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The District of East Africa Justice and Peace
Workshop was held January 4th and 5th 2002, at Entebbe, Uganda.
The two day District Workshop was preceded by
a one day meeting of the fifteen member District Justice and Peace Committee.
This meeting was chaired by Fr. Allison Mahoney, csc. He began by giving
some explanation of his work as the Congregational Justice and Peace
Coordinator, and the two Offices that he liases with. He talked a bit about
the themes that the Justice and Peace Office has set for the Congregation to
focus on in the coming year 2002, and next year 2003, and invited input from
the District on the two themes: Ecology and the Environment and Rights of
Minorities.
After Fr. Mahoney's presentation the group
broke up into small groups to share on Justice and Peace initiatives going on
in the different Ministry settings. The reports of the groups showed that most
of the activity centered on reaching out to the poor, and trying to help them
improve their lives. Projects to improve health care, education, training for
job skills, and improving people's environment seemed to be where much of the
activity is centered. Through Holy Cross Parishes and Schools, efforts are
being made to help people make their lives better.
In order for this Justice and Peace Ministry
to be effective, there needs to be an approach that fosters listening and
enables people to be empowered. People need to be given access to all that
makes life better. Ministry needs to be more than just doing good. It requires
an understanding of where injustice occurs, the courage to name and voice the
injustice, and the ability to challenge the systems that promote the
injustice.
In the afternoon the committee tried to look
a little bit at the issue of Ecology and the Environment in a bit more detail.
Among the pressing issues were: - the fact that there is widespread ignorance
of the relationship between humanity and the environment, at least in
developing countries;
- the issue of the City garbage dump in
Dandora, Nairobi, Kenya, and its health, security and other related social
and environmental effects. Dandora is a low income, densely populated area
with about 500,000 people. It is the sight of the Holy Cross Parish in
Nairobi;
- Deforestation and the continued clearing
of major forests in Kenya by the government for human settlement;
- Slums, and the lack of proper services,
particularly, running water, and sewage facilities;
- the need to be concerned about he proper
disposal of waste materials, and in particular the issue of polythene
bags.
- the misuse of wetlands and how they are
being taken over by the building of commercial enterprises.
This day long meeting served as a preparation
for the two day District Justice and Peace Workshop that was to follow.
On January 4th, the 50+ memership of the
District of East Africa gathered as mandated by the 1999/2000 District Chapter
for a two day Justice and Peace Workshop. The moderators of the Workshop were
Fr. Henri Vallete, Miss. of Africa, the Justice and Peace coordinator for the
Missionaries of Africa, Fr. Tom McDermott, csc, and Fr. David Kashangaki, csc.
Fr. Vallete began by giving input on the
importance of Justice and Peace as derived from Church documents, and its
relationship to understanding God's Plan in its totality. He then spoke about
issues and how they affect Uganda, and a major area was the question of
globalization, and how this process is being controlled by a small minority of
large multinational corporations that are only seeking their advantage and not
that of the rest of the world. He spoke of how these corporations effectively
shut out any possibility of control by local people of their own economies. He
spoke of how the African Growth and Opportunities Act is still a mixed bag,
with many poeple still feeling that it does more harm than good for Africa,
and that it too is at the mercy of the multinational corporations. He talked
of an alternative model for trade agreements being put forth by the
Organization of African Unity (OAU- the Continental Body that deals with
social, political and economic issues concerning the Continent of Africa). He
talked briefly about debt cancellation and the effects of Corruption, the
numerous peace initiatives taking place in northern Uganda to help maintain
peace among the peoples of Gulu, and Karamoja - areas affected by war,
instability and heavy cattle raiding. He spoke about the "veneer" of
democracy in Uganda. He concluded by calling for the need for a greater
awareness of the things still lacking and of what he called "fracture
zones" within society. The commitment of the Church to Justice and Peace
Issues in Uganda needs to be strengthened, and one way to do this would be
thru greater networking.
Fr. David Kashangaki, csc then spoke about
some of the issues facing Kenya, and focused particularly on political issues,
since this year 2002, is an election year in Kenya. The major areas included
the fact of a large internal security apparatus in Kenya, despite which crime
has grown beyond all control, the need for respect of integrity of persons,
the respect of freedom and Civil Liberties, the respect for political rights,
and in particular the right of citizens to change their government, and
finally the presence of discrimination based on race, sex, religion,
disability or social status.
In the afternoon seminarian David Eliaona,
csc, gave a brief input into some of the issues facing his home country of
Tanzania. He spoke of the political injustices following the elections of
2000, and in particular those facing the people of the semi autonomous island
of Zanzibar. He spoke of the games that the ruling party, Chama cha Mapinduzi
(CCM) is playing with the opposition, in its attempts to destroy it. He spoke
of the high level of criticism of a presidential speech given to mark
Tanzania's independence celebrations December 9th 2001, and how that was
unprecedented in Tanzania's history. He mentioned the draw backs in the
process of privatization, and in particular how the privatization of the
mining enterprises is being done in a very unsatisfactory manner. He spoke of
the need for the Church in Tanzania to address this issue
For the next day and a half, the gathering
was broken into five small groups reflect on what the issues of concern on
Justice and Peace facing the District of East Africa are. The deliberations
brought a huge mix of issues. When all the issues were presented and discussed
by the whole gathering, the task was given to the organizers to pick out the
most important issues. They selected five: Ecology and the Environment;
The Rights of Minorities with particular emphasis on women; Corruption; Social
Violence, and last but not least Justice within the Community of Holy Cross.
Each of the five groups were given one of topics and asked to do some in-depth
analysis and come up with a strategy to implement and follow through on these
issues. This was done and a major suggestion was the need for more workshops
to try and understand these issues more fully. The District Justice and Peace
Committee was given the responsibility to try and carry through all that was
discussed.
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