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PDF versionVatican speaking for voiceless global poor
by John L Allen Jr on Apr. 03, 2009
Also reporting from the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators
Let’s begin with a pop quiz: Which of the following headlines about Pope Benedict XVI does not belong in a list of recent events which became a cause célèbre?
A. Pope lifts excommunication of Holocaust-denying bishop
B. Pope says condoms make AIDS worse
C. Pope increasingly ‘isolated,’ insiders claim
D. Pope emerges as voice of the poor in economic crisis
The correct answer is, of course, “D,” in that it’s the lone entry that has not triggered a global avalanche of punditry. The image of Benedict XVI as a tribune for the world’s poor, therefore, would probably not naturally spring to mind for the average person if asked what the pope has been up to lately.
That’s too bad, because while most world leaders these days fret over the middle class, the financial sector, ailing auto companies, and so on -- all, of course, utterly legitimate concerns for elected officials -- the pope has been striking a different, and badly needed, note.
During his recent trip to Angola, Benedict XVI insisted that the poor “must not become one of the casualties” of the economic crisis, and pledged that the Catholic church “will always be found standing alongside the poorest of this continent.” Nor did Benedict restrict himself to pious exhortations. He got down to brass tacks, demanding that developed nations live up to their “oft-repeated promise” to devote 0.7 percent of their Gross National Product to assistance for impoverished nations.
Senior Vatican officials have taken the pope’s lead. This week, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, released a message to the G-8 “Social Summit,” which brought together labor ministers from the G-8 nations as well as China, Brazil, Mexico, India, South Africa and Egypt in Rome March 29-31. Bertone argued that fine-tuning economic structures is not enough; the economy must be given a “human face,” the cardinal insisted, including guarantees of a “basic level of income and security” for the millions of persons who have recently lost jobs because of economic contraction.
The pope took up the fate of the poor again in a hard-hitting letter to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, in conjunction with this week’s G-20 meeting in London. Benedict wrote that his Africa trip had allowed him to “see first-hand the reality of severe poverty and marginalization, which the crisis risks aggravating dramatically.” Benedict expressed concern that the poor may not be sufficiently visible in the G-20, since “sub-Saharan Africa is represented by just one state and some regional organizations.” That imbalance, Benedict wrote, “must prompt a profound reflection among the summit participants, since those whose voice has least force in the political scene are precisely the ones who suffer most from the harmful effects of a crisis for which they do not bear responsibility.” The pope closed by insisting that the elimination of extreme poverty by 2015, as called for by the United Nations Millennium Goals, “remains one of the most important tasks of our time.”
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These papal interventions are timely, as the world’s poorest nations and people desperately need someone to take a stand on their behalf -- doing something more articulate, and effective, than smashing a few bank windows in downtown London.
Development experts say the crisis has placed poor countries in a “triple whammy,” formed by a withdrawal of lending by risk-averse banks, a flight of foreign investment, and skyrocketing interest rates. Impoverished nations likewise face falling prices for agricultural and mining commodities, growing unemployment, and the threat of protectionist trade policies that could further exclude their products from global markets. As a result, aid agencies have warned that millions of people in developing nations could backslide into extreme poverty in 2009. As many as half a million infants could die from a combination of malnutrition and inadequate sanitation and health care.
In response, the World Bank has proposed a new “vulnerability fund,” asking developed countries to devote 0.7 percent of their fiscal stimulus packages to provide a basic safety net in poor nations and to support at-risk areas such as infrastructure and agriculture. If such investments are to gain political traction, the world’s premier spiritual leaders and voices of conscience need to mobilize public opinion.
That’s precisely what Benedict XVI and his lieutenants have been trying to do, but so far it’s been hard to break through the noise generated by the melees over condoms and Holocaust-denying bishops. That reality encapsulates the hidden cost of the Vatican’s PR woes: It’s not just the negative reaction generated by the episode itself, but the way in which it becomes more difficult for the church to exercise moral leadership on any other subject.
Perversely, all the negative media attention of late probably means that Benedict XVI’s Holy Week messages this year will be more closely scrutinized than normal. In the spirit of taking lemons and making lemonade, it’s a chance for the pope to put an exclamation point on his recent teaching … and, in the crass language of public relations, to get back into the “win column.”
* * * * *
Apropos of the great condom debate, the tendency these days in much Catholic discussion is to insist that Benedict XVI had a point when he said on March 17 that condoms “actually increase the problem” of AIDS. Even secular experts have come to his defense; writing in the Washington Post March 29, Edward Green of Harvard’s School of Public Health observed that “condom orthodoxy” in the West runs afoul of empirical data suggesting that African nations which have had success in combating AIDS are those which have emphasized behavioral changes, meaning abstinence outside marriage, rather than relying primarily on condoms.
That tracks with what many AIDS experts in Africa, including several not affiliated with the Catholic church, told me last week. The problem, they said, is not with a condom’s physical capacity to prevent transmission of the virus. The problem instead is its psychological and cultural impact; too often, they said, it creates a false sense of invulnerability, encouraging risky behavior.
Nonetheless, focusing on what Benedict said risks neglecting an equally urgent discussion of how and when he said it.
Whatever one makes of “condom orthodoxy,” it’s obviously a fact of life in elite Western circles of opinion. (Witness Maureen Dowd’s gratuitous remark in the March 29 New York Times that the pope’s line amounted to “international lunacy.”) Any challenge to it is destined to be explosive, and therefore it’s not something you can simply drop in as a fleeting aside during a session with reporters aboard the papal plane. If the Vatican wanted to take it on, some preparation was in order. Vatican officials could have been standing by with copies of Green’s study to distribute to the press. African AIDS experts could have been on hand to offer their own testimony.
It won’t do to suggest that the pope was caught off guard, since the Vatican spokesperson collects these questions from reporters in advance. If Benedict wanted to wade into the condom debate, there was time to do it right.
Moreover, there’s also the question of when to raise the subject. By going to Africa, Benedict wanted to throw a spotlight on the growth and vitality of the faith there, as well as to engage burning social issues such as poverty, war, corruption, and human rights. By making condoms the dominant story line on day one, he all but dared the global press to ignore everything else. Had he waited a couple of days, other storylines could have emerged.
In other words, even when the pope has a legitimate point to make, it’s still incumbent upon him and his advisors to be smart about how it’s delivered. That’s not a matter of letting the media dictate to the pope, or the church; it’s a matter of making sure that what’s pitched is also what’s caught.
* * * * *
Last week I offered my take on what African Catholicism has to offer the global church in the 21st century, describing it as “liberation theology without the hang-up about authority.” By that, I meant that the energy of the African church is typically directed at broad social transformation, not insider Catholic baseball, and that Africans are inclined to accent harmony in the church rather than pitting a “church from below” against the bishops.
That essay drew a wide range of reactions, but perhaps the most notable -- at least in terms of star power -- came from Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, the famed Zambian exorcist and renegade Catholic prelate. Milingo’s on-again, off-again, then on-again break with Rome in 2001, symbolized by his marriage to a Korean bride selected by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, offered one of the most compelling soap operas in recent Catholic memory. In 2006, Milingo ordained four bishops without papal permission as part of his “Married Priests Now!” movement, triggering an automatic excommunication.
Now based in South Korea, where the headquarters of Moon’s “Family Federation for World Peace and Unification” is located, Milingo sent along the following comment:
I have read your ‘African-style liberation theology’ article twice. In reality, there is neither theology nor liberation [in much African Catholicism]. ... It is a pity that Africans have not been united in voicing themselves in matters so important for Christian development. Those who have raised their voices, in an effort to stress a renewing approach to Catholicism in Africa, have been officially silenced. For example, the Tanzanian co-founder of the East- African Catholic University in Kenya later left the university and founded his own church. A Jesuit Cameroonian [Englebert Mveng] died a mysterious death. African thoughts, in other words, are inhibited. The ‘yes men’, bishops and priests, are in office to represent themselves, not the Africans. They have to be good boys to the Vatican for further promotions, not for the service of the Church.
Liberation theology in Latin America opposed teaching the ‘virtue’ of poverty to the poor, when the masters did not themselves live in poverty. These ‘masters’ included the church, which was in every way part of the upper class, the privileged and the rich. The target of liberation theology in South America was a form of theology inconsistent with the true teaching of Jesus Christ. Even now that he’s been put out of the Roman Catholic Church, Fr. [Leonardo] Boff still speaks as a defender of the poor in Latin America, who have been colonized both by the governments and by the churches of the West.
I’m sorry to say that Africa has no such liberation theology. They’re dealing only with how to adapt traditional theology to the idioms of local cultural language. They are simply translating Western theology into idiomatic African language [rather than generating a truly African theology]. If you want any further discussion on these matters, let me know.
Quite apart from its merits, the reply may also be noteworthy as a sign of renewed eagerness from Milingo to inject himself into Catholic debates. If so, at least the press corps ought to be happy -- things on the Catholic beat are always a little less dull when Milingo is in the house.
* * * * *
On Monday, March 30, I delivered a keynote address at the National Association of Church Personnel Administrators convocation, held this year in Oak Brook, Ill. The association brings together human-resource officers for dioceses, religious orders and other groups within the Catholic church.
I hung around the edges of the conference for a while, and doing so offered an object lesson in the two different levels at which the Catholic church is struggling to respond to the current economic crisis. On the one hand, the church acts as a voice of conscience, applying its social teaching to broad public-policy debates; on the other hand, the church is also itself a large financial enterprise obliged to make hard choices about how to cope with declining resources and mounting costs.
The group assembled in Oak Brook represented the church’s frontline in responding to this second set of challenges.
Inevitably, some of the realities they face will not be pleasant. I sat in one session, for example, where Maureen Murphy, senior counsel for the Chicago archdiocese, was doling out advice about how to handle termination procedures. One tip: Never put the reasons for firing someone in a termination letter. Given the emotional pressures of the moment, she said, such a letter will often be hasty and not fully considered. If the employee later challenges the firing and the employer offers reasons that weren’t in the letter, it can complicate things.
Murphy stressed that as a matter of justice, anyone being let go obviously deserves an explanation of the reasons why, which ought to be presented in a personal meeting. In an ideal world, she said, those conversations should also have come earlier in the game, so that when the end comes it’s no surprise.
Other practical bits of counsel:
- Don’t let parish employees put in overtime disguised as unpaid “volunteer” work. If they work more than 40 hours, they ought to be paid. In any event, Murphy said, lawyers like to take up overtime disputes, because if they prevail they can claim not just back pay for the client but also attorney’s fees.
- Don’t use e-mail as a way of avoiding dealing with personnel problems on a face-to-face basis. “People say things in e-mails that they wouldn’t in person,” Murphy observed, “and sometimes that means civility is lost.”
There were also flashes of gallows humor. One human-resources director told the story of a pastor who called the office to say that a parish employee had offered to resign, and the pastor wanted to know if he should accept. The director said yes, under the logic that if things deteriorate to the point where someone volunteers to quit, it’s usually wise to accept. That prompted the pastor to ask: “Does it make any difference if the guy is crying?” Grim chuckles rippled through the room, suggesting that this was a scenario with which human-resources people are all too familiar. Alas, the crisis undoubtedly means that such scenes may become even more common, as parishes, dioceses and other entities face pressure to cut payroll costs.
I also sat in on a session led by human-resources directors for the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and the Adrian Dominicans, which was devoted to how to handle the personnel implications of a merger between religious congregations. Though the session featured a lot of nuts-and-bolts specifics, the basic advice seemed to be to take time to listen and to be sure everyone’s on board, rather than to indulge an administrator’s instinctive desire to “get things done.”
In her keynote Tuesday morning, Carol Fowler, director of personnel services for the Chicago archdiocese, invited her colleagues to take a “glass half full” perspective on the crisis.
“This is our time,” Fowler told the audience, arguing that the church’s bean counters and human-resources experts aren’t just support staff anymore, but critically important leaders in helping the church utilize its resources more effectively, so that its core goals and values aren’t compromised.
Fowler insisted that the church’s administrative professionals think of themselves as ministers, not just managers. She pointed to the tone set by Cardinal Francis George in Chicago, who, she said, regularly asks during budget meetings, “How does everything in your budget help people come closer to Jesus Christ?”
Fowler called upon the church’s human-resources officers to become more “strategic,” not simply reacting to problems as they arise, but anticipating challenges and devising responses before the dam bursts. Specifically, she recommended:
- Developing better methods for assessing performance, in order to encourage good work and to address deficiencies before they fester. (Fowler ruefully said that personnel assessment is something the church doesn’t do very well. When a pastor calls to say that a parish employee has to go, Fowler said, she asks him to send along the personnel file. Often enough, she said, the file contains one of two things: nothing at all, or glowing evaluations that provide little basis for termination. “We have to get better,” she said.)
- Projecting gaps and needs in staffing, in order to devise effective recruitment and retention strategies. In a time of crisis, she said, “making sure the right people are in the right jobs” is essential.
- Planning for transitions in leadership in key areas.
- In terms of where to invest limited resources these days, Fowler observed that the first line item in a budget to be cut during times of crisis is often funding for leadership training and development — which, she noted, can sound a bit like “fluff.” In reality, she said, “it should be exactly the opposite,” because moments of crisis are precisely when good leadership instincts are at a premium.
Fowler’s bottom line seemed to be that the church needs its human-resources people — and, more broadly, its financial and administrative professionals — to step up. Those who answer the call, she suggested, have a golden opportunity to lead. As part of that picture, Fowler added, they can help ensure that the social justice that the church preaches to the outside world is actually practiced in its own house.
The National Association of Church Personnel Administrators Web site can be found at www.nacpa.org.
[John L. Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@ncronline.org.]
Once again an excellent
Once again an excellent article on things African. Thanks a lot! (Too bad your paragraphs 2 and 3 re: Milingo's reply were not written in italics like the 1st one.)
Your work is also helping me in our "grey" country (Switzerland) where the 0.7% sharing is far from being reached.
Meanwhile in Managua the Bush
Meanwhile in Managua the Bush hangover US Ambassador Callahan (the same formerly associated with the contra under papa Bush), is holding up promised development funds because the Nicaraguans did not vote the way Bush dictated in their November municipal elections.
As President Daniel Ortega puts it: "He is keeping the bread from the mouths of the poor."
Bee in the Bonnet for the
Bee in the Bonnet for the USCCB
Well said:
"so far it’s been hard to break through the noise generated by the melees over condoms and Holocaust-denying bishops...." and
"the way in which it becomes more difficult for the church to exercise moral leadership on any other subject".
That could apply to the USCCB and the Catholic Church in America too.
Any visitor to America would conclude that American Catholics have had ONLY ONE MAJOR ISSUE to be resolved during the last thirty years: "To abort the next Baby or NOT".
That seems to be the "BEE IN THE BONNET" for the USCCB!
It is time that our leaders in our Church get out of the "Reaction Mode" and stop being the "SINGLE ISSUE" bishops who come out of hibernation only at every election cycle.
It is time too that they get back into the driver's seat and lead the Catholic Church instead of relying only on filling its pews with more and more of its faithful from somewhere south of the Rio Grande.
Gracias,
M.Francis
Preferential Option for the
Preferential Option for the Poor was clearly formulated by Father Gustavo Gutierrez for the Puebla CELAM conference nearlt three decades ago. For sometime the Pope has embraced it.
May we please see the same charity recently shown unrepentent schismatic "vaild yet illicit" right-wing Pius X bishops now shown to all those holy clerics and theologians shown so little charity and understanding by the Holy Office a quarter century ago?
"Bertone argued that fine-tuning economic structures is not enough; the economy must be given a “human face,” the cardinal insisted, including guarantees of a “basic level of income and security” for the millions of persons who have recently lost jobs because of economic contraction."
This resembles strongly PACEM IN TERRIS of over 45 years ago, and On the Progress of Peoples, and Economic Justice for All.
See also the closing passages of this Pope's Sacramentum Caritatis which exhorts that our participation in the Eucharist compels us to alter these unjust economic systems. No stronger statement for Liberation Theology has ever been made from the Seat of Peter.
POPE BENEDICT MAKES ME PROUD.
POPE BENEDICT MAKES ME PROUD. This good and gentle human being, this supreme theologian of the past one hundred years has been viciously maligned and denigrated by the usual suspects within and without the Church. These are the congenital Church haters, many of them with unresolved personal problems. I am especially proud of his strong and persistent crusade in favor of the poorest of the poor throughout the world, especially in Africa. When it comes to the scourge of poverty, the Pope doesn't just talk the talk, like many of the world's politicans, but he walks the walk and speaks truth to power, as he did recently with the G-20. The Pope's is the only moral voice in the world, the voice of the voiceless. What would the world be without the presence of the Bishop of Rome?
Yes - he is doing a splendid
Yes - he is doing a splendid job in this. I wonder what the hard-right 'culture warriors' who claim a monopoly on orthodoxy are making of it. Are they still gagging on his quoting Habermas and Adorno in an encyclical? (Spe Salvi)
I think the HR piece is
I think the HR piece is great. It shows that the church has some professionals (in the laity ranks anyway) who are trying to learn and teach how to do administrative/business tasks in a professional manner. Congratulations.
Compare this with the hierarchy, starting with the pope, who often say things, even correct and important things, in an offhand, careless manner that is bound to distract from the importance of what they're trying to communicate. Wasn't it St. Paul who warned his homilists, "Don't let your tongues get in the way of the Message."
Well, at least somebody's listening....
Dear Mr. Allen I prepared
Dear Mr. Allen
I prepared this memo for our Dominican Fathers. Fr. Claude Saldana, O.P., san Domenico, via del Castellano 4, 06121 Perugia, Italia. Tel from the States:
011-39-075-573-0966 cell: 011-39-328-971-1188. my e-mail address: Dr.ClaudeSaldanha@gmail.com
WORLD ECONOMIC CONFERENCE 2009
PURPOSE OF CHRISTIAN PARTICIPATION:
To be a prophetic voice, the representative, the mediator and the spokesperson for the weak, marginalized, disenfranchised, underprivileged and underdeveloped peoples of the world.
There is an urgent need to bring all human beings as active participants and equal shareholders in the new economic World Order. As Christians we recognize that God created the World and desires all to share in the fruits of Creation. Consistent with those beliefs, we firmly subscribe to the United Nations Charter of Human Rights, Responsibilities and Obligations.
To foster this new economic order, as Pope John Paul II indicated, we must be ready to forgive national debts.
A new chapter begins when countries are wisely assisted in their economic recovery rather than continually being harassed and burdened by heavy debt. If properly undertaken, these countries will be better able to repay borrowed loans in the shortest period of time. They should be evaluated not by Gross National Product (GNP) but by Gross Development Progress (GDP). Money loaned to them should improve their economic infrastructure rather than expand their military arsenals. It is the responsibility of the United Nations to provide adequate Regional Peace, Prosperity, Security and Protection.
Disaster relief should provide the affected people with 90% of disaster funds, while providing supervision and accountability as to how funds are utilized. In normal economic development projects the country itself should provide at least 25% of the costs (matching funds). An Annual Progress Review would be published providing transparency so that donors and financiers are confident that their money is being well spent. All projects should be subject to review by a three member Commission (one from the donor country, one from a neutral organization, like European Union, Misereor, Adveniat, or volunteers, and the third from the participating country). A trust fund should be established, to be used solely for development projects. Profits and unused funds would then be credited or deposited in this fund.
Governments and the United Nations should never impose economic sanctions against a country simply to punish its political leaders. Invariably the poor and the weak rather than the politically powerful suffer most from such sanctions. Provision should also be made to safeguard the valuable monetary reserves and gold assets of a nation by depositing them in a safe, neutral haven. These should not be frozen, but utilized for payment of developmental projects and legitimate national spending needs. Such assets belong to the people and not to their political leaders.
Each developing country should submit to the United Nations for approval a five year developmental plan with all the necessary particulars, including goals and expenditures. Tenders (legal work contracts) for developmental projects would then be submitted by local contractors with dates of inception and completion of the projects. Supervision, consultation and direction of these projects would be provided by external international experts without political conditions. Particular concern should be paid lest countries be robbed, exploited, deprived or depleted of their natural resources. In cases of dispute, a three member international judicial tribunal would be set up to resolve them (one member from the developing country, one from the donor country or organization, and the third, a neutral appointed member designated by the International Court of Justice or the European Union). Government spending should be viewed as an investment which benefits their people.
Citizens of developing countries find it difficult to obtain jobs in their home country, so that they can feed and look after themselves and their families. Thus many have left their native countries and have illegally entered another country where they have found (underground) work which does not pay well, nor offer any benefits. The United Nations should set up an International Organization that would create developmental work in mini (not mega) projects in these developing countries. This Organization could provide financial assistance, loans, mini credit, support and consultation to farmers and small businesses. There should be a legal prohibition for International Mega Corporations to buy these small farms or businesses. Banks are more interested in these Corporations rather than the common people. They have made it difficult for farmers to cultivate their farms or small businesses to operate. Thus the natives have been displaced from their ancestral property and forced to live in bidonvilles in large cities.
There has been a brain drain in these developing countries in which highly educated, trained and motivated leaders or innovators have left their country and found high paying jobs in developed countries. People who are educated and trained in the developed countries should voluntarily commit themselves to work in their country of origin for at least three years and train others to take their place.
Some countries need non-skilled workers. People should be able to apply for legal permission to work in these countries. This permission should be valid for one year, which can be extended. They would pay income and all other taxes and other deductions as regular citizens and obtain the same labor benefits that are due to any worker. If they return to their native country, money deducted for Social Security should be returned to them with interest, or a pro rata payment would be due to them annually when they reach retirement.
A basic and necessary legal principle is to be established, that no citizen of a poorer or weaker or underdeveloped country would pay or be expected to subsidize the extravagant life style of people in a richer country, while they are living in abject poverty or when it is difficult for them to make the two ends of income and expenditure meet. No political or religious leader in the World should tolerate this. Colonialism has ended and no one has a right for imperialism or domination of other peoples because as members of the same Universe, we all have the right to share, reap and enjoy the fruits, labor and benefits of Mother Earth.
All transactions should reflect an open and transparent collaboration between peoples in a spirit of partnership, mutual understanding, diplomacy and dialogue.
Certain issues need to be resolved:
1) Agricultural policy and polluted water supplies:
The agricultural policy of the EU and the US has in the last 40 years been very damaging for developed countries. It has sharply increased the prices of agricultural products in the West and since the excess production has then been dumped into the world markets, prices outside of the EU have fallen below their "normal" level. Since developing countries have a comparative advantage in agriculture, these policies have been very damaging. Western countries have preferred handing out money in subsidies and transfer to developing governments rather than embarking on a "sounder" agricultural policy. The policy has also stimulated corruption in developing governments and benefited the rich and the powerful there, while more agriculture in developing countries would have spread the wealth more evenly across the social classes there. In addition agriculture in the West has damaged the environment, because of the excessive use of chemical products in agriculture. Also the water systems have been damaged. Some developing countries have recently become aware of the damage caused to them by the agricultural policies of the west and have united in international fora against this policy (Brazil, Australia, South Africa, India etc.). The west wants free trade in the products the others cannot produce and restricts trade heavily in the sectors in which the developing countries have a comparative advantage. That's immoral under any standard. (An economic adviser to Russia recommended the government in a memo to increase tariffs on industrial products from the west, also for budget reasons. It was in 1997-98 when a major financial crisis was looming in Russia he did his best to avoid its outbreak. The ambassadors of the western countries practically fired him. The crisis broke out then in August 1998).
2) Prices of raw materials and the environment
For many years, the prices of raw materials have been too low to the advantage of the west at the cost of the developing countries. But the excessive exploitation of natural resources is also very dangerous for the future of the west and of the whole world and for the world environment. Oil pollutes the world and the atmosphere. This situation has started to change in or around 2006, with many people becoming more aware that a drastic and radical change is needed (Al Gore).
3) Corruption
Developing countries have have not grown enough for many decades because of a high degree of corruption. Corruption has to be uprooted and eradicated with energy and determination because it favours the rich and the powerful at the cost of the poor. It also deprives peoples and developmental projects of much needed and valuable resources.
4) Other elements impeding the growth of developing Countries.
The economic policies of the developing countries are not market and competition oriented. Then the prices of their raw materials that they possess or produce are wrongly and low priced in the world commodities market not taking into account their financial needs. An international committee should be set up to determine the lowest price of the raw material(s) keeping in consideration its real value to the nations of the World and the benefits it can provide for these countries who desperately need capital for their development. There is an urgent need to have a fair and open (transparent) trade. Recently Mr. Pascal, head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) denounced mounting trade restrictions which strangle international Commerce (DG Communication Brussels, Friday, March 27, 2009 No. 6787). "A previous G20 summit in November called on members not to raise barriers to trade, but the dozens of measures imposed since September and cited in Lamy's report show clearly how that is being ignored. The World Bank said last week that 17 G20 members and other countries had implemented 47 measures restricting trade since the November summit ......Some measures taken by trading countries such as stimulus packages would help restore growth globally, but many contained elements such as state aids, subsidies and "buy local" conditions that favoured domestic goods over imports, he said. For instance his report lists 17 measures by 12 countries to help their troubled auto sectors. PROTECTING UNCOMPETITIVE INDUSTRIES LEADS TO PROTECTIONISM. Lamy noted that propping up uncompetitive industries and delaying necessary restructuring could lead to new protectionist pressures to keep those businesses alive, as happened in the 1970s and 1980s. The WTO had detected an increase in import duties, non-tariff barriers such as restrictive standards and greater use of trade remedies tackling imports seen as unfair.
5) Competitive Markets have to be in place
When there is monopoly power or positive or negative externalities free markets have to be controlled by governments. The degree of monopoly power in many markets has grown too much, which justifies interventions and controls by governments and even by international organizations. Also in international trade monopoly power has increased. So corrective measures are needed. For instance see what is said above under point 1 (see agricultural policy in the west; and by the way the EU deserves more criticism than the US).
6) The developing world deserves more weight for the purpose of achieving a better and just world and for helping the poor.
Independently of the relative voting power in the international organizations, the UN deserves more power. The problems of the world (environment, distribution of income, avoiding or stopping wars, refugees, wrong agricultural policies of the EU and the US, dealing with dictatorships and bad governments (Zimbawe), eradicating hunger, AIDS, diseases like malaria, dealing with the monopoly power of great international corporations or cartels, and also against private armies like Blackwater) cannot be solved by individual group of countries. No country or group of countries should be allowed to veto decisions which have been approved by the majority of the world (peoples and nations) within the UN.
One major issue to be resolved relates to differing national currencies, wages and prices. A variety of approaches have been tried. Some countries place on all items a price ceiling beyond which a product cannot be sold. Other countries have a two-tier system of internal and external prices. One practical solution is to peg the value of the currency of a poorer and weaker country to a more stable currency.
Another issue relates to whether a worker is paid according to the true and real value of his work. Does he bring extra equity by his labors? Is there a fair and just wage in the workplace? Do markets reflect a true, real and just value or are prices propped up by greed? Pope Benedict's XVI address to the United Nations (April 2008) denounced speculation in the market motivated by greed.
The economy of the free market system has not addressed real discrepancies of wealth and living standards. It has created more 'have nots', than 'haves'. It has failed. A market system which favors the dominant or wealthy and deprives the masses of their basic rights and the very necessities of life is not just. An economy must not be ruled by an ideological minority, nor exploited by an unscrupulous media. People need the freedom to live their lives as they reasonably desire. We need an economic system where fault or blame does not play a major role, but where people actively assist and support one another.
There is no perfect and just political or economic system. Nevertheless we have the opportunity to correct, and make the necessary changes that improve people's lives. The Book of Leviticus 25:10-11 discusses the Jubilee Year, every fifty years, whereby everything goes back to the normal and original state. We are given a fresh start. Perhaps the same can take place in our day. Perhaps then Isaiah's prophecies will be fulfilled that we "cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression" (1: 16-17). “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people” (Gal. 6:10). And then finally shall "the wolf dwell with the lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid" (11: 6).
A new beginning is possible in our day.
Your comments on the condom
Your comments on the condom remarks and Bp Williamson are on the money. B16 could have said the same things without the rancor if he would enlist people who know how to package the message. Our locals need to learn this, too, as they beat up on Fr. Jenkins at Notre Dame. Calling him and ND out for being the first school to have Barack Obama speak is snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. 50 or 100 years ago a Catholic college could only hope to be the first to have a sitting President give its commencement. The Pope and the bishops in the U.S. need some PR lessons!
God Bless Pope Benedict and
God Bless Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church.
GOD ALMIGHTY! How nasty and
GOD ALMIGHTY! How nasty and bitter NCR bloggers uniformly are. Just take a look at the hysterical comments on this page and on almost every other NCR Blog, to which I devoutly contribute. The Church is bad; the Pope and bishops are bad; the priests are bad; the "pelvic" teachings of the Church are bad. My, my! How unChristian these Christians are. I think they have too much time on their hands. They ought to live some years in the poor countries of Africa, where the Pope has just been. Then they'll see what real problems are.
C'mon John, don't be afraid
C'mon John, don't be afraid to agree with Milingo! His sketch of the main thrust of Latin American liberation theology is fundamentally sound, and although I do not know well enough the theological situation in Africa, I fear he might be just right: besides, how do you think it is possible for Catholics to act efficaciously to improve society and culture? For Catholics to be effective actors at the social, political, and cultural level, it is required that their own community be properly structured. That means the church, besides being able to foster an adequate intellectual preparation both in theology and in all disciplines (economics, politics, medicine, and so forth), should also have in itself the conditions for free and public discussion, which is necessary for concrete Catholic policy proposals to be developed and offered to civil society. But free and public discussion is significantly curtailed by the current structure of Roman Catholicism, unaccountable and thus dismissive of public opinion within the church. How can Catholics propose policies concerning the family, if Catholic women are never consulted or drawn upon in the intra-ecclesial decision-making and policy-planning processes? How on earth can Catholics address in civil society the issues of gender equality; condom use; the unaccountability of power and lack of transparency of administration; the utter rejection of subsidiarity at every political level (i.e. the non-democratic, authoritarian character of so many African states), when the RC church offers a counter example on all those issues. While the force of such counterexample may appear less blunt to us Westerners who have been used to such traditional positions of teh church for so many centuries to the point of developing perhaps a certain apathy towards it, I am sure it is something much more striking and to and easily perceptible by non-Westerners from a non-Christian culture. So bravo to Milingo, and please keep up the good work! Greetings from Italy.
C'mon John, don't be afraid
C'mon John, don't be afraid to agree with Milingo! His sketch of the main thrust of Latin American liberation theology is fundamentally sound, and although I do not know well enough the theological situation in Africa, I fear he might be just right: besides, how do you think it is possible for Catholics to act efficaciously to improve society and culture? For Catholics to be effective actors at the social, political, and cultural level, it is required that their own community be properly structured. That means the church, besides being able to foster an adequate intellectual preparation both in theology and in all disciplines (economics, politics, medicine, and so forth), should also have in itself the conditions for free and public discussion, which is necessary for concrete Catholic policy proposals to be developed and offered to civil society. But free and public discussion is significantly curtailed by the current structure of Roman Catholicism, unaccountable and thus dismissive of public opinion within the church. How can Catholics propose policies concerning the family, if Catholic women are never consulted or drawn upon in the intra-ecclesial decision-making and policy-planning processes? How on earth can Catholics address in civil society the issues of gender equality; condom use; the unaccountability of power and lack of transparency of administration; the utter rejection of subsidiarity at every political level (i.e. the non-democratic, authoritarian character of so many African states), when the RC church offers a counter example on all those issues. While the force of such counterexample may appear less blunt to us Westerners who have been used to such traditional positions of teh church for so many centuries to the point of developing perhaps a certain apathy towards it, I am sure it is something much more striking and to and easily perceptible by non-Westerners from a non-Christian culture. So bravo to Milingo, and please keep up the good work! Greetings from Italy.
Yes, and Catholics speak for
Yes, and Catholics speak for the poorest of the poor, the unborn, so scorned by the elite of the West who believe that women have the right to murder their babies.
With due respect for his
With due respect for his office, personal integrity, good intentions and scholarshap I deeply regret that Pope Benedict XVI., ill advised by less than competent Curia buerocrats and Holy Ghost writers wasted his credibility. May I simply ask all concerned contemporaries regardless of race, religion, gender and nationality, education, economic and social status to pray every day until Pentcost that the Holy Ghost moves him to create Cardinals able to recognize disturbing writing on the wall.
Cynthia married me in the Catholic Church, bore me 5 healthy children. That's more than we could afford had we kept up with the Jones remodelling the house or trading up to acquire more expensive cars and glamorous sposes. 6 years my junior she predeceased me, had no chance to meet half of our 7 grandchildren. Why should doting grandfathers pushing 78 burden beloved kids with faith that inspired them, but regrettably lost credibility?
From economists' perspective pontifical suggestions contradicting a pragmatic and popular US President on G20 summit's eve are an exercise in futility. The bottom line is: Can the next pope practice what Benedict XVI. preached before returning to Rome from Angola. CHANGE OF HEART, A NEW WAY OF THINKING!
The unborn are not the
The unborn are not the "poorest of the poor", women, gays and lesbians, minorities, etc. are. the "unborn" are unborn. Reality check! Earth to you!
ISLAM, CHRISTANITY AND
ISLAM, CHRISTANITY AND CONSUMERISM:
THE GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS –
THE GREAT DEPRESSION II
DR. RAJU M. MATHEW
Global Economic Crisis
The world is under a great economic crisis. For the conventional economists it is only a Recession and not a Depression at all, for their partial analytical techniques, over-simplified models with unrealistic assumptions and over emphasis on data. It may take at least five years for them to realize that it would be a Great Depression and by that time it may be over. When Cybernetics is employed for the study of the working of the global economy as a whole with multi-sector approaches on the basis of the deeper understanding of Political Economy, we are forced to admit that this is not a simple Recession, but the Great Depression II that requires not only Economic Stimulus but Ethical or Spiritual and Political Stimulus Packages too to recover.
Consumerism
Not only the capitalist or developed countries but also the Socialist or Islamist or Less Developed Countries too are brought under the Great Depression II. It is not only Islam or Christianity but also Communism could not save the world from Consumerism and the unethical or immoral business practices that are hundred times deadlier than Materialism or even Atheism. Consumerism has emerged as the greatest threat to the very existence of Capitalism for it drained away saving and investment, that constitute Capital without which there is no Capitalism.
The corporate culture has corrupted almost all religions and communist movements and made them the victims of Consumerism. The corporate culture made everything expensive and unaffordable for the majority for it aims only ‘the chosen few’. It has speeded up the process of the demise of spirituality and moral values. Eroding of the basic spiritual values has paved the way for greed, fraud and corruptions at all level. The present crisis is the result of the total moral, ethical and spiritual failures rather then the economic and technical ones.
Animal Farms
Both Capitalism and Socialism are built up with thrift, mobilization and allocation of resources, production and distribution and treating consumers as rational human being and giving emphasis to social well being. That is why; both Islam and Christianity could survive or flourish under Capitalism or Socialism for they adhere to hard work, thrift, investment, social well being.
Islam and Christianity never advocate theft and looting or plundering, though the Israelites had committed theft, looting and plundering and devised formulas for sharing the loot, including women, especially virgins even to the priests and the God during the time of Moses as stipulated in the Chapter 31 of Numbers of the Old Testament. On the other, Consumerism is an ideology of harvesting without sawing and nurturing just like looting and plundering. It treats human being as mere irrational consuming animals without any concern for individual and social well-being.
‘Party Animal’ is a very popular word under Consumerism as it reduces men and women just like animals for consumption with animal behaviors besides treating them, especially women as consumable products to be bought though for a short period. The Corporate Culture with the powerful weapon of Consumerism aims for making the entire globe, ‘a very big animal farm’ with men, women and children.
Terrorism is a strategy of Consumerism to uproot the very foundation of Islam and Christianity besides Capitalism and Democracy. Unfortunately, Islam is the hardest hit and the greatest victim of Terrorism that aims at murdering Islam before the end of the twenty-first century. Unless Islam, contains the onslaught of Consumerism and Terrorism, they contain Islam for ever, a very big human tragedy.
Spirituality and Human Values
In the demise of spirituality and basic human values, religions turn towards rigorous and harsh customs, devotions, stereotype prayers and fasting, as a regimented drill, without any element of love, mercy and forgiveness. All these factors acted as catalysts for religious fundamentalism. A big vacuum in spirituality of religions paved the way for terrorism. The youth, especially the poor, are indoctrinated and getting believed that the greatest virtue is to become martyrs and to die and kill for their religions for they are rewarded with all the luxuries and pleasures of a ‘seven star hotel’ besides the service of seven virgins in the Paradise after their martyrdom. Sex, drugs and money are indiscriminately administered to them as the immediate rewards for their loyalty and commitment.
Islam and Christianity
Islam and Christianity, the two major world religions have miserably failed, in practice, to imbibe the basic moral, spiritual and ethical values to the humanity. After embracing the corporate culture, they have been rivaling each other in spreading across nations and adhering to the rigorous religious practices. Their champions or leaders have become as materialistic as the ancient Epicureans.
Because of their warring or quarreling factions and their quench for pomp and acquiring more and more material wealth, almost all religions miserably failed to lead the world in the realm of spirituality and to inculcate minimum ethical and human values to the society. Most of the sects or cults in Hinduism and Buddhism also assumed the role of big multinational corporations with assets in terms of trillions.
The Ideology of ‘the Chosen People’
Both Islam and Christianity claim that they are the chosen people of their God. The ideology of chosen people was originated at the time of Abraham and developed into violent and aggressive form during the time of Moses, after the Exodus, on the march of Israelites towards the ‘Promised Land of Canaan’. The Bible gives a detailed account of the kings or peoples who were looted, raped, captured or exterminated in their hands.
When a particular tribe or race or religion or party claims that it is chosen, it undermines other tribes or races or religions or parties and subscribes to the deadly ideology of superior race or tribe or religion or party that would become the basis of Fascism as had advocated by Adolph Hitler. Under Lenin, especially during the time of Stalin, ‘the Comrades’ or the card holders of the Communist Party claimed that they were the chosen ones and the superior people. It is a deadly ideology in which , others are branded inferior or even sub-human being so that they could hate or subjugate or exterminate them and thereby they could please their God or prove their loyalty towards their Party.
Christianity is a thousand kilometers away from Jesus who taught to make peace on earth and to love and forgive the enemies so as to become the children of the Loving Heavenly Father. Islam too is far away from Koran that taught to worship the Most Merciful Allah who demands every Muslim to give mercy and care not only to all human beings but to animals and even trees also.
Both Islam and Christianity, besides Communism, are corrupted with power, money and Consumerism besides the deadly ideology of ‘the chosen people’ with the right to punish or exterminate the disobedient or men without the ‘official version of the faith’ or men with alien faiths who are branded as ‘Pagans’ or ‘Kaferes’ as the communist are branding their enemies as ‘revisionists’ or ‘imperialists’ for extermination.
For the Just, Loving and Merciful God or Allah, all men are chosen and everybody has an equal right for a decent life just like the people of the OPEC or OECD countries and everybody must observe spiritual and ethical values. Nobody has any right to dominate or exterminate other people. If Islam and Christianity fail to bridge the gap between the rich and poor and to end discrimination between the Black and the White and upheld basic spiritual and human values, at least among their own followers, their very worth and relevance are questioned in the age of the Global Crisis and thereafter. This is the fundamental crisis of both Islam and Christianity, threatening their very existence.
Oil and Cars
Industrialization started with steam powered locomotives and nurtured by the automobile industry that speeded up the processes of urbanization and fast life style besides giving predominance to oil industry. Oil producers and automobile industry started to dictate the entire economies of the world, especially of the western industrialized economies. OPEC has squeezed oil importing nations by charging exorbitant price for oil and amassed the wealth of nations.
The corporate world has effectively employed Information Technology to have a virtual control over the entire globe by e-money, e-banking and e-commerce and spread the corporate culture of greed, fraud and consumerism. Oil, cars and consumerism, originally acted as the catalyst of boom have turned the catalysis of Doom or the Great Depression II. They have drained away the saving and investment habits of the middle class and made everybody debtors and upset not only the balance of economies but also of the Nature.
New Awareness
People are getting aware that for the wrong logistics of their places of stay, work, shopping and entertainment, they have to travel a lot and burn out a lot of oil unnecessarily. They could have avoided over 60 per cent of their journeys, especially in the age of advanced communication technologies. By a proper use and development of public transportation system, many could have avoided owning cars or traveling in cars. A good majority of business trips are unnecessary or unproductive. ‘Traveling less and less and consuming lesser and lesser oil for the recovery of the economy and for the health of the environment’ will emerge as a major slogan in almost all countries so as to affect the future of oil, automobile and hospitality sectors.
Natural Death
It is time for the Multinational Corporations to have a natural death for their crimes committed against the humanity, especially against the poor nations and peoples. Championing the cause of consumerism, they have even turned a malignant cancer of Capitalism and Globalization besides corrupting Islam and Christianity and other religions besides Communism. They destroyed the economic foundations of millions of families and virtually wiped out the middle class not only in the west but also in emerging economies with their aggressive marketing strategies.
Selling dreams and fantasies, they dragged everyone into illusions. They have invisible links with various terrorist organizations. They are involved in money laundry, corruptions and fabrication of documents and cheating the shareholders and the general public. For the high salary and bonus besides aggressive marketing and spending billions for sales promotions and thereby making big profits, they keep the cost post of production high and they push up of cost of living too. That is why; no popular government could dare to support or bail out them with tax payers’ money. Let them pay the price and face the wrath of the people.
The Stimulus Packages
It is fact that, none of the stimulus packages, though in terms of several trillions, could save the world from the impending peril and miseries of the millions unless the world saves itself from the dirty hands of consumerism and controls the growth of automobile industry besides reducing oil consumption to the extent of 30 to 40 per cent and turning towards spirituality and ethical values. This is the time for fair business practices and code of ethics for all economic activities besides regulating aggressive marketing and advertisements. Ensuring sustainable income along with reasonable saving and investment is the only means for recovery on a long term basis. Otherwise, all the stimulus packages and recovery efforts would vanish within three to six months after making some symptoms of recovery and then aggravate and prolong the crisis to the extent of ten years.
Recovery and Growth
The present global crisis taught the humanity the basic lesson that various socio-economic systems or organizations could not survive without the basic moral and ethical values and some element of spirituality and maintaining the balance of the Nature. It is high time in burying down Consumerism and Corporate Culture besides adopting slow and simple life styles and turning towards spirituality and setting right the imbalances between urban and rural sectors and also between agriculture, industry and service sectors and the different regions of the world for the very survival of humanity. Humanity could not afford to pay so much high salary and bonus in terms of several millions to the CEOs and Managers and to allow the traders and business people to make such a huge profit within a short span of time. Cost of production and cost of living must be put back at the minimum for sustainable development.
It is a great crime against Humanity and the Nature to burn out so much oil and generating so much heat and sound from the speeding millions of cars and driving away the millions from farms and rural life to the cities. It is high time to redefine the very meaning of development and urbanization especially when the entire humanity is under threat and peril. The fruits of development must be reached in the hands of all people, sparing none on any ground. Then only we could bring out a real recovery and attain sustainable growth.
(This is the seventh series of work on ‘The Great Depression II’ by the same author and prepared on 20th April 2009. The other works are available in the internet).
About the Author
Dr. Raju M. Mathew is an economist, a strategist and theoretician with strong background in Cybernetics, Education and Information Technology with long years of experience in teaching and research. He has so far supervised ten doctoral works, including the basic approaches of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam towards knowledge, economy and spirituality.
Dr. Mathew formulated two basic theories of knowledge consumption and knowledge production that got published in 1985 and appeared in several languages. Now these theories are known in his name and have become an area for doctoral research. In 2005, Prof. Mathew proposed Knowmatics and Knowledge Technology as the two Post-Information Technology disciplines for processing and handling knowledge so as to develop knowledge industries. He is the founder president of the International Forum for Knowmatics & Knowledge Technology (IFKT). Some of his works are available in the site: www.ifkt.net.
Dr. Mathew is on a mission of making the world aware of the impacts and intensities of the present Global Crisis, the Great Depression II of 2009 and persuading the governments and international agencies and religions to formulate correct strategies and policies and implement them urgently for an early recovery, so as to save the lives of millions, especially the young and the poor. Dr. Raju M. Mathew can be contacted by e-mail: rajoocyber@yahoo.com.
AFAICT you've covered all the
AFAICT you've covered all the bases with this ansewr!
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