Bist du bei mir
Solidarity, one of the great words of the last century when we still believed that humanity was fundamentally on an upward trajectory towards the Kingdom of God, social justice, the…
Excommunications Dangereuses
You may remember the film Liaisons Dangereuses. Well, it seems that another equally dangerous territory is that of papal and episcopal excommunications. Relationships, breakups, liaisons, are by definition and experience…
Witch Doctors let loose in the Gambia
According to a UN report (IRIN) and Amnesty International, people are living in fear of their lives in The Gambia. I visited The Gambia on a few occasions. It always…
About Hope and History
Yesterday was St. Patrick’s Day. Except, here in Geneva, it did not feel like St. Patrick’s Day. There were some token efforts in the Irish pubs. But no parades down…
An Issue of Child Rights
It is difficult not to view the recent excommunication of the nine-year old girl who had become involuntarily pregnant because of rape as a clear issue of the rights of…
Reading on the Bus
How many of you read on the bus? Maybe you don’t ride the bus. My work commute takes 50 minutes, composed of a seven minute bus commute at the start,…
Slumdog Millionaire: An Alternative View from an Indian Perspective
A friend sent me an email citing what follows. It is excerpted from an Indian website and offers an Indian perspective on Slumdog Millionaire. Not everyone, it appears, is cheering…
Trafficking in the Philippines
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has expressed concerns that the global economic slump, which is causing increased joblessness, could see an increase in human trafficking. This…
In India it’s a Guy Thing!
The title above is a deliberately ironic comment on what is a serious issue. We all remember those movies about infanticide. The ones showing babies being plunged in tubs of…
Economic Implosion is bad news for world's Poorest
Well it’s official. The UN site, IRIN, posted a report from Dakar citing analyses and forecasts by UN economists on the likely impact of the downturn in the West on…