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	Lessons from Zimbabwe"s great healer by Stuart Rees Sydney Peace Foundation & agencies   In any country whose people have experienced violence at every level of their lives – social, cultural, environmental, economic, and political – courageous advocates of non-violence and reconciliation represent the only path to peace with justice.   In Zimbabwe, three such people bear witness to this truth.   Sekai Holland, Zimbabwean human rights campaigner, politician and carer of numerous children, says: "Because I was for democracy I was tortured almost to death, my ribs and arm broken. A female police officer was the worst of the torturers. I need long term medical attention but my country also needs healing".   How? Allan Savory, former politician, farmer, biologist and guerrilla fighter for Zimbabwean independence and now the director of the African Centre for Holistic Management on the Dimbanganbe ranch adjacent to Victoria Falls, explains his aims:   "To empower communities and improve the lives of future generations by restoring their land and natural water resources. If we do not do that, wars over water will be far worse than wars over oil. People and land need healing which is all inclusive – holistic".   Isaac Chidavaenzi, of Zimbabwe"s Chengoese project to assist peasant farmers to cope with climate change, says: "It is painful when you go back as an adult to the places where you played as a child, to creeks where you swam, and you discover that such places have become a pile of sand. To help the people and to prevent further violence, we need to heal the land as well as ourselves".   Sekai, Allan and Isaac are sensitive to human dignity, each committed to equal opportunity for all citizens, each speaking the language of non-violence – for people, the land, and animals.   Each recognises the lessons taught by generations of Australian Aboriginal land rights campaigners that people"s identity and health is closely associated with their access to and their stewardship of the land.   As a student in Australia in the 1970s, Sekai Holland, campaigned for Aboriginal land rights, and then returned to Zimbabwe to work for social justice, and in particular for the empowerment of women.   Now in the cabinet of president Robert Mugabe of ZANUPF and prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Sekai is a co-minister for healing, reconciliation and integration. She explains that this title is long-winded because, "We are celebrating diversity, we need to be inclusive and consultative."   In a country devastated by violence, poverty, cholera, AIDS, unreliable water supply, and by fragile food security, Sekai"s responsibilities are massive and her resources few.   Even if President Mugabe and his colleagues are reluctant participants in a unity government, the tripartite structure of the portfolio for healing involves ministers from each of three parties.   This power-sharing arrangement is coupled to a code of conduct which aims to regulate the behaviour of politicians by encouraging them to express differences without resort to abuse, torture or killings.   Sekai says that the language of non-violence is on official agendas: "Dialogue is more important than silver or gold."   Sekai"s allies include Allan Savory and Isaac Chidavaenzi. Allan restores land, preserves water, and provides employment as rangers, herders, ranchers and cooks for some 130 local people.   In wild African bush shared with elephants, lions, giraffe, water bucks and diverse bird life, along with domesticated herds of cattle sheep and goats, he shows how this holistic approach to living - "the opposite of mono cultures and industrialised, chemically aided agribusinesses" - has enhanced people"s sense of spiritual, cultural and economic coherence.   In a similar vein but on a much smaller scale, Isaac encourages peasant farmers to develop their lands to become self-sufficient and so improve their children"s health and their own wellbeing. He is inspired by the work of an accomplished agricultural scientist, Dr Samuel Machena, the developer of a drought-resistant dwarf maize which is producing double and sometimes treble the yield of conventional maize.   Samuel sees land restoration as a key ingredient for sustainable livelihoods and thereby for national healing. "These processes are interdependent," he says.   After being tortured by accomplices of people she now works with, Sekai was at first reluctant to be part of any unity government. She now recognises that in every context, the victims of violence have to live alongside the perpetrators; that those who brutalise others brutalise themselves; that the usual polarisation in political parties thwarts a country"s efforts to achieve healing.   Sekai and her husband Jim"s building of a highly supportive culture in their home resembles the "holistic management" advocated by Allan Savory. In their Harare bungalow, and for many years, they have cared for over 30 orphaned children. In the midst of the worst violence in the run-up to the second round of elections in 2008, they sheltered over 100 women and children.   In November this year, Sekai Holland will receive Australia"s international award for peace, the Sydney Peace Prize. She was chosen in part because she heeds and breathes that lesson written in lines from Denise Levertov"s poem, Making Peace:   A line of peace might appear if we restructured the sentence our lives are making, revoked our affirmation of profit and power, questioned our needs, allowed long pauses.. Peace, an energy field more intense than war.   The success of these brave individuals challenge to establishment policies and conventional views can be gauged by the attacks ranged against them.   Allan Savory"s practices are resisted by the academics and companies who argue that the efficient management of agriculture depends entirely on chemicals and technology. Isaac Chidvaenzi has been threatened by ZanuPF supporters who seem to think that he is becoming popular by encouraging the cultivation of crops in areas usually regarded as their constituency. Sekai is criticized for the slow pace of achieving reconciliation.   I left Zimbabwe impressed that, however great the difficulties in that country, that some politicians, trade unionists, and community leaders are endeavoring to work with former opponents to promote healing and reconciliation.   # Sekai Holland, the winner of the Sydney Peace Prize is a Zimbabwean grandmother and government minister almost beaten to death by Zimbabwean police in 2007. Gordon Weiss, from the Global Mail profiles Ms Holland and the history of her struggle in Zimbabwe, see link below. Visit the related web page
	Overconsumption, not population, is key to solving global environment crisis by Christian Aid United Kingdom   Poor people should not be blamed for the impending global environmental distress in the face of overconsumption by the world’s wealthy and middle classes, says a new Christian Aid report.   ‘Sometimes the implication seems to be that it is high birth rates in developing countries, rather than overconsumption by rich people, which is the main cause of climate change and other global environmental crises, said Dr Alison Doig, Christian Aid’s Senior Adviser on Sustainable Development.   ‘This would be a dangerous misconception, because it diverts attention from where it is desperately needed, which is reining in the runaway consumption of the world’s wealthy and middle classes and transforming their economies to make them sustainable and fair. ‘At present, over-consumption is draining the planet at a terrifying rate and making it increasingly inhospitable to everyone but especially the poorest people, who are most affected by the state of the natural environment.’   Christian Aid believes that fertility rates are an important dimension of global development and that people should have effective choices over the number of children they have, which many millions currently do not. It also believes that development organisations should do more to help secure such choices. However, it sees reproductive health as an important goal in its own right, rather than primarily as a means of protecting the environment.   Dr Doig is the lead author of a new Christian Aid report, Equity in a Constrained World, which highlights some of the dramatic differences between rich and poor people’s use of scare resources, such as water and the atmosphere’s ability to absorb the gases causing climate change.   For instance, the average American uses 176 gallons of water a day while the average African family uses just 5 gallons. And while the average person in the UK emits 10.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent every year, in the world’s 48 Least Developed Countries (including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Haiti, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Sudan), the average is just 1.7 tonnes a year.   Equity in a Constrained World says that overall, the wealthiest 20 per cent of the world’s population consume 80 per cent of resources such as water and land. By contrast, the poorest 20 cent do not have enough to meet their basic needs - and account for just 1.3 per cent of global resource consumption.   The report also warns that the global economy is currently driving the world towards environmental crisis and pushing the poorest people into ever more precarious locations and lives.   ‘Increasingly, what we are seeing is a ‘natural resource grab’ by wealthy countries, richer people within developing countries and private sector companies,’ it says. ‘They are taking control of fresh water, forests, fish, minerals and fossil fuels, all of which they treat as commodities. This is having devastating impacts on poor people and the planet.’   In addition, the report acknowledges that population growth in poor countries is damaging many local environmental resources, including fresh water, trees and topsoil and that this in turn makes survival even harder for the poorest people.   Equity in a Constrained World argues for a more sustainable future in which the world’s wealthy and middle classes take up a smaller, fairer share of its precious resources while the poorest take more.   Such a transformation should be led by high-income countries, which should take domestic action to reduce their environmental footprints and support poorer countries to pursue low-carbon, resource-efficient development. In addition, countries should ensure that whatever system succeeds the Millennium Development Goals has sustainability and equity at its heart.   * Access the report here: http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/constrained-world.pdf   Christian Aid works in some of the world"s poorest communities in nearly 50 countries. We act where the need is greatest, regardless of religion, helping people build the lives they deserve. Christian Aid has a vision, an end to global poverty - Our report, Poverty Over, explains what we believe needs to be done – and can be done – to end poverty.   http://www.christianaid.org.uk/Images/poverty-over-report.pdf
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