Feba Zimbabwe

The scent of violence in everyday life, in culture and in the news has become endemic in the Philippines, says Shay Cullen. But there is hope where different values and practices are initiated, and where human transformation can challenge the roots of impunity and injustice.

The culture of violence and torture is commonplace in the Philippines today. Young people in school fraternities are subjected to beatings and torture by their peers; called hazing, it is so severe that many have died.

The student torturers learn perhaps from what they know about the police and military who routinely torture suspects and summarily execute many with impunity. They learn from US trainers, as practiced in the Iraqi torture chambers of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo. The torturers seem to enjoy inflicting pain on their victims and video and photograph the horrific acts.

The video games played on home computers or in internet shops turn killing, murder, violence and rape into entertainment for pleasure-seeking youth. Adults allow it, but is it the way to prepare them for life? Minors who commit violent crimes are born innocent but learn from adults and older peers. Children are exposed to violence in the home, on television, in the movies, classrooms, school yard and on the streets. Students can go wild and shoot dead teachers and [other] students.

When family, community, school and society provides little positive input to young people who are desperate for dignity, respect, attention, and acceptance, we can expect rebellious youth filled with anger or hatred because they are unwanted, excluded and hopeless. Many young people turn rebellious when they are excluded from a life of economic and racial equality, opportunity and education. With concern, respect, friendship and opportunity, they can be inspired to live a good life but they need trusting adults they can admire and imitate. If treated well, most will become good. If abused, some tend to become abusers. They will respond to the friendly attention of a role model, and fulfill their obligations and responsibilities.

I see this transformation every day in the lives of the 54 kids taken from prisons to an open trusting affirmative environment. Give respect and goodness to youth (if they are not too damaged) and you will get it in return.

Last week Filipinos here and abroad were filled with horror and disgust as they watched a cruel police torture session on television. The video showed a man lying naked on the floor of a Manila police station screaming and squirming in agony as the highly decorated senior police inspector sat over him viciously pulling a cord attached to his genitals while beating him with a belt to make him confess to a crime. Other police were standing around. One made the video recording of it on a cell phone. The victim is suspected to have been murdered later.

Another highly decorated former police inspector, Rolando Mendoza, 55, took hostage a bus load of Hong Kong tourists last 23 August in a Manila park, and murdered several of them before he was shot by a police sniper. The entire nine hour drama was broadcast live on television here and abroad. Mendoza was convicted of drug-related extortion and brutality against an innocent cook of the Mandarin hotel in Manila in 2008. He demanded to be reinstated despite his conviction and that of his extortion unit.

In another recent ANC television report, teenagers rescued from the Manila jails told of their harrowing experience of police torture and brutality. One boy showed his feet with the toenails extracted and cigarette burns on his neck. Conditions in the detention cells were described as subhuman. The videos can be viewed at www.preda.org

During a peaceful demonstration in 1996, I and my companion were arrested and beaten, punched and kicked. My head was banged repeatedly on the steel floor of the police van as I was taken to jail. My wrists were tightly handcuffed behind my back with two sets of cuffs for many hours so my wrists were cut and scarred. We were jailed, interrogated and subjected to psychological abuse and foul language by the lawyer of the former mayor.

To stop such horrific abuse we need to end the culture of violence, the impunity of the powerful, and work for a just and decent society where the rule of law and justice prevails and the dignity of everyone is respected and honoured.

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(c) Shay Cullen is a Columban priest and director of the human rights centre PREDA, which is best know for its campaign work and investigations into syndicates and paedophile rings, its rescue and rehabilitation of children, and for bringing successful prosecutions against Filipino and foreign offenders. Visit www.preda.org for more related articles. Shay Cullen's columns are published in The Manila Times and in publications in Ireland, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong.

Christians are arriving in Cheltenham for Greenbelt, one of the country's largest Christian festivals, which includes a focus on politics and the arts.

Christians from across Britain and beyond are arriving in Cheltenham today (27 August) for Greenbelt, one of the country's largest Christian festivals. About 21,000 people are expected to attend the event, which tends to include a focus on Christianity's relationship with society, politics and the arts.

Despite the economic situation, attendance figures have increased significantly since last year. The festival takes place at Cheltenham Racecourse and runs until Monday evening.

Greenbelt's major sponsors include Christian Aid and the Methodist Church. This year's theme is “The Art of Looking Sideways”.

The programme includes a vast diversity of talks, debates, worship, music, arts and performances, as well as activities aimed at children and young people. There are also a large number of campaigning stalls focused on specific issues. These include the Peace Zone, organised by members of the Network of Christian Peace Organisations (NCPO).

Prominent speakers include theologians Stanley Hauerwas and Richard Rohr, human rights activist Peter Tatchell and politician Clare Short. Also present on the programme are comedian Jeremy Hardy, poet Roger McGough and, on the musical side, Courtney Pine and Gil Scott Heron.

Earlier this week, the religion and society thinktank Ekklesia suggested that Greenbelt is showing the institutional churches the way forward in a post-Christendom era.

"The future of Christianity in a plural world involves living out a fresh, hopeful way for humanity, rooted in critical faith and action for justice and peace,” said Ekklesia Co-Director Simon Barrow, “It is not about clinging to privilege, preaching at people from on high and becoming caught up with inward-looking arguments”.

Barrow added, “Celebration, exploration, conversation and thoughtful commitment flow naturally together at Greenbelt. These are the qualities the Christian community needs for its engagement in, and conversation with wider society, at a time when 'religion' is increasingly scrutinised and suspected."

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The UK Bisexual Convention this weekend will include a time for multifaith worship and meditation each day. A record number of people are expected to attend.

The UK Bisexual Convention this weekend will include a time for multifaith worship and meditation each day. Over 400 people are expected to attend the gathering, known as BiCon, marking a record turnout for the annual event.

BiCon is this year combining with an international bisexual gathering, bringing participants from at least twenty countries. It will take place at the University of East London from today (Friday 27 August) until Monday 30 August.

The regular worship is one of a number of optional events during the weekend. The programme includes workshops on ethical and political issues as well as sessions exploring more personal matters. There are also social activities in the evenings

“I'm excited about being part of the largest BiCon held in the UK,” said Sharon Langridge, a bisexual Christian from Sheffield.

She told Ekklesia, “It's a great environment in which to be a person of faith and a bisexual. There's silent worship/meditation every morning and a session on spirituality and sexuality on Monday”.

The increased numbers are seen by some as indicative of a growing awareness of bisexuality. Some bisexual activists fear that despite increased social acceptance of gay and lesbian people, understanding of bisexuality is lagging behind.

The organisers say that, “BiCon is enjoyed each year by people who are just beginning to make links with the UK bisexual community, as well as by regular attenders who come back time and time again”.

The number of Christians attending BiCon is likely to increase next year, when scheduling means that it will not clash with the Greenbelt Christian festival, as it has done this year.

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If two of the main cornerstones of the Armenian people are their faith and language, a third is the Armenian genocide that took place under cover of WWI.

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has said that he is looking forward to speaking at the Greenbelt Christian festival this weekend, despite controversy.

The human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has said that he is looking forward to speaking at the Greenbelt Christian festival this weekend. Tatchell said that, while not being a Christian himself, “we have more in common than divides us”.

This year has seen a sharp rise in bookings for Greenbelt, which is expected to draw around 21,000 visitors. It will run from tomorrow (Friday 27 August) to Monday 30 August at Cheltenham Racecourse. Major sponsors include Christian Aid and the Methodist Church.

Tatchell told Ekklesia, “I'm honoured to be invited to Greenbelt, and especially honoured that I've been invited to do three separate talks. I hope I will offer some challenging ideas, and in turn be challenged by the audience. During the question-and-answer sessions, I'll be very happy to accept criticisms and counter-arguments.”

The socially conservative group Anglican Mainstream has called for a boycott of Greenbelt because of the invitation to Tatchell, as he is known for his campaigns for gay rights.

Anglican Mainstream's Lisa Nolland drew criticism in May, when she suggested that Tatchell's presence at Greenbelt would put children at risk.

Writing this month, she was keen to emphasise that “I hugely admire Peter Tatchell's defence of human rights and religious liberty”. But she added, “I am appalled by some of his views, because I believe they are toxic to human wellbeing”.

Nolland suggested that Tatchell's comments about the diversity of sexualities imply acceptance of paedophilia.

In reply, Tatchell said, "Dr Nolland and her friends should re-read the Ten Commandments, where it warns against bearing false witness”. He accused Anglican Mainstream of giving a “highly biased, selective and distorted account of my views”.

He insisted that he strongly opposes child abuse and said that Anglican Mainstream never mention “my proposals to help young people make wise and responsible sexual choices” or “my suggestions about how young people can be better protected against sexual abuse”.

Amongst other subjects, Tatchell will be speaking about the “struggle for queer freedom” in Africa. He has praised African Christian human rights campaigners, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa and Bishop Christopher Senyonjo of Uganda.

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Blake's famous 'Ancient of Days' is popularly taken to be a depiction of God. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mark Vernon explores the extraordinary artist and poet's disturbing vision.

Do go to see the newly acquired etchings by William Blake at Tate Britain, or take a look online (http://www.tate.org.uk/learning/worksinfocus/blake/). They display all the unsettling power and apocalypticism we expect from this exceptional, romantic artist.

One shows a young man tethered to a globe of blood by his hair. In another, someone burns in a furnace. Underneath, Blake has written lines such as, "I sought pleasure and found pain unutterable," or, "The floods overwhelmed me."

What you won't find in the gallery, though, is any explanation of these visions. Instead, Blake is treated as impenetrable, his imagery obscure, his calling idiosyncratic. He's rendered slightly mad, and so safe. We can look and admire, but like a modern gothic cartoon strip – that his art no doubt influences – he can be enjoyed, but not taken too seriously.

That's a shame. For not only can Blake be read. What he says carries at least as much force today as it did two hundred years ago.

Consider one of the figures who is in the new works: Urizen. He's well known as he's the same figure who appears as Blake's famous "Ancient of Days" – an old man, with Michelangelo muscles, a full head of long white hair, and a wizard-like beard. Urizen is a key figure in Blake's mythology.

He is not God. (Blake thought it laughable to imagine the divine as a father-figure, as God is found within and throughout life, he believed, hence referring to Jesus as "the Imagination.") Instead, Urizen is the demiurge, a "self-deluded and anxious" forger of pre-existent matter, as Kathleen Raine explains. His predominant concern with material things is signified by his heavy musculature. He is variously depicted as wielding great compasses, absorbed by diagrams, lurking in caves, and drowning in water – as in the new Tate image. It shows that his materialism has trapped him.

Blake loathed the deistic, natural religion associated with Newton and Bacon. He called it "soul-shuddering." Materialism he dismissed as "the philosophy in vogue." He thought the Enlightenment had created a false deity for itself, one imagined by Rousseau and Voltaire as projected human reason. The "dark Satanic mills" of Jerusalem are the mills that "grind out material reality", as Peter Ackroyd writes in his biography of Blake, continuing: "These are the mills that entrance the scientist and the empirical philosopher who, on looking through the microscope or telescope, see fixed mechanism everywhere."

Urizen is theirs. The demiurge presides over a world that suffers under the tyranny of the laws of nature, and Urizen is as imprisoned by the constraints of space and time as are the individuals who follow him. "He who sees the Ratio only sees himself only," Blake mused. The materialist's view of the world is a prison because it's a world created by limited perceptions.

So far, so predictable, you might think. The man who saw visions on Peckham Rye (Peckham Rye!) is bound to be an idealist, even a spiritualist. (Though he once remarked that the unimaginative see ghosts; the truly inspired, he continued – tapping his head – see visions.) But he speaks more broadly.

For one thing, there's an important political dimension to Blake, because the liberty he sought was of both body and mind. He was a fierce republican, on occasion getting into trouble for damning the king. He read Mary Wollstonecraft and boasted of knowing Tom Paine, though he must have disagreed with them too, on account of Wollstonecraft's rationalism and Paine's deism. He was sure that spiritual freedom must be worked out in the world. He interpreted the political troubles of his day as reflections of an inner, spiritual turmoil, and although he didn't gain a substantial audience in his own times, he was quite clear that his vocation was as a public prophet. He wanted his work to be seen.

There's another crucial aspect, too. Blake did not merely demonise his opponents, but recognised himself in their philosophy as well. The Ancient of Days is a figure he returns to repeatedly. Urizen is a subject that produces some of his finest work. Raine explains that he is exploring his own psyche in the bearded old man who is "enslaved by his own ego." If Jesus is called "the Imagination", Satan is called "the Selfhood" – an association that is more psychological than theological. It's the inner part of me, and you, with which we must fight for freedom, he is saying. That's why, underneath another of the new works at Tate Britain, he writes: "Everything is an attempt to be human."

His illustrations map the spiritual drama he envisaged every person undergoing. Their "truth" is revealed in so far as they engage you – and that they do so by unsettling, by disturbing. Blake offers us symbolic figures that are half familiar, as if we've seen them before, in forgotten dreams.

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© Mark Vernon is a writer and philosopher. An agnostic with a keen interest in religion and spirituality, his books include The Meaning of Friendship, After Atheism and Teach Yourself Humanism. An honorary research fellow at Birkbeck College, London, his own venture is called The School of Life. Mark's website is entitled Philosophy and Life, and has been listed among the Sunday Times' best blogs.

This article is adapted from one on Guardian Comment-is-Free, with thanks and acknowledgment.

Also on Ekklesia: 'William Blake liberates the Bible for the people', by Christopher Rowland. http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/6386

The prospects for progress in the direct Israeli-Palestinian talks in Washington look meagre, says Paul Rogers. But breakthrough is essential if Israel is to be saved from itself.

A long diplomatic hiatus in efforts to resolve the longstanding Israel-Palestine conflict will end when direct talks are convened in Washington on 2 September 2010.

The Barack Obama administration’s commitment to progress is highlighted by the president’s role in opening the discussions, and in its invitation to Egyptian and Jordanian leaders to attend the gathering. But the obstacles are formidable, with the White House’s ambition of a resolution of outstanding issues taking only a year, looking very optimistic.

A list of the four most substantive and difficult matters that will have be engaged is enough to illustrate this:

• The settlements that now stretch right across the West Bank, and which have been greatly expanded since the Oslo peace process started in the early 1990s.

• The final boundaries for an independent Palestine, including the status of Gaza and the physical link between the strip and the West Bank.

• The status of Jerusalem - seen by both parties to the dispute as its capital (see Mariano Aguirre, 'Israel-Palestine: a frontline report', on http://www.opendemocracy.net/, 26 March 2010).

• The rights of the Palestinian diaspora, both refugees and their descendants living in the region and those in other parts of the world, including the question of a return to land and homes lost in 1948.

The Palestinians face enormous problems, of which even the enduring political division between the Fatah and Hamas movements is but one. Their national predicament is such that many Palestinians find it near-impossible to envisage a viable state as a realistic possibility; a significant minority now embraces the idea of a unitary state covering the whole of historic Palestine. This 'one-state solution' is anathema to almost all Israelis, not least as demographic trends would mean that Israeli Jews would become a minority in such a state within a few decades.

More generally, Israel’s overriding preoccupation with security reinforces its view of a region of enemies where any measure of political progress is seen in terms of the new vulnerabilities it may entail. Thus, for example, it views Hamas as exclusively a terrorist entity with which no negotiation is possible.

The reward of failure

At the outset of the talks, the Israelis will seek - as a precondition for any negotiations - the immediate and complete acceptance of the state of Israel, with all the security guarantees it requires (see Akiva Eldar, 'With a victory like this...', Ha'aretz, 23 August 2010).

Any decision by Israel to halt the freeze on new settlement-construction, and to restart further large-scale building projects, could wreck negotiations before they are underway. This alone means that it will be fortunate if the two sides are still talking in October, let alone in mid-2011.

Moreover, many in the Israeli government are confident that Israel is negotiating from such a position of strength that it need not make any serious concessions. They are bolstered here by a domestic rightward shift over the past generation, in part because of the influx of migrants from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s (see Colin Shindler, 'Israel's rightward shift: a history of the present', openDemocracy, 23 February 2009).

The calculation here is that the talks will (sooner or later) fail, leaving Israel to return to its tried-and-tested stance of enforcing security through overwhelming conventional military power, backed up by nuclear forces. In addition, behind its own iron fist it can rely on the backing of the world's sole superpower.

Israel is supported in this outlook by influential networks in Washington, among them the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) and other lobby-groups. Aipac itself may not enjoy such unstinting loyalty as before - and liberal Jewish initiatives such as J Street offer a more nuanced view of what it means to be 'pro-Israel' - but it has been successful in forging links with evangelical Christians who espouse an apocalyptic vision of Israel’s role in God's plan (see 'Christian Zionists and neocons: a heavenly marriage', openDemocracy, 2 February 2005).

This balance of forces, with Israel “impregnable in its own insecurity” and the Palestinians weak and divided, looks a recipe for diplomatic failure. Yet three factors are in play which should in principle give the Israelis pause - and should certainly be of deep concern to any thoughtful Israeli politician with a longer-term perspective on his or her state's situation.

The costs of failure

The first factor is that asymmetric military systems in the region - especially the extraordinary levels of mass production of short- and medium-range missiles in Iran, Syria and elsewhere - are becoming ever more difficult for Israel to counteract. Hizbollah, in Lebanon, has tens of thousands of missiles that can reach across much of Israel (see Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, “The Hizbollah project: last war, next war”, 13 August 2009); and Iran, whether or not it has serious nuclear ambitions, is developing robust solid-fuel medium-range missiles (see 'An asymmetrical drone war', openDemocracy, 19 August 2010).

The second is that some senior figures in the American military are beginning to express in public a view they may previously have voiced only in private: that in relation to US interests in the middle east, Israel is part of the problem rather than a means to a solution. The argument here is that the Palestinians’ enduring predicament, for which Israel bears a great responsibility, acts as a potent radicalising force across the region - with deleterious effects both on the US’s strategic position and on the security of its forces (see 'America and Israel: a historic choice', openDemocracy, 18 March 2010).

The exceptionally close relationship between the Israeli and the American military makes such a shift of focus too important to ignore. The United States, after all, meets over 20 per cent of the Israeli defence budget, and US forces make extensive use of Israeli equipment and training facilities. A number of columns in this series has explored this theme: (see, for example, on openDemocracy, “After Saddam, no respite” [19 December 2003]; "Between Fallujah and Palestine" [21 April 2004]; "Gaza: the Israel-United States connection" [7 January 2009]; and “A tale of two towns” [21 June 2007]). In these circumstances, indications of diminishing support for Israel in leading US military circles should be of huge concern to serious Israeli politicians.

The third factor is more long-term; it too relates most immediately to the United States, but it also affects western European public opinion. In June 1967, Israel vanquished three Arab armies in the six-day war and in the process, occupied great swathes of territory. This historic victory consolidated support in the west (particularly the US) for what was perceived as “brave little Israel”, and in time was also seen by those adhering to a politically influential Christian-Zionist worldview as the fulfilment of a religious destiny.

Almost two generations on, both the region’s geopolitics and its demography have changed. The war of 1967 is a living memory only for those in middle age or above; far more important and pressing on the minds of people observing the region from outside. is Israel’s widespread destruction in the Gaza war of 2008-09, the relentless expansion of settlements in the West Bank, and other human-rights infringements great or small.

The Israeli government may present these issues in a very different light - but its message is less persuasive than ever. In many circles, even those previously sympathetic to Israel, a profound reversal of roles has occurred in the region’s 'David vs Goliath' combat - with the result that Israel, now seen as an overweening bully, is losing its moral legitimacy.

Some in Israel’s national community - journalists, academics, NGO workers among them - recognise this, and are doing their best to alert their compatriots to the dangers of the situation (see Thomas Keenan & Eyal Weizman, 'Israel: the third strategic threat', openDemocracy, 7 June 2010). But most Israelis, starting with the Binyamin Netanyahu administration, do not. As a whole, the Israeli state seems not to understand - and may simply be unable to see - that its posture is unsustainable (see 'Israel’s security trap', openDemocracy, 5 August 2010).

Time really is running out for Israel; but most probably, only outside actors can enable the country to recognise this (see 'After Gaza: Israel’s last chance', openDemocracy, 17 January 2009). In this respect, the Barack Obama administration may be different enough from its predecessors as to ensure some serious diplomatic progress.

If, as a result, the Washington talks on 2 September 2010 become truly serious in the coming months, Obama’s presidency could yet be responsible for a historic achievement that would help save Israel from itself.

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(c) Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He is also involved with the Oxford Research Group. He has been writing a weekly column on global security on openDemocracy since 26 September 2001. See: http://www.opendemocracy.net/author/Paul_Rogers.jsp

Further links to the articles mentioned in this article may be found at: http://tinyurl.com/39u9n8k

“Being chosen,” as in the case of biblical or modern Israel, is still a grand theological theme inhabiting discourse in America, says Martin E. Marty. The concept is hotly disputed. And it is especially troubling when it becomes a matter of credal orthodoxy.

The grand theological themes don’t fade or disappear from headlines or prime time in the US. “Being chosen,” as in the case of biblical or modern Israel, is the grand theological theme today.

My clippings and blog-printout file bulges with records of renewed debates over what it means to be a “chosen people,” and whether Israel today should make use of the concept. Perhaps the most widely-known recent controversy was inspired by Michael Chabon’s 'Chosen, but Not Special' op-ed in The New York Times (published on 6 June 2010).

Identified only as author of The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Chabon spends no time on the biblical concept. His theme is the Yiddish word seichel, which, he says, means “ingenuity, creativity, subtlety, nuance.”

Seichel has helped Jews as a people to survive, but Chabon thinks it has been lacking in recent highly-publicised actions by Israel.

No self-hating Jew, Chabon does say that “we Jews” are not always comfortable living with the consequences of the myth of seichel.

Now to the point: This is “the foundational ambiguity of Judaism and Jewish identity: the idea of chosenness, of exceptionalism, of the treasure that is a curse, the blessing that is a burden…To be chosen has been, all too often in our history, to be culled.”

Chabon does not mention it, but I recall a grimly humorous or humorously grim prayer by a rabbi who thanks God for having chosen Israel but then, reflecting on “the burden” that goes with this, asks God next time to choose some other people.

Plenty of other people have seen themselves as chosen. Most theologically nuanced was Abraham Lincoln’s word for Americans: “an almost chosen people.” Of course, there are no biblical roots for calling citizens of the United States a “chosen people,” nor were there for the English, from whom Americans, including many of our founders, inherited the myth.

Such myths, like Lincoln’s word about the United States being “the last, best hope of earth,” can be empowering and ennobling, but they can also issue in arrogance, imperial swaggering and destruction.

Back to Israel’s issue: We non-Jews do not have to settle the debates internal to Judaism and Israel on this subject. But non-Jews such as the almost-chosen Americans do have much at stake. The Jewish paper Forward on 21 May 2010 published John C. Hagee’s 'Why Christian Zionists Really Support Israel.'

Evangelist Hagee was a counsellor to Presidential candidate John McCain’s team for five minutes during the 2008 election campaign, until the team leaders caught on to the consequences of any Hageean embrace.

Hagee assures Israel that it can count on Christian Zionists, no matter what it does: “Our support for Israel starts with God’s promises in the Hebrew Bible,” which many of this school of thought translate to the idea that the United States must help assure that Israel will own all the land within some boundaries mentioned in 'the Hebrew Bible.'

Non-Jews will not understand Jews who have a sense of history unless they understand how central 'the Land' is in their thought. But they can chafe – as many of us confess to have done years ago – when chided for not believing that Israel’s chosenness had to be an article of Christian belief today, and that non-belief was anti-Semitism.

Chabon repeated the many reasons for identifying with Israel that are political, moral, strategic and empathic. But such identifying does not need to become credal, as it does in the world of Christian Zionists and their more moderate allies. “Get over it” is part of Chabon’s message, and then “get on with it” implies more pragmatic consequences.

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(c) Martin E. Marty The author is a leading US commentator on religion - and the Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. His biography, current projects, upcoming events, publications, and contact information can be found at www.illuminos.com.

With grateful acknowledgements to Sightings, and the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago Divinity School, Illinois, USA.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Catholic Cardinal Wilfrid Napier are opposing a proposed media law that critics say resembles apartheid legislation.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Roman Catholic Cardinal Wilfrid Napier are among hundreds of high-profile South Africans calling on their compatriots to oppose a proposed media law that critics say resembles apartheid legislation - writes Munyaradzi Makoni.

In an unscripted speech on 18 August 2010 at the Institute for Democracy in Cape Town, Tutu, who is due to retire from public life in October, challenged South Africans to fight for press freedom by mobilising the spirit which made the 2010 soccer World Cup a success.

Referring to the FIFA soccer competition which South Africa hosted and which ended in July, Tutu said, "We are on a high, or we were on a high. We were, all of us, on the same page."

He continued, "Why don't we get on to the same page about the media? I am just saying it must be odd to think that people who were together, moving in the same direction, could suddenly find that we are at odds with one another, that you bring something that virtually everybody rejects."

Tutu challenged opponents of the new media control proposals that the ruling African National Congress has put forward, to fight back. He said, "This is your country, and it is going to become what you allow it to be."

The Catholic Archbishop of Durban, Cardinal Napier, who like Tutu was a noted foe of apartheid, has also spoken out against the ANC's proposed Protection of Information Bill and a state media tribunal.

"It is hard to imagine how any person, group or organisation, which only a few years ago was protesting so vigorously for the exposing of all injustice, all corruption, all favoritism and nepotism, could in such a short time be calling for legislation designed to prevent the reporting of these very ills," said Napier.

The archbishop was among hundreds of readers, academics and activists who sent e-mails, faxes and text messages to The Mercury, in support of the Durban daily newspaper's "No" campaign to the proposed media changes.

"It must be either an extremely short memory or a very guilty conscience that could drive one who had suffered under the old regime to change so quickly from opposing to supporting that undemocratic conduct," said Napier, who also heads the Southern Africa Catholic Bishops' Conference.

In an appeal to South African President Jacob Zuma, Napier said, "Please do not allow our country to be brought into disrepute so soon after the wonderful picture of unity and solidarity that South Africa presented to the world during the World Cup."

South Africa's African Christian Democratic Party said the proposed law would have a negative impact on access to information. Steve Swart, ACDP lawmaker and spokesperson on justice matters, told ENInews that the bill goes against the constitution, and will severely curtail the right to freedom of information.

"There might be valid complaints against the media but our view is, 'Let us point out the weakness with the current ombudsman system, and strengthen it,'" Swart said.

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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Christian Aid is encouraging supporters to write to UK PM David Cameron, reminding him of his pledge that his government will be the greenest ever.

The UK-based international development agency Christian Aid is encouraging supporters to write to UK Prime Minister David Cameron, reminding him of his pledge that his government will be the greenest ever - both in terms of action at home and internationally.

The agency is calling on the PM and the British government to act decisively to help get United Nations climate change talks back on track, and in particular, to deliver a deal that works for the world's poor.

As part of Christian Aid's supporter day on Wednesday 20 October 2010, they will be handing in a letter to Mr Cameron and hope that it will contain many thousands of signatures, confirming the churches' and the British public's support for action to defend the environment and assist the world's most vulnerable.

On the action day itself, leading US civil rights campaigner the Rev Jesse Jackson will be addressing the crowd, along with Christian Aid's director, Loretta Minghella, and the head of Christian Aid Scotland, the Rev Kathy Galloway - former leader of the Iona Community.

Those involved will also be hearing directly about the day-to-day reality of the fight against poverty and injustice from campaigners from India and Zambia.

The letter to the Prime Minister calls for adequate resources for developing countries to adapt to climate change and to develop cleanly, in addition to current aid commitments.

It also asks for European Union domestic emissions cuts of at least 40 per cent by 2020.

You can sign the letter here: http://tinyurl.com/2ww2st9

Buy Christian Aid charity gifts and support present aid online.

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The Church of Scotland has put forward proposals which would see its St Andrew Press arm run by an established religious publishing house.

The Church of Scotland has put forward proposals which would see its St Andrew Press arm run by an established religious publishing house.

Under the plans, St Andrew Press would be operated by Hymns Ancient and Modern, but, says the Kirk, would "retain its own unique identity in Scottish publishing."

The move comes after considerable concern about the future of the Church of Scotland's publishing arm in the light of the Presbyterian denomination's need to address a substantial financial deficit of £1.2 million.

It had been proposed that the St Andrew Press would be axed, with the loss of ten jobs. Nine redundancies have already been implemented. But the move caused furore both inside and outside the church.

The former Bishop of Edinburgh and Primus of the Scottsh Episcopal Church, Richard Holloway, said it looked as if the Kirk was “pulling up the drawbridge”.

Meanwhile, John Brown, the brother of the former Prime Minister and a lay member of the Church of Scotland’s Publishing Committee, which has the 50-year-old publishing house, resigned in May 2010 over the issue.

At the Kirk's General Assembly, the Rev Mark Johnstone, convener of the Mission and Discipleship Council, had said the Church subsidised the St Andrew Press by £163,000 1n 2009.

Between 2005 and 2009 the cost to the denomination was £696,000, and it was expected to lose £130,000 in the next two years.

Under the new proposals, which require to be approved by the Kirk’s Council of Assembly in September 2010, the Church would continue to publish a range of material aimed at the market in Scotland and overseas.

Hymns Ancient and Modern already runs the publishing arm of the Church of England and is a charitable organisation with an international reputation and an annual turnover of almost £6 million.

As of 2001, Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd has been operating as a group with 54 staff in East Anglia and London. Its two subsidiaries are SCM-Canterbury Press Ltd for book publishing, and G.J.Palmer & Sons Ltd for newspapers and agency advertising.

Mr Johnstone commented: “These proposals would place St Andrew Press with an established publisher in the religious market and open up new markets for our books and our authors here in Scotland, in the UK and in all major international markets."

He continued: “With the full weight of this successful company behind us we would be able to provide better service and support to our authors while retaining the knowledge and expertise of staff."

“Importantly, control of what St Andrew Press publishes would remain with the Church of Scotland,” Mr Johnstone added.

The Kirk had considered three bids for St Andrew Press, which was reduced to just one member of staff following this year’s General Assembly. The bid from Hymns Ancient and Modern was felt by the Mission and Discipleship Council to be the best option and a final decision will be made by the Council of Assembly.

The plan is that the Church will receive a share of sales from books published under the St Andrew Press brand and hold none of the costs associated with running such a company.

Mr Johnstone claimed today: “This is a win win situation for the Church as we get to retain our valuable St Andrew Press brand, increase our market reach and raise money for the Church, all at no cost to us.”

Dominic Vaughan, the Group Chief Executive of Hymns Ancient and Modern said: “The Trustees of Hymns Ancient and Modern are delighted to be given the opportunity to pursue a successful relationship with the Church of Scotland and to be associated with such a great publishing house as St Andrew Press.”

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Greenbelt 2010 (http://www.greenbelt.org.uk/festival/), backed by global development agency Christian Aid and a range of other organisations, is expected to attract some 21,000 people from 27-30 August at Cheltenham Racecourse.

The increase in the number of people coming to stay in Britain is due to a significant rise in international students, new ONS data shows.

Net UK migration figures, published by the Office for National Statistics today, shows that the increase last year in the number of people coming to live in Britain is due to a significant rise in international students, together with a decline in the number of Britons going to live abroad for 12 months or more.

Overseas student figures went up 35 per cent, with 362,015 tier four visas issued under the points-based system as compared with 2008.

Colleges and universities, and the economy as a whole, are reaping a massive £2 billion revenue from the growth in international students (more when indirect benefits are included) - though educationalists point out that this needs to be considered in relation to a larger debate about the structure, funding and access for both domestic and overseas students in higher education.

The overall ONS figures showed that incomers, compared with those moving abroad, increased by 33,000 from the previous 2008 total of 163,000.

The quarterly immigration and asylum statistics for the 12 months to June 2010 show sharp falls in the number people coming to work in Britain under the points-based immigration system.

The number of temporary employment visas fell by 17 per cent to 66,495.

There were half the number of Eastern European arrivals as compared to 2008, and the number of people coming to work in Britain has continued to fall during the economic downturn.

The statistics also show a further fall in the number of asylum seekers coming to Britain, down from 25,930 in 2008 to 24,485 - with government and courts taking an increasingly punitive attitude to people seeking refuge in the UK.

Meanwhile, anti-immigration lobby groups like Migration Watch, tabloid newspapers and conservative politicians have all sought to interpret the figures negatively - claiming that the overall increase in net migration represents a continuing crisis.

But pro-migrant groups say that continuing 'immigration panic' in the media is based on prejudice, misunderstanding and misinformation on issues like employment and migration.

An Institute for Public Policy Research report earlier this year concluded that on the best available UK micro-economic evidence of the effects of migration on employment, in line with research in other OECD countries, there were limited effects either way.

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A public service strike is hurting hospital patients and students, and the government and unions should act to end it, says the Archbishop of Cape Town.

South Africa’s public service strike is hurting hospital patients and students, and the government and unions should act to end it, says the Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.

Archbishop Thabo Makgoba has called for essential staff in institutions such as hospitals to return to work immediately - writes Munyaradzi Makoni for ENI.

"Our country is facing a huge crisis at this moment," the archbishop said in Cape Town. "Striking essential public service employees and educators are, however unintentionally, causing much anguish and even physical suffering."

The Star newspaper reported on 19 August 2010 that six people, including two infants, died as militant strikers blockaded the Natalspruit Hospital in Ekurhuleni near Johannesburg, and striking public servants pledged to shut down government institutions.

Hundreds of dancing protesters were reported to have blocked entrances at the Natalspruit, Chris Hani Baragwanath, Helen Joseph and Weskoppies hospitals near Johannesburg.

Eleven nurses and two doctors at the hospitals attended to about 500 patients with security guards left to look after more than 20 babies, who had not been fed for nearly the entire day. The army was understood to be preparing to bring in its doctors and nurses.

In a message to the strikers, who are demanding a 10 per cent pay hike, Makgoba said, "We understand your plight and your rights to seek justice in terms of fair and adequate salaries and other benefits, especially in the face of corruption by some government officials.

"However, the present strikes are creating suffering - for patients in hospitals, especially those who are seriously ill; for out-patients no longer able to receive much needed medication; for students, who are working hard to prepare for matric examinations; and for learners who are trying to develop a culture of education."

The archbishop added, "These strikes are doing a great deal of harm to our country - and this is something we cannot afford to continue."

[With acknowledgements to ENI. Ecumenical News International is jointly sponsored by the World Council of Churches, the Lutheran World Federation, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Conference of European Churches.]

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The government could be acting illegally if it uses DNA testing to investigate the country of origin of asylum seekers, a Scottish human rights activist says.

The UK Government could be acting illegally if it uses DNA testing to try to determine the country of origin of asylum seekers, a leading Scottish human rights campaigner says.

Professor Alan Miller, chair of the Scottish Human Rights Commission, and a top human rights lawyer, said moves to use DNA testing as a permanent part of the asylum application process could be contested in the European Court of Human Rights - reports the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (http://www.scvo.org.uk/).

Professor Miller was speaking at a Scottish Festival of Politics event that debated the legal and moral basis for a recent six month UK Border Agency (UKBA) pilot that used DNA testing in cases where an asylum seeker’s country of origin was in doubt.

The controversial UKBA Human Providence Pilot was aimed at addressing alleged problems of African asylum seekers claiming to come from war-torn Somalia because they were more likely to have their application approved.

However, it was amended at the last minute after an outcry from human rights bodies and scientists who claimed that it wasn’t possible to accurately determine a person’s country of origin from their DNA.

Testing did go ahead but the UKBA argued that it would not be used to determine a person’s right to asylum.

UK Immigration minister Damien Green, who is carrying out a review of the asylum process, has not yet indicated whether the controversial move will be rolled out permanently.

“If the government wants to legislate and put this into the asylum system they are on very, very shaky ground and they would be very susceptible to [being] challenged in the European Court of Human Rights,” said Miller at the event organised by the British Council and the Economic and Social Research Council Genomics Forum.

“A court under international human rights law, of which the UK is a signatory, faced with having to decide if the extraction of DNA from an individual was legal, has three tests to apply: legality, justification and whether it is proportionate, which is critically close to the heart of this matter.”

“The first question I would ask as a human rights lawyer is ‘What are the relevant and sufficient reasons for this DNA being taken?’ and then ‘Does it conclusively determine whether this person is bogus or genuine?’. If it doesn’t, then the state’s going to find it very difficult to justify why they are interfering with someone’s personal life and privacy in such a far reaching way."

Professor Miller was joined at the event by Dr Bruce Durie, course director of genealogical studies at the University of Strathclyde, and Gary Christie policy and research manager, at the Scottish Refugee Council.

The Scottish Refugee Council has campaigned strongly against the use of DNA testing as part of the asylum process. It argues that the move indicates the government’s desire to reduce asylum applications at the expense of a fair and just asylum system.

Speaking of the UKBA pilot, Christie said: “There was a major outcry when this was introduced, so they changed the pilot around slightly and said that testing for ethnicity and nationality was not going to have an impact on somebody’s claim.

“However, there was still concern that the fact that someone might refuse to have their DNA taken could potentially impact on their credibility.

“This is now within the scope of the UK Government’s asylum review and we would hope that it is something the new government will decide to bin.”

With acknowledgments to SCVO

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The Disasters Emergency Committee in the UK is encouraging corporate donations as part of its drive to raise money for flood-stricken Pakistan.

The Disasters Emergency Committee in the UK is encouraging corporate donations as part of its drive to raise money for flood-stricken Pakistan.

The consortium of aid agencies today announced that their appeal for people affected by the Pakistan monsoon has now raised £37 million, including a donation of £1 million from Deloitte, the business advisory firm.

DEC Chief Executive Brendan Gormley commented: “We are extremely grateful to the UK public for their continuing generosity and to Deloitte for their exceptional corporate donation. The money that is coming in is still urgently needed by our members who have already helped 800,000 people but are struggling to help many more."

He continued: “Although the majority of our funds are provided by individual members of the public, corporate and community support is also incredibly important. As well as making corporate donations, many companies have given their support to staff fundraising activities or matched individual donations made by employees. We would encourage others to follow their lead.”

John Connolly, Deloitte senior partner and CEO, added: "The profound crisis facing Pakistan, the dreadful human impact of the devastating floods, have touched everyone at Deloitte. We want to show our support for the aid effort in a really meaningful way."

“We believe this is the right thing to do in the face of such an immense humanitarian crisis, especially given the many close connections between people in the UK and the people of Pakistan," said Connolly.

The disaster has already claimed the lives of 1,500 people and directly affected over 17 million people, with millions more threatened.

The Disasters Emergency Committee consists of Action Aid, Age UK, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.

To make a donation to the DEC Pakistan Floods Appeal call the 24 hour hotline on 0370 60 60 900, visit http://www.dec.org.uk or donate over the counter at any post office or high street bank, or send a cheque. You can also donate £5 by texting the word GIVE to 70707

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The World Council of Churches is sending an international delegation to visit the Indigenous Peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia.

The World Council of Churches is sending an international delegation to visit the Indigenous Peoples in the Northern Territory of Australia from 12 -17 September 2010.

The visit is in response to an invitation extended by the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) to shed light on the human rights situation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and to show solidarity with the Indigenous people who feel their voices are not heard.

Living Letters are small ecumenical teams which visit a country to listen, learn, share approaches and help to confront challenges in order to overcome violence, promote and pray for peace. Living Letters visits are part of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence.

The invitation to the WCC was extended following a forum held in 2009 by the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC) of the NCCA.

The visit will focus on concerns that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Peoples have with regard to the 2007 “Northern Territory Emergency Response” –locally known as the “Intervention”.

A similar WCC delegation visited the region in 1981. At that time, the delegation listened to the cries of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples due to poverty, powerlessness and injustice with regard to questions of land rights, mining, the legal system, housing, education, health and unemployment.

The 1990 WCC consultation in Darwin (Australia) on “Land is our life”, as well as the subsequent statement on “Land and Indigenous Peoples: Move Beyond Words” by the WCC Assembly in Canberra, 1991, are important milestones of the ecumenical journey of Indigenous Peoples.

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More on WCC wrk with Indigenous Peoples: http://tinyurl.com/367uoq6

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Quality school Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) is vital to help combat the alarming rise in STIs among the young, says inclusive schools campaign Accord.

Quality school Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) is vital to combat the alarming rise in sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among young people, says the chair of the inclusive schools campaign Accord.

Figures released yesterday by the Health Protection Agency (HPS) have shown that rates of STIs increased again in 2009, continuing the steady rise over the last decade.

STIs were highest among young adults, with two thirds of new diagnoses in women under 25, and half of new STI diagnoses in men aged under 25.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, chair of the Accord Coalition commented: "At the moment the education system fails many children by requiring that they are only taught about the basic biological aspects of sex, contraception and sexually transmitted infections in secondary school science lessons. It is little wonder therefore, that the UK has growing rates of STIs and the highest teenage pregnancy rates in Western Europe."

He continued: "Good age appropriate Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) seeks to do many things, including to give children the tools to be clear about personal boundaries, to resist pressure assertively, to seek help when they need it and to challenge misleading and inappropriate messages. However, it is also known to reduce unwanted pregnancies and the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and the HPA’s latest figures only reinforce the pressing need for better SRE in our schools."

Dr Romain added: "Personal, Social, Health and Economic edcuation, which includes SRE, should be made compulsory throughout key stages one to four in all state maintained schools and the Government should use the opportunity provided by its forthcoming National Curriculum review to enact this."

"Current SRE provision in the UK lags behind that of many developed countries and our failure to ensure that schools provide thorough, accurate and balanced SRE places our children’s health and wellbeing at risk. All children in all state maintained schools should have an entitlement to high standard SRE, regardless of which school they attend," he concluded.

The Accord Coalition (www.accordcoalition.org.uk/) was launched in September 2008 to bring together religious and non-religious organisations and individuals campaigning for an end to discrimination in school staffing and admissions.

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Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis is back on track for execution, despite doubts about his guilt raised during a June evidentiary hearing.

Amnesty International today (25 August 2010) expressed deep concern that a federal district court decision puts Georgia death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis back on track for execution, despite doubts about his guilt that were raised during a June evidentiary hearing. Judge William T. Moore, Jr. ruled that while executing an innocent person would violate the United States Constitution, Davis did not meet the extraordinarily high legal bar to prove his innocence.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said: "There must surely be significant doubt about someone's guilt when witnesses are recanting testimony and saying that someone else committed the crime.

"The bar for proving Troy Davis's innocence was set incredibly high, yet there is still far too much room for doubt. This decision puts Troy at risk of execution and like all death penalty cases, any doubt will become meaningless once his life has been taken."

Amnesty International representatives attended the hearing in Savannah, Georgia. The organisation noted that evidence continues to cast doubt over the case:

-Four witnesses admitted in court that they lied at trial when they implicated Troy Davis and that they did not know who shot Officer Mark MacPhail.

- Four witnesses implicated another man as the one who killed the officer – including a man who says he saw the shooting and could clearly identify the alternative suspect, who is a family member.

- Three original state witnesses described police coercion during questioning, including one man who was 16 years old at the time of the murder and was questioned by several police officers without his parents or other adults present.

Since the launch of its February 2007 report, "Where Is the Justice for Me? The Case of Troy Davis, Facing Execution in Georgia", Amnesty International has campaigned intensively for a new evidentiary hearing or trial and clemency for Davis, collecting hundreds of thousands of clemency petition signatures and letters from across the United States and around the world. To date, internationally known figures including Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and the former US President Jimmy Carter have all joined the call for clemency, as well as lawmakers from within and outside of Georgia.

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US church development agency executives have told the world not to forget Haiti, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake.

US church development agency executives have told the world not to forget Haiti, which is still recovering from a devastating earthquake.

Pictures of the devastation are distressing, but seeing earthquake-ravaged Haiti in person is far worse than the Rev Rafael Malpica Padilla had magined. "It is overwhelming," said Malpica Padilla, executive director for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) Global Mission.

As he described the piles of rubble where buildings once stood, and trash that has accumulated and continues to pile up in Haiti, Malpica Padilla told the ELCA News Service on 24 August that the process of cleaning up will be "a major affair."

Finding solutions for permanent housing for the more than 1 million people displaced from their homes and living in make-shift camps is also "a massive undertaking," he said.

During his 22-25 August 2010 trip to Haiti, Malpica Padilla and two other ELCA Global Mission colleagues are meeting with Haitians to hear their stories. A woman from Carrefour, Haiti, told Malpica Padilla that what "we need in this community is work, people who will trust us and give us a chance to rebuild our lives."

Carrefour is an area where the ELCA is supporting the work of the Lutheran Church in Haiti in providing shelter materials, distributing food and water, and addressing sanitation issues needed for daily living, safety and security, said Malpica Padilla.

He said the ELCA is also exploring opportunities to build "permanent houses in several communities in collaboration with The Lutheran World Federation and possibly with Church World Service."

The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) is based in Geneva, and Church World Service (CWS) in New York. The ELCA is a member of the LWF and participates in the work of CWS.

"When I met with members of the community, I told them that I would not take care of them but seek to empower the community. We need to move beyond the 'assistance approach' in relief and development to empowering people, so they can do their work. (Residents) need to claim ownership. Then together we can transform communities," said Malpica Padilla. He said relief and rebuilding efforts must be "complementary, focused and urgent."

In a meeting with Haiti's chief economic advisor to the prime minister, Malpica Padilla said the ELCA's work in Haiti must complement others there. "There are tasks that the (Haitian people) should do, what the church will do, and what the government has to do," he said. Together "we can develop an integrated process to accomplish goals."

The second component in rebuilding is impact, said Malpica Padilla. "We do not want to be spread too thin by building here and there. We need to focus our efforts in the restoration of communities."

"We need to be urgent. Rebuilding should have happened yesterday, not for our sake but for the sake of people who remain displaced from their homes, who are without work and who have nothing," he stressed.

At the heart of recovery and rebuilding is "internal solidarity," he continued. "When the earthquake happened, people found themselves with dead loved ones and nowhere to go. Survivors turned to one another and offered help. What little they had, they shared and worked on together. We need to build on that, especially agencies and organisations coming from the outside. The resilience of the Haitian people gives me hope in the midst of many challenges."

Members of the ELCA have contributed more than US$12.2 million in gifts to support disaster relief efforts in Haiti.

Information about ELCA Global Mission is at http://www.ELCA.org/globalmission and Haiti earthquake relief at http://www.ELCA.org/Our-Faith-In-Action/Responding-to-the-World/Disaster... on the ELCA's website.

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