Recently in Social Justice Category

Operation "Not those rice bowls again!"

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Admit it! That's what you think when you see your parish vestibule overflowing with oddly shaped purple cardboard boxes. But you grab one anyway, take it home, throw some change in it and return it at the end of Lent.

Have you ever wondered where the money actually goes?

Well, it goes to these folks and what may be a minor annual ritual in our lives is a huge deal to them. So take some time to visit their website, maybe even check out their blog, which shares stories from their work around the world (RSS feed), and perhaps find it in you to pack that rice bowl with some serious silver, or better yet, some green.

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St. Jude Catholic Worker House

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Kudos to the News-Gazette for profiling our local Catholic Worker House, which is seeing a surge in clients and could use your help.

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Sweatshop Free Crafting and Art

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by Mama-Lu

Wandering around the aisles of craft stores dreaming of projects used to be my idea of a great afternoon out. When I decided to chase the sweatshop-free dream, suddenly the aisles went from tempting to depressing.

It would be so easy to snatch up lots of fun, cheap supplies and create items for sale, but the "Made in China" label puts a damper on those ideas. In the end that's a good thing. I do not need a reason to buy more stuff, and buying things that might be more expensive keeps my purchases limited. The real temptation is to increase my Etsy shop profit by using sweatshop products. At the same time, every time I type "This is a sweatshop free product" it makes me feel like I can make a difference.

Honestly, yarn sources are not too bad. Beads for rosaries on the other hand is a little tricky. I did find beautiful beads from fair trade sources like Happy Mango Beads and Kazuri West, but these would send the cost of a rosary well beyond my price range. I could also buy from the Czech Republic, since they make beautiful beads and as members of the EU have trust worthy labor laws. In the end I ordered from American Woodcrafters Supply Co.

I am still a long way from being sweatshop-free in everything, but crafting is one area I am doing pretty well, even for the kids. Despite the distance I still have to travel, the more labels I read, the more committed I am to doing better.

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Fair Trade Coffee

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by Mama-Lu

There's fair trade coffee and then there's fair trade coffee.

In our house we do not use "Fair Trade Certified" coffee beans. "Fair Trade Certified" is a relatively new group of programs and they have their flaws. The most significant one being the cost to certify. Farmers have to pay inspectors to certify their farms, and the same goes for organic certification. So the farmer sees even less of his already small profits.

Instead we prefer to buy from small roasteries whose buyers investigate the farms themselves as part of the purchasing process. There is no extra cost for this, and the roasteries or buyers also get a chance to see in what way they might build up the communities in which the farms are located.

Here in Champaign, our own local Columbia Street Roastery is doing just that. So not only are we buying fair trade, but we are also supporting local business. It's a win-win. There are many other roasteries with practices like this; it just takes a little poking to find out what the companies values are.

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Fair Trade

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by Mama-Lu

October was Fair Trade month. All month I meant to put something up here about my thoughts on fair trade. Better late then never!

For some time I have been making a concerted effort to only purchase items that are sweat-shop/abuse free. The idea started with a simple question from our eldest, at the time 3 years old, "Who made my shoes?" The shoes came from Target and were made in China. My response was, "People working in a factory in China." The conversation continued with requests from him to visit China and see the factory where the shoes were made. Then we moved on, but in my mind I could not stop thinking about the "who" and the conditions under which that person worked.

In thinking about this person who suffered unknown injustices to make a pair of cheap shoes for my son, I felt complicit in their abuse. The obvious next step was to avoid this in the future. The question was and is, "How?"

So far, it has not been possible for me. Despite high ideals, I have all kinds of loop-holes and exceptions. Abuse of persons in the third world is frightenly common in our ordinary life. In our house two simple, yet significant, steps reduce participation in that abuse. First, we buy second hand as much as possible. The item's origin might have been a sweatshop, but our money is not supporting systemic abuse. Second we buy fair trade coffee and cocoa/chocolate. Coffee and cocoa are widely sold at prices that cannot support even remotely just practices. A few extra dollars for these luxuries prevents our money from driving a farmer deeper into debt or supporting the routine kidnapping of boys for labor.

These steps are not going to change the world, but they can bring about solidarity. We cannot avoid every level of abuse in our society. It is barely possible to avoid the abuses we are aware of let alone the ones of which we never even hear. Yet giving up and saying there is nothing that can be done is not an option for a person of conscience. Something must be done; something that says "I will not participate in the suffering of my brothers and sisters." These things are our small way of saying that. Hopefully, we will grow toward greater solidarity as we relearn how to shop.

Dorothy Day explained this much better than I ever could. I will try to locate her words on the subject and share them here, but until then I have a few more things to say on this subject, which I will save for another day.

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Friday Links

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Some articles to drink your coffee over this weekend :

  • Sandro Magister, Vaticanista extraordinaire, reruns a decade-old account of a pilgrimage to Mt. Athos.
    Saints, centuries, empires, earthly and heavenly cities – everything seems to oscillate and flow, no longer distant. The monastery's treasures – golden and silver boxes with sapphires and rubies that are set in the Virgin's belt, the skull of Saint Basil the Great, Saint John Chrysostom's right hand – are offered to visitors for veneration. The light of the sunset sets them aglow, makes them pulsate. And the frescoes of Theophanes – master of the Cretan school in the first part of the 16th century – are also lit up, as are the blue majolica tiles on the walls, the mother-of-pearl on the iconostasis, on the lectern, on the episcopal throne.

    After vespers one leaves the catholikon in procession and, facing the square, enters the refectory, which is also built like a church and frescoed by the great Theophanes. The same liturgy continues. The igoumenos takes his place at the center of the apse. A monk reads stories of saints from the pulpit, almost singing. One eats blessed food: soups and vegetables from old iron dishes – and on feast days even amber-colored wine – on thick, roughly hewn marble tables, themselves resting on marble supports. They are a thousand years old, yet evoke prehistoric dolmens. The exit is also made in procession. A monk gives everyone a piece of blessed bread. Another incenses it so artfully that the perfume remains a long time in your mouth.

  • Two recent articles about human trafficking and prostitution caught my eye. The first is this lengthy but excellent New Yorker profile of a Moldovan woman who works for a non-profit that helps women who have been trafficked into prostitution get home. The second is this First Things daily article from last week that discusses a new book about the modern day slave trade by a reporter who has investigated trafficking all around the world.

  • Lastly, Zenit has a brief article quoting Fr. Joseph Fessio talking about Pope Benedict XVI's recent trip to America. This quote stood out to me:

    "Most people already knew [Benedict XVI] is extremely intelligent and articulate. Many weren't aware of the personal warmth, what in Bavaria they call 'Gemütlichkeit,'" Father Fessio said.

    I don't know about you, but to me, nothing says "personal warmth" like Gemütlichkeit

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County Jail

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With all the usual caveats that I don't know a single thing about Cook County Jail beauracracy, this seems pretty outrageous. The writer, a social worker, recounts a trip to visit a client in the county jail that took over 7 hours. Well, more like 4, since about 3 of those hours seem to have been spent taking public transportation, though maybe she also means to indict the ridiculous CTA trains routes that don't let you go anywhere without going through downtown. Whatever. The point is that the county cares so little about how it treats its prisoners it doesn't even bother putting on a good face for the public. "Oh you want to visit Jane? Too bad, wrong day What? Our automated system told you today was the right day? Oops, we forgot to update it... but you're still out of luck!"

Of course, the irony is that the same beauracratic rigidity that stands in her way ("Make an exception when this is our fault? Bah!") is what ultimately gets her in (how many Michigan social workers have clients in Cook County Jail?).

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School of the Americas

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I'm generally sympathetic to the argument that the School of the Americas was a very bad thing. But articles like this from In These Times by Robin Lloyd don't really help. If you were to read it knowing nothing else, you could easily come away thinking that the only reason to oppose the school is that some people who went there did some bad stuff. In fact that's exactly what Catholic blogger Bill Cork likes to say in dismissing them.

The real damning evidence against SOA is not that some graduates did some horrific things, but that the School of the Americas (using taxpayer money) taught immoral practices as approved curriculum. So yes, the School of Americas was a very bad thing. But you wouldn't know that from Lloyd's article.

But what about now? SOA was closed down in 2001 and was replaced by the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). What are they teaching there these days? The Army claims they teach civil rights. The Catholic Bishop of Madison chairs an independent review board that monitors the school. You can make an appointment to sit in on classes and observe.

If that's true, then it seems like these protests have outlived their usefulness. Indeed, I've seen no accusations against WHINSEC or SOA that are less than 15 years old. School of the Americas Watch's press release webpage consists mostly of publicizing their protests. In short, I see no evidence that WHINSEC is a threat to human rights now.

If these people want to stay relevant, they need to give us a reason to believe that WHINSEC, today, is still teaching its students to violate human rights. Otherwise, as Bill Cork says: "Stop living in the 80s. Open up GitmoWatch."

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History Comes Full Circle

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Unfortunately, that circle is a noose.

40 years ago, a bunch of French Marxists set out to "deconstruct" Western Culture. They planned to unseat the capitalist patriarchy and set up a Marxist Utopia.

Fortunately, they lost. Champions of freedom stampeded Marxism globally. Now, the only place you'll find post-modern theory is on the op-ed pages of major newspapers and university liberal arts departments.

Unfortunately, the Marxists happened to be right in that unbridled Capitalism was fundamentally unjust and would itself destroy society.

History, being the ironic S.O.B. that it is, Capitalists are accomplishing the consumerization of the world by co-opting post-modern theory not for Marxism, but for marketing.

Oh, and while we're at it, economists are scientizing hedonism. Their sort-of good intentions will lead mostly to large-scale suffering.

Just a little pre-Christmas doom and gloom for you.

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MCs in Chi-Town

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The Chi-Trib has a profile of the Missionaries of Charity's home for single pregnant women and girls in Chicago.

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Pope Buys Immunization Bonds

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Yesterday, Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, acting on behalf of the Pope, was the first to purchase bonds being sold to finance the immunization of children in third world countries. The funds will be used to manufacture and purchase vaccines for diseases which are ignored because no market exists for them in developed nations.

The project hopes to raise over $4 billion, vaccinate 500 million children, and save 10 millions lives, inclusing 5 million children.

Zenit has the address given by Cardinal Martino at the presentation of the bonds. He expressed the Pope's "hope...that the participation by the Church in this program will help to inspire others to take the step toward concrete action."

Here is the Website of the immunization initiative. Unfortunately, it looks like the bonds are not registered with SEC and cannot be sold in the U.S. Regardless, this was a wonderful symbolic gesture for the Pope to make.

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Good Works

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The UK Tablet has a story this week on a British parish's outreach to young female refugees.

Fr Peter and Margaret Kane are a part of MRANG, the Merseyside Refugee and Asylum Seekers Pre- and Post-Natal Support Group, an organisation that grew up around St Bernard’s parish. Since September 2004, MRANG has helped more than 220 women and children, but only 32 have been given refugee status. More than 80 babies have been born, of which 36 were the result of rape and multiple rape – often by soldiers. Their mothers come from more than 35 countries, including Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Do go read the whole thing. It's a sad story, but it's also inspiring to see how much good work a single parish can do.

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Human Trafficking in Germany

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National Review Online has a sad but important piece by Donna M. Hughes telling the story of two Russian women who were forced into prostitution in Germany, where the amount of professional prostitutes has doubled to accomodate World Cup demand. Prostitution is legal there, and many of the additional prostitutes are undoubtedly victims of human trafficking, mostly from eastern Europe.

Incidentally, here is a page on the website of the U.S. embassy to the Holy See that documents the joint US-Vatican efforts to combat human trafficking.

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Fighting AIDS

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The UK Tablet takes a grim look at the AIDS situation in Africa.

Mutomo Hospital is in the Kitui district, which has been hit hard by five years of drought. Rivers have dried up, crops destroyed, and the people worn down by hunger. Among the most affected have been those with HIV and Aids. Although life-saving drugs are cheap and available, the small food and medical costs necessary to be able to take them are often too much.

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Sudan Photos

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The New Republic has pictures by Brian Steidle of some of the horrors taking place in Sudan.

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W vs. human traffickers

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Just when I'm getting fed up with the president, I read something like this.

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, investigations into trafficking "increased by more than 400 percent in the first six months of fiscal year 2005, compared to the total number of cases in fiscal year 2004." Although keeping true numbers on these effusive crimes is next to impossible, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, between 14,500 and 17,500 people are being traded within the United States. Internationally, the estimate is between 600,000 and 800,000, mostly women and children. But nations plagued with sex trafficking, who've enabled sex trafficking, are changing in part because, according to Congressman Chris Smith (R., N.J.), "they know we mean business."
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Website for Church social teachings

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Zenit points us to a website which is serving as a storehouse for the Church's social doctrine.

Cardinal Van Thuân International Observatory for the social Doctrine of the Church

This looks to be a very useful webpage.

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