. Therefore, in fear and in tears, he flew into the wilderness wishing to never come back to the village where the first man and the first woman lived.
The God went to visit the first man and the first woman he had created, Mulonga and his wife Mwinambuzhi. They were the first on earth, the first people who Mayimba the Honey Bird was to have given the sealed and unopened gourds to.

The God said to them : ”Your friend Mayimba the Honey Bird has made a serious mistake, by failing to follow my instructions. He was eagerly curious to know what I had prepared for you and he could not wait to open the gourds that I sent you.
He has unknowingly started great trouble for this world, and even I will not be able to repair the damage that he has done.

However, I will teach you how to do useful things, such as sew clothes, build houses. You will be able then to find shelter from the elements and wild creatures. I will teach you how to make fire by rubbing two dry sticks together, and I will teach you to make tools and weapons such as axes, spears, cooking and water pots.”

From this day, Mulonga, Mwinambuzhi, and all their children and descendants had to learn new skills they found they needed in order to eat, survive and flourish. Unfortunately, due to Mayimba’s curiosity, their life had also changed and they have now to deal with evils such as diseases, death and wild animals. (© Can Stock Photo / DennisJacobsen)

Folktale from Zambia

A year of grace and gratitude.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

The Comboni Missionary Sisters celebrate the 150^th year since their foundation. A year to recall the original vision received from the legacy of St. Daniel Comboni

This year, 2022, is a Jubilee Year for us Comboni Missionary Sisters spread out in many countries of the world. Indeed, a time of great rejoicing for the gift of 150 years lived in the footsteps of our Founder, St Daniel Comboni, across Continents, Cultures and Communities.

Sr. Luigia Coccia, superior General of Comboni Sisters (2 L) with young Comboni Missionaries Sisters from different countries.

A Jubilee Year has in itself the potential to create a significant impact on anyone who recognizes the importance of holistic transformation in any given reality. The young apostolic missionary Daniel Comboni had envisaged this process as foundational for the immense Vicariate of Central Africa to reach the fullness of life, both at the ecclesial and societal level. This is what we, as Comboni Missionary Sisters, are also aiming at during the course of this Jubilee Year. There are many ideas, initiatives and events programmed at the various Congregational levels. Through these few lines, I would like to share some perceptions about the significance of our journey.

The original vision
The Missionary Movement of the 19^th Century had brought new vigour to the Catholic Church in Europe, and many religious missionary groups started in different European countries with the aim of sharing the Good News of the Gospel with people still unfamiliar with the life of Jesus.

Mons. Daniel Comboni, founder of the Comboni Missionaries Family.

Born on 15^th March 1831, on the shores of Lake Garda, in Northern Italy, into a family which knew unity, necessity and limitations, Daniel grew with the desire to aim at greater-than-reality horizons. The encounter, in 1843, with Father Nicola Mazza, a priest in the Diocese of Verona, a holy and intelligent man, capable of positively influencing the course of history for the impoverished masses of his time, marked forever the heart and mind of young Daniel.
Comboni was a young priest when, at the end of 1857, he first travelled to the Sudan. Son, as he was, of the society and of the church of his time, he brought along the journey of his first encounter with Africa a tremendous desire to share with the Mother of Humanity Continent all that had shaped his religious and social worldview. Faith and family, tradition and education, history and culture intermingled with the political, ecclesial and cultural backstage characterizing the 19^th Century and in which Daniel learned to give his unique contribution.
With the enthusiasm that sustains the efforts of pioneers along the unknown paths of discovery, Daniel understood that his vocation to missionary life led him to the immense Vicariate of Central Africa. “Africa or Death” became his motto, and, for the realization of his dream Daniel lived and spent his entire life.

A New Moses for Africa
Whenever I search for hints regarding what was so unique about Comboni’s missionary experience, I cannot but come up with the certainty that he was been caught up in the same unique experience felt by Moses in front of the burning bush. Just as Moses fell right into the embrace of the engaging love that Yahweh had for the suffering people of Israel, the same happened for this new Moses in the heart of Africa. Again, the same words: “I have heard the cry of my people… I am sending you to them. Go!”

Central African Republic. Sr Lucia Fonts Santana with a Pygmy woman in Bagandou.

What a fortunate man Comboni was! And what a powerful experience he was granted: that of falling right into the loving embrace that God was sharing with suffering Africa! It is in this very experience that the mystical dimension of his vocation found its roots. Once he perceived that the heart of God was suffering for the pain the people suffered, then there could be no obstacle for this courageous missionary to say yes to God and to Africa forever.
Daniel Comboni invested all his human capacity to bring about the mission God had entrusted to him. Tirelessly he travelled, wrote, defended, supported, and fostered the cause of the Black Pearl to shine in the Crown of the Church! Strongly believing that the Hour of Africa had finally dawned not only on the Continent but also for the entire world to see, he saw as imperative the presence of consecrated women for the fulfilment of this endeavour.

Women of the Gospel forever
On 1 January 1872, in Verona, Daniel Comboni officially founded our community. He was not new at working with religious women. In fact, for some twelve years, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, whom he had first met in the Holy Land, sustained his missionary vision both in Egypt and in the Sudan. Much earlier on, in Verona, he had learned from the group of young African women teachers living at the Mazza’s institute the essential role that women would play in the evangelizing endeavour of the Church.

DR Congo. Sr. Bernadette Idey, headmistress and teacher at the Mavuno Institute, in Mungbere.

When the situation forced him to become a founder, Comboni named us Pie Madri della Nigrizia (Pious Mothers of Africa). Wow, what a presentation card! Immediately, the ‘mystery of pietas’ – about which even the apostle Paul wrote in his First Letter to Timothy (3:16) – made a clear demarcation line for our missionary identity to unfold. Yes, we were to be those mothers filled with the very pietas that poured out from the heart of God towards the millions of sons and daughters of Africa! Inside and outside the Continent!
150 years have gone by since the founding days. The seeds and roots of the beginnings have grown into a tree. From the small group of five, whom he first travelled with from Italy to Egypt, to something over a thousand, living today in 145 multicultural and multigenerational communities, the Pie Madri della Nigrizia – now more known as Comboni Missionary Sisters – continue striving to witness God’s mercy-full presence in a world that keeps marginalizing and impoverishing people. To remind everyone that God always hears their cry, and always comes to their rescue.

Maria Teresa Ratti, cms

China and the Great Game in the Indo-Pacific Ocean.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

The Indo-Pacific quadrant is now characterised by a significant military build-up in constant growth.
The protagonists are all the countries of the region, foremost among them the People’s Republic of China.

For some years now, the Indo-Pacific quadrant that once included the Western Pacific and the Indian Ocean has become a theatre of various geopolitical frictions. Essentially, it is possible to outline a scheme of this Great Game starting from two main factors: on the one hand, the ambition of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to become the regional hegemonic leader, an obligatory step to complete the rise to superpower status; on the other hand, the containment activity of the United States and aligned countries aimed at moderating Beijing’s ambition.

Manifestations of this are, for example, devices such as the Quad (made up of Australia, India, Japan, and the United States) and new matrix alliances such as AUKUS, signed last September between Washington, Canberra, and London. The situation described, whose current connotations are attributed by various observers to the clearly increased assertiveness of the People’s Republic, was accompanied by the spontaneous creation of a substantial strengthening of the military instruments of almost all the countries involved in the region and, therefore, of a significant increase in the intensity of exercise activities.

War Manoeuvres
In relation to the growing importance of air and naval exercises in the Indo-Pacific context, we may take for example the recent editions of Malabar 2021, the Maritime Partnership Exercise 2021, and the Bersama Gold 2021 which involved naval aeroplanes of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, Malaysia, and the United States.

The multilateral Maritime Exercise Malabar along with the Japan Maritime Self Defence Force (JMSDF), Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and the United States Navy (USN).(Photo US Navy)

However, the number of exercises carried out by the PRC is also noteworthy. In the period between June and August of last year alone, the People’s Liberation Army held over one hundred exercises in the vicinity of ‘Chinese maritime areas of strategic relevance’, in addition to the Sino-Russian manoeuvre called Sea Interaction 2021, jointly conducted by the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and naval units of the Russian Pacific Fleet.

Peking and its armaments
We are witnessing in the region a substantial military build-up, and it is particularly interesting to analyse its anatomy. Specifically, the armament work carried out by Beijing, which is currently equipping itself with by far the most powerful military instrument in the entire region, with particular regard to the aero-naval sector, is impressive. The Chinese Armed Forces have implemented an A2/AD infrastructure that integrates a multiplicity of assets belonging to distinct domains.

The new-generation Chengdu J-20 78231 and 78232. (Photo: Chinese Military Aviation)

The most feared and integrated weapon systems in this defensive network certainly include the ASBM (Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile) DF-21D and DF-26B, as well as the supersonic anti-ship missiles belonging to the YJ-12 and YJ- 18 families and the UAV and UCAV aircraft type JG-11, CH-6, WZ-8 and WZ-7, designed not only from a reconnaissance perspective but, with the exception of the WZ-8 and WZ-7, also capable of using guided missiles. In 2020, a total of 66 submarines were certified in active service, most of which are non-nuclear, together with the more modern classes of PLAN boats such as the Yuan (Type 039) and the Shang (Type 093), the latter being nuclear-propelled. The China Naval Modernization: Implications for U.S. Navy Capabilities report, issued by the Congressional Research Service, reveals that, although the growth of the Chinese submarine component is still substantially reduced, further implementation of suitable production facilities could strengthen China’s ability to build advanced submarine platforms.
This trend seems to be confirmed by the expansion of the Bohai shipyard, from where partial images of a new atomic boat were recovered in February 2021.

The GJ-11 stealth combat drone. (Photo: Chinese Military Aviation)

While it is not yet clear which unit it is, it is plausible that the documentation collected refers to Type-095 or Type-096. In summary, given the emphasis placed by the PRC on enhancing its naval capabilities, the US ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) estimates that the overall Chinese submarine force will increase from the current 66 boats to 76 by 2030. It must also be emphasised how the strengthening of the surface naval capabilities of the People’s Republic has also been increasing. A clear example of this is the current outfitting of the new Type-003 aircraft carrier, currently being completed at the Jianhan shipyard in Shanghai. The vessel in question, similar in size to a US aircraft carrier, would guarantee PLAN the acquisition of projective capabilities of undoubted scope and certainly greater than those currently exhibited. Among the various surface units of modern conception currently under the PLAN are the DDG (guided-missile destroyer) Type 052, the FFG (guided-missile frigate) Type 054A, the corvette Type 056 and the LHD (Landing Helicopter Dock) Type 075. However, the most impressive vessels are certainly those of the Renhai class. Heavily armed and with a displacement of between 12,000 and 13,000 tons, these units give the PRC the ability to deploy a class of vessels comparable – if not superior – to the US Arleigh Burke
and Ticonderoga.

Canberra and Tokyo
The People’s Republic of China views the possession of an advanced military tool as an essential support to its geopolitical ambitions. Hence, it is easy to understand why Beijing is making considerable efforts to strengthen its Armed Forces, with emphatic stress on the Navy. It is clear that Chinese assertiveness on the one hand and the strengthening of its military apparatus on the other, lead most of the countries of the Indo-Pacific quadrant to perceive the People’s Republic as a demanding challenge in terms of their national security. The rearmament of Japan, represented above all by the combination of the F-35 and the Izumo class, which will endow the country with a renewed and formidable aeronaval capacity, and the ever-increasing importance of Quad and AUKUS, is perfectly framed in a perspective of strategic competition perspective with the People’s Republic.

Submarine (Ministry of Defence/PA)

It is clear that with the desire to equip itself with nuclear-powered submarines – a possibility that, at best, will not materialize for several years – Australia considers the strengthening of its naval capabilities to be inevitable. Nonetheless, technology sharing between Australia, the United States and Great Britain is not limited to nuclear technologies. In fact, it also extends to technologies relating to the cyber domain, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapon systems. In short, if it is true that Beijing is motivated by a rational desire to defend its strategic interests, protect its national security and, in the case of Taiwan, reintegrate into the motherland what is regarded as a rebel province, it is equally true that, in the eyes of various analysts, the posture adopted by the People’s Republic appears increasingly aggressive and, therefore, a source of potential danger for neighbouring countries. As evidence of this, just consider the daily Chinese forays into Taiwan’s ADIZ (Air Defence Identification Zone). (Open Photo: Chinese warships pictured at the end of joint exercise with the Russian navy. Xinhua)

Francesco Lorenzo Morandi/CgP

Herbs & Plants. Markhamia lutea. A Powerful Medicinal Plant.

Friday, 1 April 2022 8:00

An effective treatment for skin infections, sores, and itches.

Its common name is Nile tulip. It is an evergreen shrub or small tree of about 15 m in height with a narrow, irregular crown and long tap root. Its bark is light brown with fine vertical fissures and its leaves compound, often in bunches, thin and wavy, each leaflet up to 10 cm, wider at the tip, often with round outgrowths at the base.
Flower buds are yellow-green and furry, splitting down one side as the flower emerges. Flowers are bright yellow, in showy terminal clusters, each trumpet shaped, to 6 cm long, with 5 frilly lobes, the throat striped with orange-red.

CC BY 2.0/ Mauro Guanandi

The fruit is very long, thin, brown capsules, about 75 cm in length, hanging in clusters and tending to spiral, splitting on the tree to release abundant seeds with transparent wings, about 2.5 cm long and yellow-whitish when mature.
Markhamia lutea is a tropical Africa tree native to the continent’s lake basins and highlands in countries such as Ivory Coast, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. For generations, plants of the genus Markhamia have been used by different tribes across Africa for a number of purposes, including as medicine.
The medicinal uses of the Markhamia lutea (Family Bignoniaceae) plant range from administration of the various plant parts alone, or in combination with, other plant parts to treat a given health condition. The roots, barks, stems, and leaves of Markhamia lutea have been used by traditional healers for the treatment of a number of disease conditions such as microbial and parasitic diseases, anemia, diarrhea, backache, sore eyes, intercostal pain, pulmonary troubles, gout, scrotal elephantiasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and external skin diseases.

CC BY 4.0/ Vengolis

The plant has also been used in the treatment of diarrhea, dysentery, pain, and inflammation in veterinary patients. In some communities, herbalists use the Markhamia lutea plant for management of anemia, liver disease, inappetence, stomachache, headache, skin rash, cataracts, throat diseases, conjunctivitis, snakebites and as well used in cancer management. The plant is also used as a rejuvenator and diuretic, and is given for oedema of the legs and elephantiasis of the scrotum, to treat chancres and rheumatic pain, and is taken for treatment of the respiratory tract and in swamp-fever.
The root barks are used in the treatment of anemia, diarrhea, and backache. The roots are soaked in cold water and the resulting extract is taken to reduce symptoms of watery bloodless diarrhea. It is also used in treating difficult urination, and as an analgesic. Roots are administered to children to treat convulsions. The root and bark decoctions are taken against asthma, cough, and gonorrhoea. Root decoctions are applied to treat earache, and bark decoctions administered orally as an aphrodisiac. Roots are also used against venereal diseases and for preventing abortion. In East Africa, the roots are a constituent of a complex herbal preparation used in the alleviation of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) symptoms.

CC BY 2.0/Tatiana Gerus

The Markhamia lutea tree leaves and bark are considered to be an effective treatment for skin infections, sores and itches. The leaves and bark are pounded to form a thick paste which is then applied through rigorous rubbing to the affected skin part. In the case of sores, the paste is applied as a wet dressing under a bandage, to the affected part.
The leaves and bark are used as medicine for toothache (as a gargle) and for convulsion in children and are used to treat toothache, stomachache and headache. Ground leaves and bark are applied externally to treat skin complaints and wounds.
Leaves are used for the treatment of snakebites, and young shoots to treat throat complaints, lumbago and diarrhea. In some communities, the leaves’ extract is taken to treat cough and malaria.
The traditional medicine potential of Markhamia lutea may be due to the various chemical constituents in it, including phenylpropanoid glycosides, alkaloids, terpenoids, phytosterols, quinones, lignans, and flavonoids. As a fast-growing tree species, it is a typical pioneer species within its native range. It is useful for erosion control, shade, and shelter. It provides mulch, which enhances soil-moisture retention and increases organic matter. Markhamia lutea can be used for control of the parasitic weed striga in cereals by inducing germination in the absence of a host.(Open Photo:CC BY 2.0/Tatiana Gerus)

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