View previous stories
	Pope condemns ever growing gap between rich and poor by Reuters, Telegraph. & agencies   Nov. 2013   Pope Francis has issued a new document in which he warns against growing inequality, trickle-down economics and the current socioeconomic system that "is unjust at its root."   The document, called an exhortation, follows previous remarks the pontiff has made against inequality.   From the document:   Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills.   How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.   "Until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples is reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence".   “When a society – whether local, national or global – is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programmes or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquility. This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root.   Inequality eventually engenders a violence which recourse to arms cannot and never will be able to resolve. This serves only to offer false hopes to those clamouring for heightened security, even though nowadays we know that weapons and violence, rather than providing solutions, create new and more serious conflicts.   “Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the workings of the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other people’s pain, and feeling a need to help them, as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own. The culture of prosperity deadens us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase; and in the meantime all those lives stunted for lack of opportunity seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us.   June 2013 (Reuters)   Pope Francis says that financial speculation and corruption were keeping millions of people in hunger and the financial crisis could not be used as an alibi for failing to to help the poor.   The speech was the latest in a series of criticisms by the Argentinian pontiff, the first Latin American pope, of what he has called "the dictatorship of the economy" and the spread of consumerist values.   "It is a well-known fact that current levels of production are sufficient, yet millions of people are still suffering and dying of starvation. This is truly scandalous," he said in a speech to participants of a United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization conference in Rome.   Francis has made repeated calls to tackle poverty and focus on the needs of the poor since he succeeded Pope Benedict in March. He has made it his mission to rejuvenate an institution reeling from scandals, including widepread sexual abuse by priests, and losing people to other faiths.   "A way has to be found to enable everyone to benefit from the fruits of the earth, and not simply to close the gap between the affluent and those who must be satisfied with the crumbs falling from the table," he said.   "There is a need to oppose the shortsighted economic interests and the mentality of power of a relative few who exclude the majority of the world"s peoples." he said.   May 2013   Pope blames tyranny of capitalism for making people miserable. (Telegraph, London)   Pope Francis issues a call for world financial reform, saying the economic crisis has made life worse for millions.   Pope Francis has attacked the "dictatorship" of the global financial system and warned that the "cult of money" is making life a misery for millions.   He said free market capitalism had created a "tyranny" and that people were being judged purely by their ability to consume goods.   Money should be made to "serve" people, not to "rule" them, he said, calling for a more ethical banking system and curbs on financial speculation. Countries should impose more control over their economies and not allow "absolute autonomy", in order to provide "for the common good".   The gap between rich and poor was growing and the "joy of life" was diminishing in many developed countries, the Pope said. "While the income of a minority is increasing exponentially, that of the majority is crumbling," said the pontiff who, as archbishop of Buenos Aires, visited slums, opted to live in a modest flat rather than an opulent church residence and went to work by bus.   In poorer countries, people"s lives were becoming "undignified" and marked by violence and desperation, he said.   The Pope, made the remarks in a speech on finance and the economy, during an address to foreign ambassadors at the Vatican.   "The cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal," he told the ambassadors.   Francis, said the world was going through not just an economic crisis but a crisis of values.   "This is happening today. If investments in banks fall, it is a tragedy and people say "what are we going to do?" but if people die of hunger, have nothing to eat or suffer from poor health, that"s nothing. This is our crisis today. A Church for the poor has to fight this mentality," he said.   "Today, and it breaks my heart to say it, finding a homeless person who has died of cold, is not news. Today, the news is scandals, that is news, but the many children who don"t have food - that"s not news. This is grave. We can"t rest easy while things are this way."   As the Catholic leader in Argentina, he often spoke out about the plight of the poor during the country"s economic crisis. Unchecked capitalism had created "a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny", he said.   "The Pope loves everyone, rich and poor alike, but the Pope has the duty, to remind the rich to help the poor, to respect them, to promote them," he said.   Francis appealed for world financial reform, saying the global economic crisis had made life worse for millions in rich and poor countries.   May 2013   Pope Francis met with Caritas leaders from around the world to discuss their work in helping millions of poor and vulnerable people, telling them “a Church without charity does not exist.”   The Pope said “Caritas is not just for emergency situations as a first aid agency. In the situation of war or during a crisis, there is a need to look after the wounded, to help the ill…but there is also a need to support them, to care for their development.”   Pope Francis said, "the priority is to care right away for their immediate needs and later, as soon as possible, for their development. If that is very expensive...we"d even have to sell the churches to feed the poorest."   Pope Francis condemns the cult of greed, by Brent Budowsky. (The Hill)   In recent remarks that were stunning and profound, Pope Francis harshly criticized what he called "the cult of money" and condemned what he called the "dictatorship" of economies that are socially unjust and morally unfair.   These remarks, not widely published in the major American media have the potential to transform the global economic and financial debate.   Most recent popes, have raised the same issues that Francis dramatized this week. What makes this different today is that he views economic and social injustice as a defining theme of is papacy.   Francis suggests there should be far more economic and social justice regarding the wealthy and everyone else within the leading industrial nations, and between the leading industrial nations and poorer nations throughout the world.   There is a debate raging in Washington, across Europe and throughout the world pitting the right, which favors harsh austerity at a time of slow growth and high joblessness, versus progressives and moderates who believe harsh austerity today is economically disastrous and morally repellant.   The pope specifically calls on world leaders to address the great economic and financial injustices. The pope uses words like "cult" and "dictatorship" to describe the champions of financial austerity and the conditions their policies create.   The Vatican Bank has recently announced new openness and reforms at his direction, which should interest opponents of financial reform in America, Britain and elsewhere.   In America, various right wing conservatives and Republican voices have championed aspects of the cult of money in Congress and presidential canditate Mitt Romney, famously ridiculed and demeaned much of the nation on video, championing the cult of money to a room of Republican donors whose money he sought.   It is ironic that the important views of Pope Francis have so far received so little attention from the leading newspapers of America, the network television news, or cable networks with so much airtime to put to work. Let us advance this great discussion to the center of politics and media throughout America and across the world.
	Mauritanian anti-slavery activist wins human rights award by Walk Free / CNN / Front Line Defenders   Today, people are living in slavery in countries all around the world. Slavery is hidden away in factories, on farms, and behind closed doors, in homes and other places in the cities and towns of the world’s richest and poorest nations. But with the power of a worldwide movement, social networks, and technologies, we can expose these hidden crimes – so that ours is the last generation that needs to fight the trade in human lives.   Slavery is illegal in almost every nation on earth but slavery still exists everywhere.   No matter where you are, it’s close to home. Modern slavery affects people in the world"s richest and the world"s poorest countries, within borders and across borders. Slavery can trap thousands in one place – like mines and factories – or happen at a small scale, where a single girl is trapped in a stranger’s home and forced to work without pay. Source: U.S. State Department   It is estimated that at least 20.9 million people are forced to live in slavery around the world today.   Many people think slavery was abolished years ago. But there are more people living in slavery today than the total number of people taken from Africa to America in the vast trans-Atlantic slave trade between the 17th and 19th centuries. And even a single person is one person too many. Source: International Labor Organization   The victims of slavery can be as young as five or six years old.   Young children have their childhoods stolen from them. Teenagers who reach for a better life can find themselves tricked into accepting the offer of a job far away that turns into the nightmare of slavery. Slavery is our generation’s problem – and our generation must provide the solution. Source: International Organisation for Migration   Modern slavery generates profit of over US $32 billion for slaveholders.   Modern slavery is profitable, generating at least US$32 billion in profits every year – more than the entire output of Iceland, Nicaragua, Rwanda, and Mongolia combined. And it isn’t just a problem in distant, poor countries; nearly half the total, an estimated $15.5 billion, is made in wealthy industrialized countries. Source: International Labor Organization   Slave labor contributes to the production of at least 122 goods from 58 countries worldwide.   Official U.S. government research identifies many products – such as diamonds from Africa, bricks from Brazil, and shrimp from Southeast Asia – as products that are commonly produced with slave labor. Around the world, people are forced to work with the threat of violence for little or no pay producing dozens of things we use every day, like soccer balls, flowers, and chocolate. Source: U.S. Department of Labor - ILAB   http://www.walkfree.org/   May 2013 (CNN)   A Mauritanian anti-slavery activist, Biram Dah Abeid, will be honored on Friday by the human rights group Front Line Defenders. Abeid, who is the head of a group called IRA Mauritania, was featured last year in the CNN documentary "Slavery"s last stronghold."   Mauritania, a desert country in West Africa, was the last country to abolish slavery; and an estimated 10% to 20% of its population lives in some form of slavery, according to Gulnara Shahinian, the UN"s special rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery.   The Mauritanian government has denied slavery"s existence in the country but does operate a program for formerly enslaved people.   Abeid was selected from 100 nominees in 40 countries, according to Front Line Defenders. The award, given to "human right defenders at risk," will be presented at a ceremony in Dublin, Ireland, and will be given by Irish President Michael Higgins.   "Biram Dah Abeid has been threatened, defamed and harassed because of his work defending human rights and against slavery in Mauritania," the group says in a press release. "He has been arrested and ill-treated on several occasions and in April 2012 he was "disappeared" for several weeks into a secret, high-security government facility, without being able to contact his family and without any legal assistance.   It is believed he would have been killed but for the international outcry. He was released in September 2012 but has chosen to continue his work inside Mauritania.   "Despite the constant harassment and threat of arrest Biram has sworn to continue the struggle until slavery is finally eliminated in Mauritania."   http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/2012/03/world/mauritania.slaverys.last.stronghold/index.html Frontline Defenders: http://www.frontlinedefenders.org/ http://www.gfbv.de/inhaltsDok.php?id=2607&stayInsideTree=1 Visit the related web page
	View more stories