Friday, April 27, 2007

Hunger

I should written about this experience earlier in the week (though I suppose I should also be doing schoolwork now). But I want to write because I have very few personal experiences to share—I’m working on it I suppose, but I’m not really living the preferential option yet. As Janie Crawford said in Their Eyes Were Watching God, “You have to go there to know there.” In that sense, very little of what I’ve written has any validity!

But this week, I participated in a 30-hour fast to raise money for World Vision. Apparently, USAID is matching all money raised four times…all for food aid. So no big deal, I’m not valorizing this simple action. However, the experience did make me think. I did consider it a sacrifice to go for 30 hours with no food and minimal drink. I confess I felt a little righteous when I was light-headed or had trouble focusing in class. I felt like I was “nan batay la,” Creole for “in the struggle.” Not true.

Millions of five year olds all over the world perform 30-hour fasts all the time. Right now, at this moment, many are exactly one fast from starvation. In just the time I’ve been writing this, several children have finished their final fast. Hanging on is pure torture. The entire body and mind (and maybe soul) shuts down to bare minimum. In a way, my willful sacrifice makes a mockery of this misery. I know the point was to show a little solidarity, and I do believe the ND participants did that. I’m not criticizing what we did. I’m indicting all of us for not doing more. The world produces enough food for every person to have 2800 calories per day, way more than we each need. So we can do more.

I attended a hunger banquet after the fast. Another provoking experience. A priest who spoke after dinner gave us three things we can do. I’m probably not very good about any of them, so I’m not trying to be hypocritical or anything. But if we could remember these three things…First, live simply. Second, give generously. Third, advocate for justice.

This is not about helping people or understanding others’ suffering. This is about life and death.

Another Maryknoll video on Cambodia

Land mines still maim and kill 600 people a year in Cambodia. Almost 2 a day more than 15 years since war ended.

Maryknoll video on Cambodia

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Personal Position on Violence

Six months ago, I probably would have described myself as a pacifist. Living in and loving a Catholic Worker House will do that to a person. But in my class peace studies (my new minor), I’ve been pushed to critically question and refine my personal position on violence. It’s not complete. Or definitive. Or solid. Like much else, violence raises complex moral questions, so we should allow for our beliefs to change with time. But at 20-years-old, here is where I am now:

For me personally, I will not initiate direct acts of physical, structural, or environmental violence against other human beings or their property. I say “initiate” because I don’t know how I would respond to an attack—my guess is that I’d for the most part defend myself. I use the word “direct” because while I cannot imagine myself willfully bringing physical or structural violence against another person, I have to be honest about my status. I am a middle-class American. Ipso facto then, I do indirectly perpetuate violence. See “U.S. foreign policy” for detail here. I cannot talk about structural inequality and violence without recognizing my role in the system. In response to this role, it is my duty to work for an alternative—in a peacebuilding endeavor, of which being a physician is one of MANY. As a global citizen, to minimize violence, I must follow Jim Wallis’s charge and try to “answer the questions violence purports to answer, but in a better way.”

I do believe Pope Paul VI’s statement: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

But how to deal with the real problem of evil? This is where contemporary Just War Theory comes into my position. My apologies to anyone unfamiliar with JWT—read a book on it, fascinating history and application. Anyway, first, a presumption against the use of force is indeed essential and must be taken seriously. Second, in the cases of real evil and assault on the innocent for which I believe a military intervention is required, the only legitimate authority to make the decision is the United Nations. It is the fault of stronger countries that the UN currently lacks full capacity to exercise this role. That problem must be addressed. Last resort—which does not allow for preemption—and right intention must be followed strictly as spelled out in JWT. Finally, in the case of a military intervention such as one that must happen in Darfur, force must only be exercised as a political necessity to bring about a diplomatic solution. Force must be absolutely as limited as possible. The human and infrastructure security of noncombatants absolutely must not be damaged.

Two disclaimers, other than that this position is subject to refinement. One, I have not had to put these principles into practice for the protection of others. But if necessary, I hope my actions would follow my ideals. Two, I understand the huge challenge of actualizing my position.

That's our charge.

Google Shows What News Neglects

Right now, download Google Earth. Search "Darfur camps."

See the testimonials, the photos, the camps labeled "ok" or "destroyed" (see how the destroyed overwhelms the ok).

See the button for "how to help."

Yes, everyone knows about Darfur. But when a genocide is happening, right now, at this moment people dying or living in terror...we need to see more. We need more national news coverage on Darfur (perhaps in lieu of overcoverage of stories like the mysterious death of a certain actress, may God rest her soul). We need to see. What Google and the Holocaust Museum have done is admirable, even if we say we already "know." Because if we keep knowing, maybe we (yes, each of us) can move our government to do more. We know what can be done. I find it very hard to believe that the international community can't band together and force Omar al-Bashir to accept an intervention. The odds are in our favor. But right now, at this moment, odds do not favor Darfurians.

We mark the 13th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide this month: 800,000 killed in 100 days, a country torn apart. We know the international community could have stopped it, but did nothing. Despite UN Commander Romeo Dallaire's fervent plea for an intervention, the United Nations (at the request of our own country) withdrew its forces in the middle of that April. We didn't act, and so we share the blame.

It's April again. Genocide is happening again. I have no power over policy. I don't pretend to know the best solution. But I do know that we, each of us, can see more and do more.

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Not my words

My words are not good enough. I try to articulate my own thoughts about social justice, if only in my head. But as I think, words of others poke into my ideas, phrases that say what I’m trying to say. Maybe my words will be stronger when they’re based on more action…a work in progress for me. So now, to give you my thoughts, I turn to thoughts not my own, to Dr. Paul Farmer’s words from Pathologies of Power:

“In my experience, people who work for social justice, regardless of their own station in life, tend to see the world as deeply flawed. They see the conditions of the poor not only as unacceptable but as a result of structural violence that is human-made…Often, if these individuals are privileged people like me, they understand that hey have been implicated, whether directly or indirectly, in the creation or maintenance of this structural violence. They then feel indignation, but also humility and penitence.”

Sunday, April 8, 2007

If you could meet any living person...?

Let’s try be interactive. I’m curious.

We’re all taught to develop role models and heroes, to focus on the VIPs. I could probably argue against the judiciousness of this focus. How do important people become important? What is importance? Don’t the unimportant need attention more?

But, it’s human to be sucker for celebrity. So, if you could meet any living person, who would it be? Why? If you’re as indecisive as I am, give me a couple top picks.

My choices:
1. Jean Bertrand Aristide: former president of Haiti, victim to, not one, but two coup d’etats. I want to meet the would-be savior of one of the world’s poorest countries.
2. Nicholas Kristof: journalist from the New York Times. He travels the world to bring its most pressing issues—the under-reported ones—to my laptop every Tuesday and Sunday. I’d love to pick his brain, and thank him.
3. Dith Pran: Cambodian journalist who survived the Khmer Rouge, subject of the movie “The Killing Fields.”
4. Dave Matthews: because “life is short but sweet for certain”

Who would you give anything to have coffee with?

Bread for the World

So, as the Basilica bells chimed, and gongs resounded, and voices of the liturgical choir and a full congregation proclaimed last night—“Christ the Lord is risen today.” I love the Easter Triduum at Notre Dame. Trom Fr. Tyson’s homily on Holy Thursday about how rich and poor alike “wash each other’s feet” in service, following the way of Christ at the last supper. To the celebration of the fullness of the Eucharist: entering the love of Christ’s suffering and death, so that by His resurrection, we might be life and love for the world. Okay, I apologize for getting a little too religious, but I don’t do so to exclude. Rather to include. I don’t care what you believe or if you believe, I think Easter still holds a truth for everyone. I wish I knew more about other traditions to show you more specifically how the idea transcends religious or cultural practice…but I have to go with what I know.

I think our communion hymn from Thursday illustrates this absolutely universal Easter message:
“Bread for the world: a world of hunger.
Wine for all peoples: people who thirst.
May we who eat, be bread for others.
May we who drink, pour out our love.”

Whether we believe we are loved by a Christ who suffered, died, and rose for us…or whether we believe we are loved by our mothers and fathers—we do have love to pour out for others. But with our love, we also must give bread.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007

A Somber News Day

I have to comment on two things, despite my lack of time to develop the ideas. Look into them on your own for depth, because I’m obviously no Nick Kristof.

1) Speaking of Kristof, he returned to his oft-written about topic of sex slaves and human trafficking. He writes, the crucial point he brings up repeatedly though a little less explicitly in this piece, that there are more slaves now than in the height of the slave trade. However, slaves today are usually dead of AIDS by age 20 or so. This winter, he returned to profile trafficking in Cambodia. I likely will be aware of the presence of brothels in Phnom Penh this summer. I don’t know if I can imagine girls my age literally chained and enslaved in the city where I’ll be living…

But here, Kristof writes about a Pakistani woman who unwittingly married a brothel owner, giving her and her family a life of terror. I must quote the article here (“Sanctuary for Sex Slaves” NYT 4/3/07) where the woman says, “If I had money, this wouldn’t be happening,” said Ms. Parveen’s mother, Akbari Begum. “It’s all about money. In the police station, nobody listens to me. The police listen to those who sell narcotics.”

“God should never grant daughters to poor people,” she added. “God should not give sisters to poor brothers. Because we’re poor, we can’t fight for them. It’s very hard for poor people, because they take our daughters and dishonor them. There’s nothing we can do.”

What’s our response when women today wish away their families, not because of planning, but because of terror and poverty?

2) Five African Union soldiers were killed in Darfur today, the most ever at a time. The beleaguered force has no shot at quelling the violence, or stopping the genocide which is only getting worse. Simple fact: the situation in Darfur is getting worse. Honestly, how many times can the world make the same mistake? Holocaust. Khmer Rouge. Rwanda. Many many others. Guaranteed, we will look back in dismay at our present inaction. We can express penitence then. But thousands upon thousands of Darfurians can no longer express life. 400,000 to half a million dead now, 2 million displaced. Everyone knows it. Can we not do something?

Though President Omar al-Bashir won’t let international troops in, we can impose a strict no-fly zone on the country. We can certainly implement targeted divestment in Sudan corporations. We can impose smart sanctions to put economic pressure on without hurting the already-damaged humanitarian efforts. We can strongly make a statement, especially from repeated direct speeches by heads of state. None of those absolutely crucial interventions even involve military action.

They simply can not wait any longer.