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A three-day Global Alliance for Banking on Values summit, with the participation of about 70 ethical banks from across the world, wrapped up in northern Italy with a call to embrace the principles of Ethical Finance for the good of humanity and the planet.
In a recent report, Amnesty International said a rising number of Chinese companies are profiting from the trade of the so-called “tools of torture,” which include electric shock-stun batons, metal-spiked batons and weighted leg cuffs. The London-based group says 130 mostly state-owned Chinese companies now produce and trade the equipment. That is up from just 28 a decade ago.
The number of executions worldwide increased last year despite a global trend toward capital punishment abolition. This is the finding of the 2014 report entitled “The death penalty in the world,” compiled by the Italian organization, Hands Off Cain, and presented recently in Rome, Italy. Asian and Middle Eastern nations are in the lead for the number of people sent to their death. Once again, in 2013, China won this sad award, followed at some distance by Iran and Iraq.
The world’s wealthiest people aren’t known for travelling by bus, but if they fancied a change of scene, then the richest 85 people on the globe – who among them control as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population put together – could squeeze onto a single double-decker.
After the first reactions of disbelief, there was no possible doubt about it. Pope Benedict had announced his resignation as the Bishop of Rome and, therefore, as Pope. He did so in strict adherence to what is clearly established by Church Law (CIC 332) which explicitly makes provision for the eventual resignation: to be valid, it must be done personally, in complete freedom, and it must be made manifest. There is no need for anybody to formally accept it. Pope Benedict also included in his declaration the day – 28 February, and the hour – 20:00, Rome time, when his mandate as Pope would cease. He also declared that he reached such decision after much reflection and prayer, and following his own conscience. He was sure that the step he was taking was ‘according to God’s will’ and that it was ‘for the good of the Church.’ After 28 February, he would continue to serve the Church dedicating his life to prayer, since his age and his health no longer allowed him to continue to serve in the government of ‘the boat of Peter.’ He himself had mentioned that possibility a couple of years ago. It was in the ‘interview book,’ Light of the World (Vatican 2010), which he did with journalist Peter Seewald. I quote freely: ‘If a Pope sees that he is no longer capable, physically, psychologically or spiritually of continuing to carry on with the duties of his service, then he has the right, and in certain circumstances, even the duty to resign.’ Of course, we all thought it was merely a theoretical hypothesis. Clearly it wasn’t so! In 2009, he had made an interesting pilgrimage to the tomb of a saintly pope of the thirteenth century: Celestine V, in the Italian city of L’Acquila. On the tomb of Saint Celestine V, Benedict placed a Pallium, just like the one which he himself always wears as bishop of Rome. It may have been just a coincidence, but Pope Celestine V was the one who resigned from the papacy just a few months after his election. He did so, on 13 December 1294, in front of the assembled cardinals. Resignation by a Pope is an extremely rare event. Apart from some instances, which are discussed by historians, the other pope who is known to have resigned peacefully was Pope Pontian, who resigned in the year 235 when he was condemned to forced labor in the mines of the island of Sardinia, together with the priest Hippolytus. Pope Anterus was then elected as his successor. Benedict XVI leaves the helm of the boat of Peter but he will certainly continue to sustain the new pope and the whole Church with his prayer and with the tremendous witness of humility, faith and courage, in a blend that our Church had not seen for many centuries.
Top political and financial leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos say recent natural disasters, along with Obama’s inauguration announcement that he is making the battle against rising temperatures a pillar of his second term, could rev up the glacially slow climate pact negotiations and revive fund–raising for global action to cool the planet.
The international media jumped at the lower output forecasts for US maize and soybeans and wheat from Russia in 2012/13 as evidence that a food crisis is almost certainly on the way. But a range of economists and food experts also warne against overreaction that could create panic, causing governments to apply export controls that would restrict supplies of grains. This would affect markets and push prices still higher, they say.
The international media jumped at the lower output forecasts for US maize and soybeans and wheat from Russia in 2012/13 as evidence that a food crisis is almost certainly on the way. But a range of economists and food experts also warne against overreaction that could create panic, causing governments to apply export controls that would restrict supplies of grains. This would affect markets and push prices still higher, they say.
At least 200 million people in the world are in danger of being left without water because they depend for their supply on glaciers that are melting although, paradoxically, the process creates the illusion of plentiful water resources. While the average global temperature has risen by 0.6 degrees Celsius in the last 100 years, the temperature of glaciers has increased by 1.5 degrees in just two decades. Local communities, especially in the Himalayan and Andes mountain ranges, are the most affected.
It is a graphic demonstration of the sickening, symbiotic relationship between hunger and conflict and highlights food supply problems from Somalia to India to Spain. A new map of food security risk around the world is, in some ways, depressingly familiar. Sub-Saharan Africa leaps out as the place where the most people fear for their next meal, while the rich world has more to fear from obesity. But there’s plenty of salutary reminders and fascinating detail, like India’s food problems and the vulnerability of Spain.
