for english speaking friends of Katutura

 


Debts cancellation

Massive aid increase for Africa

I read about it, I talk with people of many different views and opinons.
I even listen to Tony Blair pushing for "making poverty history" in Africa.

And I keep wondering what the African grassroot people
themselves are feeling, thinking, saying. I do not so mean
their leaders (those of the G5) I mean the African who make
Africa.

Since I am back in Switzerland, I hear of so many projects conceived
and financed by european NGO's without consultation of
the grassroot peole.

Surely African people must hear the media talk, write, more:
sing with Bob Geldof about debt cancellation,
about "making poverty history" in their own native Africa,
colonized, milked dried of their underground wealth and the rest
even up to now under the so called new liberated regimes.



What is "good governance" if it is the image and the praxis of the western
capitalist systems' big bosses?

Why vote for a government - in African countries - if "it cannot guarantee
one decent meal a day for his family, cannot ensure he is treated in hospital
when he is sick and cannot provide primary education for his children".
(Thomas Joyce, The Tablet, 2nd July 2005)



"Africans hope talk will translate into progress "

To make poverty history demands that the rich get a little poorer
so that the poor get a little richer. It needs relationships
between north and south (east and west) based on sharing.
Sharing of what? Sharing: how?

It means talking together, not sitting on top of a ladder,
but at the very bottom. There is more room for human feelings,
ideas, a common vision, at the bottom than at the top.

We can, from the bottom od any ladder, listen to Jesus' teaching
and learn from him. Then get going to end, with much patience,
poverty everywhere, to end "massive aid to grateful black recipients",
and to go on, laboriously, building a society according to the dream
of the creator for ever stirring in our hearts!
(with grateful thanks to the Tablet, 2nd July 2005 for inspiration)
posted by claire marie at 5:09 PM

 
I have received these few lines from Louis, a dear friend who lives
in Bethlehem.
I share his thinking and felt it good to share it with all people around.


"Bethlehem 10 July 2005

Dear friends

Peace and all Good.
Never in my life have I seen a bigger contrast as that of last week,
between Wednesday and Thursday, in London. What happened there is terrible.

Also my Muslim friends are upset and say that this is the opposite of Islam. Nevertheless these attacks will deteriorate the relations between Muslims
and other people. There is a threat of a vicious circle of violence and hatred.
We have to separate the violence from religion. We have to find a way out.
It can take time. Even now there are people arrested for the crimes
in World War II.
Also we musn't forget how sometimes politicians arrogantly speak
about Islam. That is also a kind of violence which provokes violence."

Yves, another friend - now passed away - and who lived in the Middle East
was telling me years back: "we must, in conviviality first, learn to live together
with our muslim neighbours … unless we die together in fear of each other!"



Dialogue in conviviality: this is what I am trying to do here, in Lausanne, for
quite a number of years with women from all the world over. More about it
in the days to come.
posted by claire marie at 9:26 AM