Category: Frontiers

Frontiers

Another People Power Revolution

When I was visiting the hovels of the poor in the overcrowded slums of Manila, where we are setting up livelihood projects for the impoverished families of young teenagers we rescue from the horrific conditions of overcrowded disease infested jails, I met Mark and his hardworking mother. She has a junk collection business and the tiny hovel made of bits of broken plywood, flattened tin cans and plastic sheets was half filled with the collections they had made. Their treasure was plastic bottles, crushed aluminum cans, bits of plastic, old newspaper, all useless junk to you and me but the difference between life and death for the family.

Virtues Needed in a Culture of Dialogue

Excerpt from a paper delivered by the author at a gathering on the occasion of the Inter-Faith Council of Leaders’ (IFCL) 10th anniversary, promoted by Silsilah Dialogue Movemen

Frontiers

The Struggle Against Corruption

No wonder that the new Philippine “Aquino administration” made anti-corruption its main drive against poverty. “If there is no corruption, there will be no poverty,” says President Noynoy Aquino. This was the slogan that won him the election. It’s so true and yet the solutions are still so hard to find and reform is almost impossible to achieve at this time with many corrupt politicians and their cronies still in government. They are entrenched and are opposing and thwarting the efforts of Aquino to fight corrupt practices.

Frontiers

What is a Happy Christmas?

It’s a real challenge for true Christians and people of faith to reclaim the meaning of Christmas and to make it a real event as Jesus would want it. It’s a time to rededicate ourselves to the ideals He exemplified and brought into the world. We need to find again that path to spiritual renewal and the courage for unselfish living. “I came to serve and not to be served;” “They who lose their lives will save it;” “What you do to the poorest of My family, you do to Me;” “I came to give My life as an offering for many,” He taught us.

Frontiers

A Gift for China and the West

The community of democratic activists and dissidents is overcome with joy at the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the writer Liu Xiaobo. And although police have blacked out television coverage and gagged Liu’s wife, Xia Liu, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to this writer, is of great comfort to all those who had the courage to fight and sign together with him the Charter 08 document, that led to his sentence to 11 years in prison for “inciting subversion of state power.”

Frontiers

Restoring Broken Lives

It’s no secret that guards, police and barangay officials beat, abuse, kick and humiliate Filipino youth when apprehended and later awaiting trial in jails and detention centers. Their testimonies and their medical examinations, when released, prove it. It happens in the UK also as the Observer newspaper recently exposed a government manual that taught guards how to beat, punch and gouge youth in privately-run UK detention centers.

Frontiers

Helping the Hungry Feed Themselves

My first encounter with death by starvation was in Olongapo City many years ago when I was called out to bless a dead child. I was led to the hovel made of cartons and plastic sheet where the three year old was about to be buried. I found a little girl in a cardboard box covered with a dress cut out of paper. It was all the emaciated mother could afford. The family hadn’t eaten in days. It led me to ask why and what could I do to prevent it.

Frontiers

A Nation Crying Out for Justice

There is a new Philippine president. Noynoy Aquino has stepped into the challenging role as “hope of the nation” and has selected his Cabinet that promises a corruption-free Philippines. It is particularly outstanding because of the presence of designated Department of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, the former Human Rights Commissioner who bravely sought to uncover the bloody hands behind countless assassinations and murders of social activists, human rights workers and leaders of civil society.

The Philippines and the International Criminal Court

The landslide victory of the new president, Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, was obtained on a wave of hope and nostalgia that began with an emotional tsunami during the long 8-hour funeral procession of his mother, Corazon “Cory” Aquino, last August 2009.

Frontiers

Hope for the Philippines

Last week, I had a meeting with a remarkable man, Tony Meloto, the founder of the Catholic social action movement Gawad Kalinga (Caring for Others) that is utilizing all of its resources to mobilize the church, politicians, community leaders and every willing Filipino to do good to help their neighbor and bring an end to the crippling and disastrous poverty in the Philippines. His goal is to achieve this by 2024.

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