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Category: World Touch
World Touch

When Wives are Set on Fire for their Dowry

At least 249 women were killed in 2010 for their dowry, this according to the Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights (BSEHR). Whether out of anger or for vengeance, husbands often beat their wives or set them on fire with kerosene, sometimes with the complicity of their families. In some cases, women are strangled and then hanged to simulate a suicide. The figures are incomplete though because many cases are not reported. In fact, if in 2007, there were 145 recorded cases, dropping to 114 in 2008 and 109 in 2009, the numbers last year showed a marked reversal. At the same time, the BSEHR also reported that, last year, at least 122 women were tortured.

Nozrul Islam
World Touch

Majority Wants Clergy to Speak Out on Rich-poor Gap

A survey found that the majority of Americans believe that capitalism is not compatible with Christian values. The survey, conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute in partnership with Religion News Service, found that 44% of Americans expressed the belief that the two are at odds, while 36% asserted that capitalism is consistent with Christian values.

www.zenit.org
World Touch

About 2.64 Million Fetuses Die After the 28th Week

The annual number of stillbirths in the whole world is twice the number of people who die from diseases associated with HIV. According to the weekly science magazine, The Lancet, about 2.64 million fetuses die after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, mainly in low and middle-income countries. The main causes are birth complications, maternal infections during pregnancy, disorders such as hypertension and diabetes, fetal growth restriction and congenital anomalies. According to experts, more attention to prenatal care would be sufficient to deal with this social plague.

www.fides.org
World Touch

Christians Battle Against Corruption

The Christians in India are on the frontline in the war against corruption, which is involving large sectors of Indian civil society. At institutional and federal levels, the bishops are actively involved in the current national debate to approve a specific anti-corruption law called the “Lokpal Bill.”

www.fides.org
Philippines

Still Too Many Child Soldiers

Significant progress has been made in the Philippines against the use of child soldiers committed by rebel groups, but the problem still persists.

www.fides.org
World Touch

Fuel, Food & Bio-plastic

At a time when most conventional fuels cast ever longer shadows of unintended consequences, algae – that lowly pond scum – offers a pleasant surprise: a near-term, low-tech alternative with apparently few of the hidden costs of more elaborate, expensive and exploitive energy sources, writes Mark Sommer.* The first, simplest, and fastest-growing life form, algae holds unheralded promise to become a pivotal resource for the planet’s future as the basis for a high-quality biodiesel that doesn’t (like corn) siphon food from humans. And it’s not just a fuel. It’s animal feed, human food (think spirulina), and the building block for a wide range of biodegradable bio-plastics to replace petroleum-based plastics. And algae does all this as it grows by absorbing enormous amounts of CO2 – the very greenhouse gas we most urgently need to reduce.

Mark Sommer
World Touch

Catholic Defender of the Marginalized Killed

Shahbaz Bhatti, the Pakistani minister killed by the Taliban, was born on September 9, 1968, to a Christian family. His father, Jacob, served in the army before entering the field of education as a teacher and later as chairman of the board of the Churches of Kushpur. In the Autumn of 2010, he was hospitalized in Islamabad. According to local sources, his condition deteriorated significantly after the news of the assassination of the governor of Punjab, Salman Taseer, on January 4, 2011. He entered into a form of mental and physical depression that, ultimately, led to cardiac arrest, and his death on Jan. 10, 2011.

www.asianews.it / www.fides.org
World Touch

Justice Award for Fr. McDonagh

Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC, will receive the Eighth Annual Partnership for Global Justice Award on May 1, in New York. Fr. McDonagh, a regular contributor to World Mission, will accept the award and deliver a keynote address. The ceremony will be followed by an orientation symposium in preparation for the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development that will take place at the United Nations from May 2 to 14.

-
World Touch

Designing Defense Against Climate Change

As the impact of climate change worsens around the globe, a disaster-resilient village is poised to be a solution for urban poor battling the constant floods and typhoons that hit the Philippines.

Kara Santos

Fighting Materialistic Accumulation of Wealth

The Southern African Bishops lament the fact that the Church’s voice is struggling to be heard in the general debate on issues such as the proper utilization of wealth. In his report at the Plenary Session of the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC, which brings together the Bishops of South Africa, Botswana and Swaziland), Archbishop Buti Tlhagale of Johannesburg and President of the SACBC, said: “It is relatively easy to appreciate the public role of the Catholic Church in the area of social services, health care and development projects…. What is missing in the public spaces of our societies is the voice of the Catholic Church (or the religious sector) that genuinely seeks to engage the public on moral-ethical issues which impinge on the society at large.”

Tricia Garcia
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