Browse past isues
Help the mission
Support the mission
Get in touch
“We inherit eternal life through love and commitment to God’s work. Human plenitude is service and self-donation without conditions.”
A possible new war between North and South Sudan could cause damages around 100 billion dollars, revealed a report recently released by Frontier Economics (a consulting firm in economics) together with the ISS (Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank that deals with security issues relating to Africa), by SID (Society for International Development) and by Aegis Trust campaigns for a sustainable peace in Sudan.
Former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Czech President Vaclav Havel have appealed to Chinese authorities to set the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo free “without conditions” before the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Peace 2010. The appeal was published by Britain’s The Observer. Tutu and Havel are honorary co-chairmen of the association, Freedom Now, that represents Liu in international bodies.
Rice-producing countries, farmers and scientists from around the globe have gathered in Vietnam for the third International Rice Congress. Held every four years, the congress is the world’s largest meeting of the rice industry, which feeds more than half the world.
Since 1998, every year, on 3 December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is celebrated worldwide, officially promoted by the UN. Last year’s data showed: about 10% of the world population (650 million people) has a disability; 80% of disabled people (more than 400 million) live in poor countries; 90% of children with disabilities in developing countries are excluded from school; about 20 million women are disabled due to pregnancy or childbirth complications.
A former lawmaker called for the resignation of Philippine Supreme Court justices after the High Court declared the country’s Truth Commission unconstitutional. “They should pack their things and leave their posts. What they did was not only indefensible and unforgivable, it is also an affront to the entire judiciary system and the people,” said former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, an ally of Aquino.
The wars of today will not lead to the peace of tomorrow, declared Cardinal Peter Turkson. The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace was precisely addressing a congress of the German Bishops’ Conference Commission for Justice and Peace, held in Berlin and focused on the theme “Wars of Today, Peace of Tomorrow.”
When she was released last November, her fellow countrymen and all the world rejoiced: Aung San Suu Kyi, 65, an international symbol of peaceful resistance in the face of oppression, was finally free, after 20 years in some form of detention because of her efforts to bring democracy to military-ruled Burma.
Religious freedom is under threat in many places around the globe, according to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who presented last November the annual International Religious Freedom Report. The report’s first section details the status of religious freedom in 27 nations, many in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, but also including Cuba and Venezuela. Clinton presented the report with reference to the recent attack on the Syriac Catholic Church in Baghdad.
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.
