MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE No 70 –JULY 2010

Schools are closing.  The kids are at home all day.  Summer holidays are here, or almost here.  So many things to think about and organise.  Can't I give a rest to thinking about other people's problems?  I've got more than enough of my own!

Do bankers and hedge fund managers take summer holidays?  Isn't this the very time, when we are tired, and preoccupied with coping with all the variations in our usual routine, that's their very best time to push their betting on hunger.  The public will never notice at this time!

The World Development Movement has alerted me about bankers from companies like Goldman Sachs and Barclays Capital.  They are betting billions of pounds on food and oil markets in secret, unregulated deals. 
While they collect a tidy profit, their big-money gambling has made food prices around the world more expensive and more unpredictable.  This directly affects millions of people in developing countries who often struggle to feed their families and are forced deeper into poverty.

The European Commission, French, German and US governments have all said they want to bring food speculation into the open and regulate it to stabilise prices.  The UK Government has not.

Ordinary people in this country and around the world rely on secure, affordable food prices.  We need the Treasury to promote stable, transparent commodities markets.

WDM, (from whose convenient action card I've copied much of this material) is asking us to write to the Chancellor, George Osborne MP, HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Rd., London, SW1A 2HQ.  Ask him  to support regulations that:

•    Require all deals on food derivatives to go through a central, transparent clearing house, and
•    Impose tough limits on commodity speculation by banks and hedge funds who are not part of the real food economy.

To join with thousands of other people in this campaign will only take you 2 minutes,just to copy these two sentences on to your own note paper.  Even in your present busy state, surely you can manage this!
(If you do have time for more, just go to www.wdm.org.uk/food.)

Enjoy the hols wherever you may be!  See you next in September.

JMM

MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE No 66 MARCH 2010

”Bread and Circuses” was the formula Emperors put their faith in to keep the Roman mob happy and quiet.  In May's forthcoming elections, many candidates will be wooing the voters with similar slogans, all focussed on the voter's personal needs, e.g. better pension security, safer streets, lower taxes etc etc.

After the Reform Act (1867) markedly increased the size of the electorate, Robert Lowe, then Chancellor of the Exchequer, famously said Parliament would now “have to educate our masters”.The result was William Forster's Education Act of 1870.

In the run up to the 2010 elections, serious voters must now turn Robert Lowe's remark on its head.  It is now our duty to educate our MPs.  We need to show them not every voter can be bought with promises of an easier life style.

MPs are expected to answer questions on such a wide variety of topics they inevitably end up focusing their detailed attention on just a few areas.  On many others, some of their voters will be much better informed.  We “have to educate our MPs” and so help them to broaden their horizons!

On 3 March, Archbishop Nichols told journalists that before the election, the Bishops will follow up their general advice “Choosing the Common Good” with a series of questions.  These could be used to challenge constituency candidates and make them do some much needed research into the real issues facing our world. (Can be found here).

It is not too early for each of us to prepare a few questions of our own to put to those seeking our vote.  A card with your 3 questions left by the front door could be a useful weapon with which to greet any party canvassers who come calling.  For example: 'Do you support Fair Trade rather than Free Trade?'  'Would you support a Robin Hood tax on all sterling currency transactions?'  (That would show up how much they really know about a very complex matter!)

Why not reply to any candidate's election material by posting or emailing them a couple of your searching questions.. Some candidates won't even reply.  Others will simply waffle.  It's even possible you might discover an  excellent candidate belonging to a party you'd otherwise not have voted for!

(For lots more excellent ideas, see http://www.whybother2010.org )
What is above all essential is that we all should vote, even if in our constituency we can only vote for the least worst candidate. If we don't vote at all we will afterwards have only ourselves to blame for allowing into power a Government whose policies are clearly unhelpful to the “Common Good”.
                                           
JMM


MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE No 64 JAN 2010

Our well deserved Christmas holiday seemed great at the time, but is it true even here that “there's no such thing as a free lunch”?

It might look like that now in the adult world, where Christmas feels long past.  For  most of us New Year 2010 will be remembered for its cold, snow and the disruptions and difficulties which resulted.  The routines of our busy life were being impeded; getting the car started, skidding on icy roads, coping with school closures, items missing in the shops... so much more to cope with on top of all we already have to do. 

“Don't talk to me about other people's problems!”
The stories and pictures this week from Haiti help put our moans in perspective.  So often it seems the worst calamities befall the poorest people on the planet.  They already had so little.  Now tens of thousands have lost their own lives or are surviving maimed and in pain, and knowing their spouse or some of their children have now been killed.  For many of us, how petty in comparison can seem most of our “inconveniences”, (though clearly not of those for whom the bad weather has caused the loss of a business or a job.)
The distress in Haiti seems to have originated in an earthquake for which no human agency was responsible.  We might ask would the death toll have been so horrific had the quake occurred in a richer area, where building constructions are regulated to much higher standards?
Paradoxical though it might appear to us at the moment, the global mean temperature IS still continuing this year to rise, as it has for the past 10 years.  For that we in the richer northern hemisphere are largely responsible.  Which is why in justice we owe the developing countries a “climate debt”, but that idea raises too many follow up questions to look at here...
In the midst of your own rush to cope, as soon as you've read this page, take some simple action to help others in really desperate need.  It might be to send a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee.  OR you could look up
www.wdm.org.uk/think-global-january-2010
Simply download and print the letter to Douglas Alexander on that page, sign it at the bottom with your name and address, and post it at once to the address at the top of the page.  OR you might do both!
At least you'll know then that, in spite of every upset of this January 2010, you have done something for those so much worse off than ourselves.
                                           
MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE No 63 DEC 2009

On Saturday 5 December, many thousands of people marched in London to demand effective international action on Climate Change issues this month at Copenhagen.  Yet more thousands marched in Glasgow and Belfast.  
        “....were you there.....?”
In the London procession I chatted with a group of teenagers up from Devon, young university students from Nottingham, children with their parents and others of all ages.  There was a lady from East Malaysia.  A train load of people had come down from Leeds.  A man with dreadlocks told me his sister, over here on a visit from Arizona, could not get the hang of recycling.  It seemed no one in Arizona had heard of Climate Change or of recycling.  

I got talking with some lively, cheerful year 7 boys from their school at Bamber Bridge, near Preston.  A Cafod group of different ages had come down with their teacher, setting off at 5.30 am to join a parish bus from Burnley.  Their teacher had 40 trees for the students to plant when they got back, to offset their carbon footprint for the day.

At Westminster Central Hall, young people seemed swamped by all the grey and white heads who listened to some compelling reflections by Archbishop Rowan Williams on the chosen readings from Job and Romans.  Before giving the final blessing, Archbishop Vincent Nichols quoted extensively from Benedict XIV on the practicalities Christians need to be involved in about Climate Change, and saving God's creation.  Our faith in God gives us hope, so that we can face the future with joy.
In the long, long procession, continuing on even in the rain, there was  so much noise, good humour and laughter as the innumerable placards periodically went up and down in “THE WAVE”.

If instead of just a small minority, every Catholic parish and secondary school in the country had had just a few representatives there, how much larger and more telling a Christian witness would have been given to the country and the political leaders of the world.

And if you yourself were not able to join one of the major demonstrations  you can still send an encouraging letter to your MP telling them they must demand the Government does everything possible to educate the British public on our responsibility to take the necessary tough choices Climate Change is demanding of us, to save our planet and all living creation on it.
                                                JMM

MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE SEPT 2009

Don Bosco was a man of far-sighted vision.  Many people today (including some Salesians!) seem to prefer an ostrich-like approach to impending catastrophe!  With so many thousands of Salesian confrères working in developing countries, amongst some of the poorest people in the world, we, living comfortably in the UK, cannot ignore our responsibilities.  In whatever ways our personal circumstances allow, we all need to become active about climate change, “the greatest problem facing the world today” threatening “Global Health Disaster”.

 

Unless we speak out about the impacts of climate change, poverty and injustice on the world’s poorest people, our MPs and political leaders lack the authority to act.  That is why CAFOD is inviting us all, on the weekend of 16-18 October, to join with millions of people world wide who will be lobbying their politicians, in person or by their letters, to demand action against poverty and climate change.

In just 80 days, crucial climate change talks are to take place in Copenhagen that could save or take away the lives and livelihoods of millions of people in poor countries.

It is vital that the UK Government commits to a real cut in Carbon Dioxide emissions of at least 40% by 2020 — this must be a real cut, not just one in which the UK ‘offsets’ its emissions.  This must be in addition to supporting developing countries as they move towards low carbon development.

The world’s poor do not have a voice in UK politics, yet their lives and livelihoods often depend on the decisions of our representatives.  It is up to us to speak up, and vote, on their behalf.

And so, CAFOD is urging all of us, whether as individuals, or church groups, or groups of fellow constituents, etc, to take part in THE GREAT PERSUASION.  We must let our MPs, and opposition candidates, know how strongly we feel on this issue. 

CAFOD can give lots of support to brief us, e.g. with a “Great Persuasion Toolkit” and with an “International Development Manifesto”.  Simply go to

                             www.cafod.org.uk/climatekit

or contact Vikki Mills at

                              vmills@cafod.org.uk              020 7095 5413.

And then it’s just up to each of us.

                                                                                                JMM

MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE MARCH 2009

The present banking and financial crisis is affecting us all at the moment, but climate change still remains the gravest single problem facing the world.  What’s more it’s a problem that will become worse and worse with time.

The effects of climate change will be increasingly felt by the poorest in the world.  I have printed below my own letter to the Prime Minister, written after prompting from CAFOD.  The writing was urgent as the EU position paper is due for publication on 17 March.  That’s why I’d now like to urge everyone else to write without delay, sending to Gordon Brown either a copy of my letter with their own name and address or, better still, a letter in their own words making the same points.  More details can be found on the Internet e.g. www.cafod.org.uk/climatejustice           
JMM

The Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP
10 Downing St. AW1A 2AA

Dear Mr Brown,

Towards a Comprehensive Climate Change Agreement in Copenhagen

I agree with the NGOs in the Stop Climate Chaos coalition that the UK must ensure the forthcoming (March 17) EU proposal on the above topic is as strong as possible.  I urge you to exercise maximum UK pressure to bring this about.

The industrialised countries such as the UK have over many years brought about the recent climate change threat, already impinging most severely on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.

The EU must not only limit effectively its own carbon emissions.  It must share the necessary technology with the poorest countries so that they can develop their own economies but without affecting global warming.  The EU seems likely in its latest proposals to be in grave danger of missing its own essential objective of keeping global temperature rises below 2° C.

The EU must not simply come out with generalised wishes over limiting climate change.  The pragmatic British must insist on such details as setting tough emissions reduction targets and finding the finance to help developing countries adjust to the unavoidable effects climate change is already producing.

The EU proposals as they stand lack the necessary detail and will not build the trust that will be needed to obtain a strong and fair international climate change deal at Copenhagen this December.

That is why I join with so many other UK voters in calling on you to push the EU to make two specific commitments

1.    A 40% reduction in emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels, with at least three quarters (or ideally all) of these cuts made domestically.

2.    The EU will provide its fair share of the total climate protection costs currently estimated to be at least 35 billion euros a year by 2020.  This finance is necessary to help poor and vulnerable communities adapt to the changing climate and to help support emissions reductions action in developing countries.  This finance must be additional to existing Official Development Assistance commitments.

We, and our many friends, will all be supporting your efforts.  Climate change is the gravest problem facing the world today.  The leaders of every country must unite in effective counter action to prevent the disasters facing us all.

Yours sincerely,                         

(add name here)


MONTHLY J & P MESSAGE FEB 2009

There seems to be a lot of gloom about.  Have you noticed it too?  Our Banks have collapsed, undermined by greed.  Let’s all boo the bankers; and then we have to bail them out with our children’s taxes!  A topsy-turvy world.

Big Aaghs of pity and sympathy for the tens of thousands of people who have just lost their secure jobs.  They are asking, “How can we keep up our mortgage payments?”  Can you and I help at all?

Jane Goody, says the Telegraph, is an extraordinary ordinary young woman.  Now showing “admirable dignity and stoicism”, she is using the media publicity machines for the benefit of her young sons, and to encourage smear testing among young women.  In her particular circumstances she’s doing something very positive.

So many stories are competing for our attention and sympathy, but almost all of them are UK based.  ‘And what’s wrong with that?’ you may ask.  Isn’t it natural AND right to feel sympathy for “our own”?

The trouble is that so much is quietly going on, in the UK, in Brussels, and all around the world, from which media attention is carefully screened.  Secret deals are continuing to be made, which are bringing poverty, hopelessness, and starvation, not just to individuals, or even thousands of people, but to millions.

UK NGOs are amongst the most active in trying to arouse public awareness of the problems being suffered as a result of our silence, even as the rich continue to exploit the poor ruthlessly.  And it’s all being done so legally, with international agreements, and our silent consent.

Visit the Trade Justice Movement at www.tjm.org.uk  I found it via Google and went straight to Take Action and their email letter campaign “Be a Trade Hero”.  In our thousands, we must make the hidden bureaucrats, in our own Government Departments and in Brussels, realise that they are NOT acting in our name.  WE want a fair and just world for all, not just for our own advantage.

Email campaigning is easy and becomes more effective if we can personalise the message we sign up to.  WAR on WANT, like Cafod and so many other NGOs, is campaigning on many of the same major issues.  I went to www.waronwant.org >ACTION>Email actions, and was surprised how may of the subjects won my wholehearted support.

Why don’t you also try out this site?                                                   

JMM