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“Pardoning is indeed like a miracle. Human nature, when it is hurt, is not prone to forgive, only to retaliate. God alone forgives, but we are able to do so, too, by His inspiration and
with His support.”
Simultaneously tackling obesity and malnutrition may seem like “polar opposites,” conceded UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the High-Level Meeting on Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases in New York, but an increasing number of countries are experiencing higher rates of both and the answer to reducing this phenomenon is the same: better nutrition.
India is the fourth country in the world where the female gender is most at risk, after Afghanistan, Congo and Pakistan. But, in this case, the reason is unique: the widespread practice of selective abortion of female fetuses. The national average has dropped to 914 girls per 1000 boys from 927 per 1000 in the 2001 census. That year, demographers said that there were six million ‘missing girls’ in India; now, of a total population of 1.21 billion people, 7.1 million are missing.
At All Saints Roman Catholic Church Cathedral in Nairobi, African workers were recently singing lively Christian worship songs as they broke ground for the construction of a new office block for the Nairobi Archdiocese. However, they were not working for an African or British construction company. China Zhongxing Construction is building Maurice Cardinal Otunga Plaza, one of many church contracts Chinese construction companies have won in recent years as China has expanded its influence in Africa. Now, Chinese firms build many bridges, roads and stadiums across the continent.
Dr. Theogene Rudasingwa, a former Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF) Secretary General, Ambassador to the United States, and Chief of Staff for President Paul Kagame, confesses at last that he knew all the time that it was Kagame who, in 1994, started the genocide in which over 800,000 Rwandans died in just 100 days. He says: “By killing President Habyarimana, Paul Kagame introduced a wild card in an already fragile ceasefire and dangerous situation. This created a powerful trigger, escalating to a tipping point towards resumption of the civil war, genocide, and the region-wide destabilization that has devastated the Great Lakes region since then.” Now he felt the need to ask the families of the victims and God’s forgiveness, saying: “Our individual and collective search for truth will set us free.”
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.
The photograph of Juanito, a street boy, 14, dressed in nothing but dirty shorts, his only earthly possession. He was poverty personified.
The Church in China is “sick” and it is “heading for disaster,” if it lets itself to continue being manipulated by the government, warned Salesian Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, in an interview at the end of April. The bishop emeritus of Hong Kong blamed key Vatican officials, especially from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and their desire to “compromise at any cost,” thus, creating confusion and undermining Pope Benedict XVI’s intentions for the Catholic Church in China. He believes that such misguided policies have emboldened Beijing authorities to increase their grip on the Church.
According to the Amnesty International 2011 report, human rights in China are being trampled at every level. With its growing economic power and world influence, the Republic is even silencing its critics in countries around the planet.
Where there is no recognition of wrongdoing, or where there is no remorse and atonement, there is no duty to forgive. The offense will likely be repeated, if not by the same person, by others who are emboldened by the community’s lack of will to enforce its laws. But, more to the point, even where remorse compels forgiveness, the wrongdoing is not erased.
