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Deliverance
The slogan of the World Social Forum is "Another world is possible". For three years it has taken place in Porto Alegre (Brazil). Official figures put the participation at 30,000 - 60,000 and over 100,000 this year.
The Forum is a joyful and festive event, far from the gloomy atmosphere of the Davos and G8 meetings that direct the IMF and WB with their SAP policies for the HIDC. Those nations who have followed the suggestions have done poorly, better those who kept to their own welfare systems. The annual event of the World Social Forum aims at providing a space for discussing global alternatives, for exchanging experiences and building alliances between social movements, NGOs and unions. Next November there will be the European Social Forum in London, while the next WSF will be held in Bombay (India).
For the theme of this year's J&P National Conference "Love and Justice in a Broken World" I am sending you the subscription paper to enrol if you wish. Know that I am on my way to Lisbon for the continental meeting of the provincial coordinators of JPIC. The aim is to have a common European policy as Comboni missionaries towards immigrants from the South. Is your community in contact with Africans?
Fr. Francis deserves a lot of credit for believing and encouraging the Glasgow community to link up and now we have "mamma Glasgow", that is the Mary Jean I spoke about in previous issues of StanduP. Through her we came into contact with Innocent, another Ugandese, who is active in the Forum for Africans in Scotland (FAS, see the attached mission statement). Bishop John Mone of Paisley has asked around to know what is done in this field. I enclose copy of the letter we wrote as Comboni missionaries dealing with Asylum Seekers in Scotland. Lately, Fr. Tesfamichael's visit to Glasgow opened many doors to me: we spent a whole afternoon together with Eritreans and Ethiopians, some had just arrived from London. It is very important that they get a sense of belonging and of community.
Fr. Tesfamichael explained to me his work of pastoral ministering to refugees and asylum seekers in conjunction with the Jesuits' centre in London. He offers an attentive ear by spending time to listen to their stories (read the story of Habton in the webpage). I have written to the J&P commission in your diocese to make sure that you are enrolled in their mailing list. You should receive their newsletter with the calendar of J&P events in your area.
As I did in the last newsletter, I will present one more topic concerning JPIC to you. We have now a decade of Fair Trade Campaigning. Fair-trade Companies build business relationships with small producers and always pay them guaranteed fair prices above market rates. As missionaries, and as people of faith we are mindful of the needs and concerns of our world. We can see that people around the world are hungry and we know that this is wrong. One of the major reasons for hunger and poverty today is unfair trade. We can change unfair trade rules by our prayers, by our lives ad by our actions. Here I give a summary of some products and a tool for community prayer.