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For the first time, the U.N. has declared three simultaneous crises – in South Sudan, Syria and the Philippines – as level 3, the highest band of emergency. So this is a period of intense activity for NGOs such as the International Rescue Committee. But it is also a good time to reflect on the goals and working methods of the humanitarian system.
When the former President Lula decided to bring the World Cup of 2014 to Brazil, he thought he was giving a big gift to his people known worldwide for their passion for soccer. Only to know later how equally big the problems would be!
A total of 172 women, up 25% from 2013, have made Forbes 28th annual billionaires’ list. Women now make up 10% of the global super-rich, thanks to a huge influx of female wealth, led by Sheryl Sandberg. With a personal fortune worth more than $1B (£599M), she became one of the highest-profile new entrants to the Forbes list, joining Meg Whitman of Hewlett-Packard as the only other female tech billionaire.
Recent arms seizures and arrests of traffickers in Cameroon’s Far North Region have highlighted the escalating insecurity caused by Boko Haram in neighboring Nigeria and the impact of the unrest on the Central African Republic (CAR) and Sudan.
Despite the best endeavors of so many in so many countries, modern slavery and human trafficking continue to expand. Victims are hidden away: in places of prostitution, in factories and farms, on fishing boats, and illegal establishments, in private homes behind locked doors and in many other places in cities, villages and slums, in the world’s richest nations and poorest nations.
In a decree on Feb. 7, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints to promulgate the causes of these Catholics in the various stages of the canonization process.
According to the BBC, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator in South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, says $1.3 billion are needed for emergency aid to address the severe and growing crisis in South Sudan.
Pope Francis formally invested 19 new cardinals in a solemn rite at St. Peter’s Basilica on February 22, the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter. This is the first batch of collaborators that Francis has named in his year-old papacy.
Over the course of the past year, persecution against Christians has increased across the whole world and Africa is gradually becoming “a battlefield for Christian Churches,” too. This was revealed by the 2014 World Watch List, the annual report on the state of anti-Christian violence across the world, introduced in 1997 by the international evangelical NGO, ‘Open Doors.’
