A Different Kind of Olympics (4)

Human trafficking and the Olympics.

What has one got to do with the other? – was my first thought when reading this piece of news from Zenit, the non-profit international news agency.

Plenty – it seems, as explained here:

“The world’s media is presently covered with images of athletes whose talents and bodies have received immense care, support and specialized attention,” said James Parker, the Catholic Executive Coordinator for the 2012 Games and Chair of “More Than Gold’s” five social justice programs. 

He goes on to add:

“The Christian community would be failing the Games as a whole, and failing the global family we seek to celebrate and draw together, if we did not draw serious attention to the plight of thousands of people whose talents and bodies are objectified and trafficked across the globe. This is not, as some might believe, someone else’s problem. It is everyone’s problem.”

Read the full article here.

As a young volunteer quoted: “….many of those who have visited are not aware of how great the problem of human trafficking is. “No one seems to know about this, and they just don’t realize that it is happening in just about every locality,” she said. 

Creating Awareness:

• Just what is human trafficking?
• What’s the difference between trafficking and smuggling?
• Isn’t this just another illegal immigrant issue?
• 80% of victims are women; 50% children.
• Human Trafficking generates $32 billion internationally annually, making it one of the top 3 international crimes, along with trafficking of drugs and guns.

This site will explain all these questions and statistics in detail.

Finally, a few famous last words, from John F. Kennedy:

“The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life”.

40 years after, those words have been prophetic. That makes what James Parker and others like him are doing so much more crucial in the kind of world we are creating.

Anti ISA Update (4): Aljazeera 101 East

Aljazeera carried a 30 minute special on its 101 East program from 10.30a.m. (local time) this morning.

If like me you missed it, catch the webcast version here.

Astro will be running a repeat of the Aljazeera 101 East – Malaysia Internal Security Act on Saturday, 8 August 2009, at 01.30 p.m. (local time) on Channel 513.

UN Calls for Swine Flu (H1N1) Crisis Talks

BBC News reported earlier today that UN officials have called for an emergency meeting to discuss the swine flu (also known as H1N1) today. There has been strong talk of a declaration of the first global flu pandemic in more than 40 years.

According to the BBC online news service, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the meeting after the recent surge in number of H1N1 cases in Australia. In a related development, Hong Kong has announced it was closing all nurseries and primary schools for two weeks after 12 students tested positive for the virus.

A quick check on the local Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia portal quotes the Ministry of Health Malaysia (MOH) as saying that : “Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia ingin memaklumkan bahawa negara Malaysia adalah bebas daripada penularan influenza A(H1N1). Oleh itu, pelawat-pelawat luar negara dan juga penduduk Malaysia tidak perlu bimbang kerana negara ini selamat“ – 11/6/09.

The MOH has this status report here for download. You need a pdfxcview reader though.
If you don’t have one, you can download it here for free.

According to the reports, there are a total of 51 countries with confirmed cases of H1N1 up till yesterday (10/6/09). Malaysia’s name is NOT in the list.

The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has details and regular updates on the swine flu outbreak.

While the MOH has clearly said that we need not be unduly worried, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if if we could all be a little more vigilant and practice better and cleaner personal hygiene, especially in the light of developments in countries around us.

1830 Hours: Here is an update on the situation in Malaysia:

Malaysia Insider reports that Malaysia is ready if WHO declares a pandemic. Go here to read the full news. Thailand, too, confirms 30 new H1N1 cases.

Letter from Malaysia

An article by Ian Buruma in The New Yorker, about Anwar Ibrahim and the multitude of problems facing the country.

The full text from Anwar’s blog here, entitled “The Malay Dilemma”.

6th. World Meeting of Families

I almost missed this but the 6th World Meeting of Families will take place in Mexico beginning January 13 and goes on till the 18th. Organised by the Pontifical Council for the Family, this year’s meeting will center around the importance of the family, as the answer to the challenge of individualism. Zenit news agency expects more than a million people to attend.

The online newspaper AsiaNews, reporting from the Vatican quotes Cardinal Ennio Antonelli, president of the council as saying: “The family today must confront, with creativity and a proactive spirit, the challenge of an individualist and mercantilist culture, based on production and consumption. Unfortunately, we have a mistaken concept of freedom, understood as an autonomy closed in on itself; other forms of cohabitation are privileged that obscure the value of the family, based on the marriage of one man and one woman.“

“With this mistaken mentality,” he continued, “very often laws are made – without widespread social consensus and under the impulse of small but active groups, strongly ideological and with extensive economic resources – that permit easy abortion, rapid divorce, and euthanasia. Responding to these challenges,” he concluded, “is a difficult moral obligation.”

The program includes a theological-pastoral congress and other initiatives like the “Mosaic” and the “Forest'” of families, and a competition on “A letter to my child,” for unmarried and single mothers who want to send a letter to their children.

More information at the official website here.

Meanwhile, here’s a reflection presumably from a mother to a child. Author unknown.

GIFTS and REFLECTIONS

We gave you life but we cannot live life for you.
We can give you directions, but cannot be there to lead you always.

We can share and tell you lofty goals but we cannot achieve them for you. We can teach you to share but we cannot make you unselfish.

We can teach you respect but we cannot coerce you to show honour. We can teach you right from wrong but we cannot decide for you.

We can teach you kindness but we cannot make you gracious. We can buy you beautiful things but we cannot make you beautiful inside.

We can give you love but we cannot force it upon you. We can advise you about friends but we cannot choose them for you.

We can advise you about sex but we cannot keep you pure. We can advise you about alcohol, drugs, injustice, dishonesty, and etc. But we cannot say NO for you.

We can offer you advise but we cannot accept it for you. We can take you to worship but we cannot make you believe. We can pray for you but we cannot make you walk with God. We can share and tell you how to live but we cannot give you eternal life.

Do not hurt anyone….just love!, and remember… We will surely love you with unconditional love all our lives….. And all that papa and I really want…. is that you be happy!

And, a prayer for families from the World Meeting of Families website:

Our God, indivisible Trinity,

you created the human being “in your image”

and You admirably formed him as male and female

that so together, united and in reciprocal collaboration with love,

they fulfilled Your project of “being fecund and dominate the Earth”;

We pray to You for all our families

that so, finding in You their initial inspiration and model,

that is fully expressed in the Holy Family of Nazareth,

can live the human and Christian values

that are necessary to consolidate and sustain the love experience

and to be the foundations of a more human

and Christian construction of our society.

We pray to You for the intercession of Mary, our Mother, and Saint Joseph.

For Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN.

Prayer and Fasting For India

This might be a bit late, but still better late than never:

YWAM (Youth With A Mission), an international movement of Christians from different denominations, is calling its 17,000 workers worldwide to join in three days of prayer and fasting from the 29th September till 1st October 2008 for the church in India as it continues to face violent attacks .

For more information on YWAM and its mission, click here and here.

Meanwhile, the executive body of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, has expressed its utter disappointment with the relevant authorities after a meeting in Bangalore last Friday, the 26the of September.

Maybe we could initiate the same wherever we are, in solidarity not only with the persecuted in India, but also for all victims of religious violence irrespective of their faith, wherever it may be happening even as we pray for those in India. Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”. So, if we are not going down that path, what can we do then? We could go the opposite way and try – peacemaking.

The Catholic site New Advent gives a brief explanation for the term “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.”

Christianity Today offers more explanations on the term here, and you can find a detailed article by the Brethren Revival Fellowship here.

Listen to the One Song – A Song For World Peace and Togetherness here at You Tube. It’s only 3 minutes long, and comes with a catchy melody and beautiful graphics.