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Category: World Touch
Global Aid

Winners and Losers in Donor Contest

Do donor countries live up to the rhetoric and give emergency aid only where needed, without strings attached, and regardless of security and foreign policy priorities? A new report released reviews the performance of 23 donors against their own guidelines and finds most wanting, coming under fire from winners and losers. The Humanitarian Response Index 2008 (HRI), compiled by the international non-profit organization DARA (Development Assistance Research Associates), found that millions of people do not receive the relief they vitally need, in part because donor countries do not adhere to their own “Good Humanitarian Donorship” (GHD) principles. Among those principles, established in 2003, are that: emergency aid should be impartial, not driven by political, economic or security agendas; should strengthen capacity to respond to future crises, including prevention; assess needs and target effectively; and link relief efforts with long-term development strategies.

www.irin.org
Asia

Church Defends Modernity’s New Slaves

The Church has to pave new paths of hope for the modern types of slaveries being created by the phenomenon of migration. This was one of 11 specific recommendations that came from a conference organized by the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers and the Thai Episcopal Conference in Bangkok. The Conference’s theme was “Towards a Better Pastoral Care for Migrants and Refugees in Asia at the Dawn of the Third Millennium.” Participants were informed that the continent hosts nearly 25% of the 200 million international migrants worldwide.

www.zenit.org

A Wound in the Global Moral System

For a problem that is not exclusively financial, there needs to be a solution that is not exclusively financial, a Vatican representative recalled. Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, underlined this on Vatican Radio when he discussed the ongoing worldwide economic crisis. “The crisis that the world is currently living is not just financial and, therefore, the solution cannot be purely financial,” he said. Instead, the economic crisis “verifies what the Church’s social doctrine has said for a long time: When an economic-financial system goes into crisis, it is never due to economic or financial motives, but because, in its origin, there has been a wound in the global moral system.”

www.zenit.org

A Symptom of an Unsustainable Lifestyle

European bishops say Christians should lead the way in using the climate change issue as an opportunity to analyze societal practices and return to the true values in life. The stance of Christians faced with global warming and other climate changes was one of the themes addressed by the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community during their plenary assembly.

www.zenit.org
Holysee

It’s Easier to Get a Gun Than Food or Education

The Holy See is decrying a world situation in which it is easier to get a weapon than to obtain food, shelter and an education. Archbishop Celestino Migliore, permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, affirmed this at the U.N. Security Council meeting on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Strengthening Collective Security Through General Regulation and Reduction of Armaments.”

www.zenit.org
Cyprus

Peace Alone is Holy!

An appeal for world peace was passed from religious leaders to children to government officials in Nicosia, Cyprus. With the presentation of the appeal, the International Meeting of Prayer for Peace, traditionally sponsored by the Catholic lay Sant’Egidio Community, and this time co-sponsored by the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, came to an end. The 22nd meeting was on “The Civilization of Peace: Faiths and Cultures in Dialogue.”

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United Nations

More Countries Against Death Penalty

With 104 votes in favor, 48 contrary and 31 abstentions, the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (or Third Committee) of the UN General Assembly approved the renewal of the “universal moratorium on the death penalty,” first adopted in 2007.Then, the Committee had approved the moratorium with a mere 99 “yes” and 52 “no” and 33 abstentions; the Assembly backed the moratorium in a 104-54 vote (29 abstentions).

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Vatican

St. Paul was a “Migrant by Vocation”

The example of St. Paul is one Benedict XVI hopes the Church will follow to build solidarity and promote peaceful coexistence among all races, cultures and creeds. The Pope said this in the message released for the 95th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, to be held January 18.

www.zenit.org

Two Planets to Maintain our Lifestyles

The world is heading for an ecological credit crunch as human demands on the world’s natural capital far outstrips the Earth’s ability to sustain it. That is the stark warning contained in the latest edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report, the leading statement of the planet’s health. On a global scale, humans are currently exploiting the planet’s natural resources at an unsustainable rate. We are living beyond our means and must reduce our impact in order to avoid financial, ecological and societal disaster.

AFP

Migration with a Human Face

Government officials and civil society members from 163 countries, gathered in the Philippines for a meeting on migration, agreed that it was time to look beyond economic benefits and give the phenomenon a ‘human face.’ As the four-day ‘Second Global Forum on Migration and Development’ drew to a close, the consensus was that there needed to be a ‘’rights-based approach’’ to migrant workers, taking into consideration the benefits they bring to both home and host countries.

Prime Sarmiento
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