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All newsletters from January 2004 are here.

Simply click on the little arrow (in the blog archive on the right) to see past stuff - and keep doing so (this means that you go through 2008 - July - to access earlier editions!) until you locate the issue you are looking for - then click on it to open it.

July/August 2009

Editorial
This issue comes out at the same time as the Commission enjoys its annual Spirituality Day. We shall be spending July 4 in a wood near Everingham where one acre has been dedicated to our late, dear, friend Tony Storey. His many friends contributed more than £1000 with which the Woodland Trust have set aside this piece of woodland as his memorial. We shall be spending a few hours in the wood, stopping 3 or 4 times to have a time of quiet and prayer led by different people. Tony actually planted some of the trees here. At the same time an inscribed bench given by the people of Cottingham will be dedicated to Tony.
Our November meeting at St Francis, Acklam, is a joint meeting with CAFOD. Michael Edwards, CAFOD’s Climate Change Programme Development Officer will
speak to us about the impact that climate change is having on people in developing countries, about the need to work for Climate Justice and what CAFOD is calling on world leaders to agree at the UN Climate talks in Copenhagen in December this year.
Chris Dove
Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission

The environment
"Last year saw a record melting of the Arctic sea ice. This year that record has been broken: for the first time in history, the northern ice cap can be circumnavigated. and with melting ice, more sunshine is absorbed rather than reflected back into space. The result is more warming, and more melting. In turn this increases the degassing of methane from Arctic bogs, lakes and thawing permafrost - and methane is a more powerful greenhouse gas in its own right, in fact 70 times stronger than CO2 over 20 years.


It is entirely possible that the melting of the sea ice and the emissions of Arctic methane have already reached a point of no return that will lead to a warming world no matter what we do. "
Source: Oliver Tickell Guardian Weekly 12/09/08

“The Pyrenees mountains have lost almost 90% of their glacier ice over the last century,” said scientists who warn that global warming means the glaciers will disappear completely within a few decades.
While glaciers covered 3,300 hectares of land on the mountain range that divides Spain and France at the turn of the last century, only 390 hectares remain, according to Spain's environment ministry.
Source: Guardian Weekly 6/3/09

“It is becoming increasingly apparent from our studies of Greenland and Antarctica that changes to sea ice are being transmitted to the hearts of the land-ice sheet in a remarkably short time,” said Dr David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey in announcing that rising sea levels, triggered by global warming, pose a far greater danger to the planet than previously thought.
There is now a major risk that many coastal areas around the world will be inundated by the end of the century because of the melting of the ice sheets. Low-lying areas, including Bangladesh, Florida, the Maldives and the Netherlands face catastrophic flooding, while in Britain large areas of the Norfolk Broads and the Thames Estuary are likely to disappear by 2100. Major coastal cities including London will need new flood defences.


In 2007 when the International Panel on Climate Change presented its report they concluded a rise of sea-level of between 20 and 60 cm would occur by 2100 but that report contained little input from melting ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland. The revised figure, backed by the US Geological survey is now as much as 1.5 metres.
Source: Guardian weekly 13/3/9

Drying forests raise global risks
Chris Field, Co-chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago that the panel's report on climate change in 2007 had underestimated the severity of global warming this century. Instead of a rise in the earth's temperature of between 1.1C and 6.4C by 2100,

"We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected, primarily because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal."

Of particular concern was the impact of climate change in the tropics, where higher temperatures could have a dramatic impact on the environment. If the regions become dry enough for fires to start, tropical forests will pass the tipping point from absorbing carbon from the atmosphere to releasing it. Tropical forests are essentially not flammable, but if they dry out just a little, the result can be very large destructive wildfires.
Source: Guardian Weekly 20.2.09

Water sustainability
A researcher working for the Ecumenical Council for Corporate Responsibility [ECCR] focused on water sustainability and it is predicted that by 2020 – 2025 some 25% of the world’s population will be in water-threatened regions.
Water is increasingly going to provoke conflict. ECCR identified industry in the developed world as using 25% of all water use whereas in the developing world agriculture takes 70% of all water. Her conclusion: responsible water use is a corporate responsibility.


The cost of food
The threat of famine in Africa is returning. The average price of a meal has risen by over 40% where half the population survives on less than $1 per day.
Imagine the impact such increased prices will have not only on Africa but also in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America where people already spend up to 80% of their income on food. Many people will go hungry and even die from hunger.
The current situation clearly presents a big threat, but it may also be an opportunity. Governments need to act now. Developed countries need to give more money to reduce the immediate shock, but longer term investment is also necessary.
Greater investment in agriculture, focused on small farmers and women, so that they are in a position to benefit from higher prices, is urgently needed and we need also to reform the food policies of rich countries.
Much aid is sent in kind, from miles away and takes too long to arrive: it is often better to buy food locally.
Source: Oxfam GB
But will the west be more generous? In 1960 aid stood at $61 per capita from Western countries when gross national income (GNI) per head in the same countries was $11,303.
In 2000, the GNI had nearly tripled, to $28,500; the aid per person had risen by just $6.
Source: The Independent 30/8/08

Toxic legacy from mining in Honduras
Catholic aid agencies, CAFOD in the UK and
Development & Peace in Canada, are calling on the multi-million pound mining giant Goldcorp to
ensure that their San Martin mine in Honduras does not leave a toxic legacy when it closes at the
end of 2009.
The San Martin mine in the Siria Valley is the
largest opencast gold mine in Honduras, run by
Entre Mares, a Honduran subsidiary wholly
owned by the Canadian-US company Goldcorp
Inc.


The company has consistently disputed test results confirming the presence of arsenic and cyanide in water sources flowing from within the mine boundaries.
Last month 24 dead cattle were found on grazing land near the mine; while large numbers of the local population, including children, have been suffering skin conditions. Local people believe this is a result of pollution caused by the mine. Goldcorp denies this has any connection with their operation. Legislation regarding mining in Honduras is weak, and the government has done little to ensure that the rights of affected communities are protected.

Sonya Maldar, CAFOD's extractives policy analyst,
said: "Despite repeatedly raising our concerns with Goldcorp, and on the basis of the evidence we've seen,
the company has yet to live up to its social and environmental responsibilities at San Martin. With
the mine due to close at the end of 2009 and all the
signs showing there is serious pollution at the site,
Goldcorp must act now to ensure they do not leave
behind an environmental disaster in Honduras."
The mine, which began full operations in 2000, has
caused controversy from the start, with local people
claiming they were not fully consulted about the
project.
Love Saint-Fleur, advocacy officer for Development & Peace said: "Pollution from gold mines can continue for hundreds of years after closure - unless strict measures are put in place to counteract it. If the company is not willing to act in a socially responsible manner, the Honduran government must protect the rights of its own people by ensuring that Goldcorp cleans up the San Martin mine site and prevents the poisoning of water sources."
During the mine's period of operation, the company used the controversial cyanide heap-leaching method to extract gold from low grade deposits. This means piles of crushed gold ore are soaked in a solution of cyanide which filters down leaching out the gold deposits and releasing other toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, mercury and lead. Without careful management, these pollutants can seep into streams and contaminate groundwater. This practice is banned in some US states.
Source: CAFOD

Commission contacts
Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398
KateWard Secretary 01642 781676
Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621
Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043
email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop
or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS
website www.middlesbroughjp.org
Food into fuel tanks
In less than a year, the price of wheat has risen by 130%, soya by 87% and rice by 74% according to the UN's FAO. Overall global food prices have risen by 83% since 2005. The IMF estimates that 20 to 30% of the food price increases in the past two years are accounted for by biofuels.
Not long ago hunger appeared to be in gradual retreat. Not any more. In 2004 researchers at the University of Minnesota said they expected the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world to fall from over 800m to 625m by 2025. In early 2007 they updated this to include the biofuel effect.
The result? They expect the number of hungry people to rise to 1.2bn by 2025.
The UN food and agriculture organisation reported that 2008 had seen the biggest increase in malnourished people in decades. More than 960 million people - one in every six people in the world - now goes to bed hungry. Forty million extra people suffered malnourishment in 2008 because of higher food prices.
Source: The Guardian Weekly 19.12.08
Food into fuel tanks (continued)
Some people are making good livings from biofuels, thanks to lavish support from Washington. Under existing policies the US biofuels industry will, in aggregate, benefit from support worth over $92bn from 2006 to 2012.
The secretary general of the FAO, Jaques Diouf, said in June that he found it "incomprehensible” that subsidies worth $11 to 12bn in 2006 were used to divert 100m tonnes of cereals from human consumption mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuels for vehicles.
Hopes are now rising that so-called second-generation biofuels could be more efficient.
These process the inedible parts of the plants and so do not divert food away from the animal or human food chain; but scientists say it will be 5-10 years before they become commercially available. There are more distant but still credible plans for producing fuel from algae, or by using genetically modified bacteria to convert carbon dioxide.
For the moment, though, biofuels continue to take food directly from the mouths of the starving.
Source: The Tablet 28 June 2008

[Since writing this I noticed the following in the Guardian Weekly of 15/5/09]
Obama blow to ethanol

The Obama administration, in the face of intense pressure from agricultural companies, has decided that the fuel
needed to process the corn means that ethanol could be
more polluting than the fossil fuel it was meant to replace.

Finding poverty, not asylum
A new report by the Leeds-based Pafras charity warns that many failed asylum seekers are living in a twilight zone with no housing or financial support and no right to work. The number of destitute asylum seekers dealt with by Pafras has tripled in the last two years. They call this destitution a deliberate policy to force asylum seekers out of this country.

"The fact that the government is trying to starve people out of the country is absolutely inhumane and it just isn't working. These people would rather starve on the street here rather than return to their own countries."

The report found that following refusal of their claim to asylum, 72% have spent time sleeping outside; of these 38% have experienced attacks. More than a third of the women sleeping rough had experienced sexual assault including rape.
A lack of access to legal advice is having a significant impact on the number of valid asylum seekers being refused sanctuary, and returned to countries where they could be tortured, according to human rights lawyer Louise Christian.

"The government's asylum policies are entirely at odds with its human rights obligation - particularly with regards to children in detention. It is a huge source of scandal and shame to this country"
Source: Guardian Weekly 20.03.09

Unbelieveable?
Nearly one in every five children in the US is currently growing up in outright poverty.
Source: Centre for American Progress

Thought for today
“In the middle of last year [2008], we had a global outcry about the perilous state of billions of people in developing countries whose governments could not afford to provide enough food for them and who
could not themselves earn enough to buy food at prevailing prices. These problems are now worse, but the global outcry is all about the multinational banks that are under threat. And several multiples of the money that could not be found to feed the hungry are quickly being found to bail out irresponsible banks.”
Jayati Ghosh, professor of economics,
Jawaharlal Nehru University in India.

Lifetime
When I was very young
the field outside my house
was a kind of Paradise.
The farmer used no pesticide
and every wild flower bloomed there;
The hedge enclosing this sweet-smelling space
Was full of treasure:
hawthorn, honeysuckle, holly,
blackthorn, dog rose and small singing birds.
I was happy then.
In my middle years
someone bought the farmer’s field.
He cut down the hedge
and sprayed the grass.
Few flowers grew
and the small birds flew away.
I was sad then.
Now I am old
a businessman has bought the field
and all the grass has given way to concrete.
“Executive homes”
have been built in rows
blocking the sky and sun.
The businessman has named his site “Meadowfield”.
I smile at that, because I do not wish to cry,
but I am angry now.
A.M.D.

January/February 2009

Editorial
This issue comes out before our February meeting in York where our speaker will be Alun Morinan from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade [CAAT] so the emphasis will be on peace matters.
The work of Pax Christi is based on the gospel and inspired by faith. The three core values Pax Christi members place at the centre of their lives are: Peace, Reconciliation and Nonviolence. Rooted in Catholic Christianity it is, however, open to all who share its values and work. As a resource for those of us in the Justice & Peace movement it is invaluable. It works tirelessly, with minimum resources, which is why the annual collection on Peace Sunday is so important.
Chris Dove
Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission

"Nuclear weapons - poor economics"
Pat Gaffney Gen. Sec. Pax Christi UK wrote an excellent letter to The Tablet in which she wrote: "Perhaps it is time to think critically about the whole instrument of war as a means to secure security and economic stability. Our existing models of economics and security cost the earth." Having noted that by the end of 2007 it is reckoned that the UK alone had spent £7 billion in operating expenditures in Iraq and Afghanistan, she went on to highlight "the equally important but often hidden costs of war in these places - the social, environmental and human, and their impact will be for years to come - for the people of those countries and for families of our own armed forces.... What might £7 billion have done if spent on some of the real threats to security: domestic and global poverty, the destruction of the environment, resource wars over water, oil and mineral resources, a culture of fear and suspicion that leads to insecurity and the treatment of the other as an enemy.

Do we have to wait for another "crisis" before taking action for justice and peace in our world?"
Source: The Tablet 8 November 2008

It was interesting to see three retired British military commanders [Field marshal Lord Bramhall, Gen Lord Ramsbotham and Gen Sir Hugh Beach] calling for Trident to be scrapped as the independent deterrent has become “virtually irrelevant”. They called on Gordon Brown to spend the money saved on providing more funds for current operational commitments.
Source: The Times 16 January

Pax Christi's Peace Sunday leaflet made some very pertinent points based on the Pope's World Peace Day message: Combating Poverty : Building Peace. Under the heading 'The world needs works of mercy and justice - not works of war and destruction', Pax Christi make the following comparisons:
*750 million people go to bed hungry each night - world military expenditure for 2007 was £680 billion - that is £102 for each person in the world.
*2.1 billion people live on less than £1 a day - 26 million people were forced to leave home as a result of conflict.
*99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries - in 2007 the UK spent 36.7 billion on defence and £4.5 billion on overseas development.
*the US has a higher percentage of children living in poverty than any of the world's richest countries - the cost of Trident, Britain's nuclear weapons system, is £2 billion a year.
*22% of the UK population live on low income - defined as less than 60% of median income - 80% of arms exports come from the USA, UK, Russia, France and Germany.
Depleted Uranium [DU] weapons
A Freedom of Information request from a CADU [Campaign against Depleted Uranium] supporter has revealed that the UK government has spent more than £375m
on up-dating anti-tank systems developed at the Royal Ordnance facilities at Birtley and Featherstone, AWE Aldermaston and the former AWE Cardiff.
Between March 10th and 14th 2008, the MoD and defence research company QinetiQ renewed the test firing of DU ammunition at the Dundrennan firing range near Kircudbright, Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland. The MoD claimed that the tests were necessary to monitor stocks of CHARM3 ammunition as they approach the end of their shelflife. CHARM3 120mm anti-tank ammunition is now the only type of uranium munition in use by UK forces.
News of the tests drew fierce condemnation from both the Scottish Nationalists and the Scottish Greens. Green Co-convener Robin Harper MSP said: “Depleted uranium shells leave behind the kind of pollution normally associated with dirty bombs, radioactive material that damages the environment and risks future health problems. There is no safe place to test these shells, and there is no appropriate battlefield to use them on either. The MoD should be ashamed of going back to Dundrennan with this discredited technology, and should instead commit to the ban requested by the European Parliament.” Also responding to the tests, an SNP spokesperson said: “When they were serving in areas where uranium weapons had been used, service personnel were issued with warning cards. That would suggest that the UK Government were well aware of the health problems associated with its use. We want to ask the Secretary of State for Defence about the UK’s position with regard to these international developments. The well being of the people and service personnel of Scotland is threatened.”
 Predictably the MoD denied that there was any danger:
“Agencies and regulatory bodies responsible for health and safety and environmental protection have agreed the arrangements. Comprehensive environmental monitoring programmes involving air, water, and soil sampling, have been in place at and around Kirkcudbright since the beginning of the DU munitions trials.”
DU contamination at Dundrennan has risen to its highest level for more than 10 years, according to a survey for the Ministry of Defence.
Soil on parts of the range is so contaminated that it breaches agreed safety limits. And the contamination is spreading, as DU fragments from shells misfired in the past start to corrode.
The contamination, revealed in a declassified scientific report passed to the Sunday Herald, was described as “very worrying” by Scottish environment minister Michael Russell: “The Scottish government was not adequately consulted on the test firing of DU shells at Kirkcudbright,” he said. “I have stated in the past that I am strongly opposed to the testing of such weapons on Scottish soil and this remains the case.”
More than 6000 DU shells were fired at the range near Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway between 1982 and 2004. Scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire have been monitoring the Kirkcudbright range every year. According to their latest report, there was DU contamination in soil samples from three sites on the range. The highest registered 1384 millibecquerels of radioactivity per gram, which is worse than the contamination in any of the soil samples taken since comparable monitoring began in 1996. Two samples breached the “investigation level” agreed by the government’s Depleted Uranium Firing Environmental Review Committee.
Two other samples were above, or close to, the much higher “action level” agreed by the committee. Contamination at India Target on the range was “an order of magnitude higher than results obtained in previous years”, said the MoD report.The report also revealed that attempts to find DU shells which had misfired in the past had failed “despite extensive searching”.
Control measures prevented public access to the contaminated areas, it said, and radiation doses were assessed to be “negligible”. Environmental policy consultant, Dr David Lowry said: “Of course they say that no harm has been done, but we won’t know the full long-term effects of this contamination for years. We do know already that the DU shells fired in the invasion of Iraq have caused serious health implications.”
Source: Campaign against Depleted Uranium (CADU)

Cluster munitions
In the July/August 2008 newsletter I referred to the Dublin Conference and the good news that Gordon Brown had agreed to stop the use of these weapons. However, the treaty needed to be ratified by the 111 countries who signed up to the agreement. This happened in December, so please congratulate yourself if you wrote to your MP urging the government to act. Sadly the US refused to sign, and with Russia and China, America is one of the principal manufacturers and exporters of these weapons.
[So now we need to really press our MPs to get rid of DU weapons. Ed.]

Commission contacts
Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398
KateWard Secretary 01642 781676
Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621
Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043
email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop
or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS
website www.middlesbroughjp.org

Please ….
As this is the first issue for 2009, may I ask for donations towards the cost of mailing copies? Out treasurer would be very pleased to receive donations.

Some further thoughts.
Nothing is more useless in developing a nation’s economy than a gun, and nothing blocks the road to social development more than the financial
burden of war. King Hussein I of Jordan

The global arms trade, and its accompanying
glut of military spending, continues to represent the single most significant perversion of worldwide priorities known today. It buttresses wars, criminal activity and ethnic violence; destabilises emerging democracies; inflates military budgets to the detriment of health care, education and basic infrastructure; and exaggerates global relationships of inequality and underdevelopment.
Without massive and coordinated action, militarism will continue to be a scourge on our hopes for a more peaceful and just twenty-first century.
Oscar Arias, former President of Costa Rica, Nobel Peace Laureate

We cannot spend huge sums approximating to levels of military expenditure spent during the Cold War and expect development to make progress in eliminating poverty.”
Jayantha Dhanapala, former UN Under-Secretary-General for Disarmament.

A good read
We must all welcome President Obama’s decision to close the Guantanamo facility and to forbid the use of torture and extraordinary rendition, which allowed the movement of detainees to foreign countries where they would be tortured.
A welcome Christmas present was a copy of 'An Imperfect Offering' by James Orbinski, Past President of Medécins sans Frontières, in which a chapter headed What you can do included these words:
The most important thing any of us can do is to actively and pragmatically assume our responsibilities as citizens, for the world we live in. In the first instance we can each support independent humanitarian action, and insist that in war governments and belligerents respect international humanitarian law, refugee law and the conventions prohibiting the use of torture. Beyond this, no one can do everything, but everyone can do something.
Sadly our government is working out how we may withdraw from some of the restraints of the Human Rights legislation as far as refugees are concerned.

Middle East Solution?
The tragedy of the death and destruction in Gaza in recent weeks has highlighted the need to stop the flow of arms into the region. It will be no use preventing Hamas from replenishing their arms if Israel will continue to be supplied with vast quantities of much more powerful weapons from the USA.
My latest copy of the NCR reports that Israel has received an average of $2.7 bn a year in security assistance funding during the years of the Bush administration and as late as 2005 the amount of US military aid to Israel and Egypt alone represented a third of all US foreign aid.
In the same issue Rabbi Michael Lerner argues that “No country is going to ignore the provocation of rockets being launched from a neighbouring territory day after day – say Mexico lobbying missiles into the USA.”
But Assistant Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, Atalia Omer, an Israeli herself, says this is an invalid parallel as Hamas rockets are a mode of resisting an occupation as Israel controls the air, the sea and the checkpoints.
However Lerner goes on to argue that Israel, as the militarily superior power ought to take the first steps to end the conflict once and for all by:

1. Implementing a massive Marshall Plan in Gaza and the West Bank to end poverty and unemployment, and rebuild all that has been destroyed of the Palestinian infrastructure.

2. Dismantling the settlements or tell settlers they must become citizens of Palestine and live by the laws of
that state.

3. Accept 30,000 Palestinian refugees back into Israel each year for the next 30 years and offer to co-ordinate a world-wide effort to raise funds to compensate Palestinians for all they lost during the occupation.

4. Recognise a Palestinian state within borders already defined by the Geneva Accord of 2003.
Source: National Catholic Reporter 23 January.

Is it too much to hope that President Obama could help to move the countries in the dispute towards a settlement on these lines?

Count your blessings
I can’t recall where I read this and so cannot acknowledge the source, but nevertheless, think the sentiments are worth passing on.

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive the week.

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people around the world.

If you have food in your refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

If you have money in the bank, in your wallet and spare change in a dish someplace, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

If your parents are still married and alive, you are very rare.

If you hold your head up with a smile on your face and are truly thankful, you are blessed because the majority can, but most do not.

If you can read this message, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world who cannot read anything at all.

September/October 2008

Editorial

As we meet for our September meeting to celebrate what refugees and people seeking asylum have done since they have been here, there is a demonstration planned in London in support of the Church Action on Poverty campaign: Still Human Still Here.

This aims to highlight the plight of tens of thousands of refused asylum seekers who are being forced into abject poverty in an attempt to drive them out of the country. Supporters believe that the denial of any means of subsistence to these people as a matter of government policy is both inhumane and ineffective.

They are calling on the government to:

* end the threat and use of destitution as a tool of government policy

* continue financial support and accommodation to refused asylum seekers as provided during the asylum process and grant permission to work until such time as they have left the UK or have been granted leave to remain, and

* continue to provide full access to health care and education throughout the same period.

The demonstration takes place in Parliament Square from September 29 to 12 October when the two campaigners will exist on one food parcel each per week. They want to listen to the stories of people claiming asylum here, they will be praying at 0800, 1200, and 1900 each day and invite others to join them, and they hope to be talking to the Home Secretary and other MPs and Cabinet members who wish to hear of Asylum Seeker issues. We may not be able to go to London but at least we could pray.

Chris Dove


Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission











The Poet

Enriching our Communities – a celebration of what refugees have brought to us

Rowena Somerville runs an arts project with refugees and people seeking asylum based at Tees Valley Arts. This is an edited version of what she has to say about one of the poets with whom she has worked, Syndou Diarrassouba.

"Syndou came to this country from Liberia two years ago, and was dispersed to Teesside. When I first met him he was a clearly traumatised young man who had been attending English classes and learning to read and write - he had never been to school. He spoke English in Liberia, but with a Mandingo dialect; he knew it wasn't 'proper' English and wanted to improve it.

Although unlettered and uneducated, Syndou clearly has an innately poetic and visionary soul; his conversation is full of statements like ‘A good writer can make my imagination, a great writer can make my belief ‘ - wise and thoughtful and unexpected. He will talk quite naturally of ‘the line of colours in your soul', 'reaching into a nebulous heart', 'cold sadness creeping towards the heat of anger.'

Initially Syndou wrote as therapy, attempting to purge his lonely soul of his many terrible memories... now he writes more as communication, with greater purpose and control. Syndou feels he has met with excellent treatment and kindness in the UK, he thinks Middlesbrough is heaven - not a common view - but he is also aware of his predicament as an asylum seeker.

Syndou is studying car mechanics at a local college where he gained the award for Student of the Year last year.”


“His current situation is that the Home Office has ruled that since he has made such good progress in the UK, there is no reason for him not to return to Liberia. He says that if he returns he will die. Liberia is in a chaotic state with little or no access to education and health care, Syndou's home area has been destroyed by years of civil

war, and his immediate family are all dead.

Syndou is a person who has 'crossed the horizon between hopelessness and hope'; how cruel if we have helped him come so far only to break his spirit again."


The Doctor

Dr Elizabeth Gordon reflects on 20 years work as a Medical Foundation doctor.

Working with torture victims is very similar to working with any other client group but it also means trying to understand the sort of violence that survivors have been subjected to; the displacement from their homes, from society, sometimes long periods of imprisonment and then having to flee for their lives. I think it's something that is not generally understood by people who have not experienced exile. Many if not all the people I see would prefer to live in a normal situation in their country of origin; they would rather be at home.


Yet people can adapt and survive. I remember a boy of about 16, who'd been in prison in Africa and dreadfully burned with paraffin soaked rags. Most of his family had been killed in a raid. We worked with him at the MF, we put him in touch with plastic surgeon colleagues and now he's built a new life as an accountant in the UK.

I recently heard from a young doctor from the Middle East whom I first saw when he was held in a prison ship here in the UK. He is now a consultant radiologist; that's a real achievement.


Given the current world situation, in which torture and organised violence are sadly commonplace, and in which Western governments are approving modes of torture to day, the Medical Foundation will be needed for a long time yet.

For many of us at the Medical Foundation our work is fuelled by a sense of injustice; working with survivors is a way of trying to restore justice, it's a way of fighting back.

Source: The Supporter Summer 2008


The Refugee

Sergey is a doctor from Armenia, 47 years old, a married man with two children aged 10 and 12. He had to escape because he had, by chance, witnessed the murder of a politician. With the help of friends, Sergey managed to escape hidden in a truck, sending his wife and children to stay with relatives. Some time later they managed to get to Italy where she works as a cleaner.

Sergey reached England after nine days and assumed he would finally be safe. He was refused asylum and became homeless. While sleeping rough, Sergey had contracted Hepatitis C. He got no treatment, the disease led to cirrhosis of the liver. Sergey will be dead within 2 years. A transplant could save his life, but he doesn't qualify for one because of his asylum status. Eventually he was given a room in a shared house by the National Asylum Support Service [NASS] and was seen by a doctor who told him he should eat three meals a day,with plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables. Sergey has to do this on £35 of vouchers each week. These have to be spent in one supermarket and that supermarket is not allowed to give him any change. He is not allowed to earn any more money.

Sergey could be saving people's lives. He wants to work. He is an innocent man who has committed no offence.

Source: The Supporter Summer 2008


The Government

Under the 1951 UN Refugee Convention everyone has the right to apply for asylum.

If they have a justified fear of persecution then the host country is obliged to protect them. No country has ever withdrawn from the convention but the British government and its officials attempt to define its obligations as narrowly as possible. This is what the Home Office wrote to an Algerian woman:

"You claim that you were ill-treated during detention, tortured and raped. The Secretary of State does not condone any violations of human rights which may have been committed by members of the security forces...[but].

.

to bring yourself within the UN Convention, you would have to show that these incidents were not simply random acts of individuals, but were a sustained pattern or campaign of persecution directed at you by the authorities."

So our government is telling this woman that they don't care if she has been raped, tortured or imprisoned. It will only help her if she can prove that it was done repeatedly and according to some plan.

Source: Mark Haddon. The Observer Magazine 15 June 2008.


The Deportee

Anselme is from Cameroon where he was elected by his tribe to be their chief on the death of his father. But Anselme is a committed Christian and refused to take his father's wives, as is the custom of the tribe. He was tortured by the tribal elders and escaped to this country where he has lived in Middlesbrough for the past two years, becoming a respected member of his church. The validity of his claims to have been tortured was accepted by the Home Office after a report from the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture, but it was decided that he could be returned to Cameroon to live in some other part of the country although Amnesty International stated that he would not be safe.

He was to be deported on 14 July on Kenya Airways flight KQ101 at 20.00 hours.

Large numbers of people signed a letter protesting at this, emails, faxes and phone calls were sent to the Home Office and Kenya Airways, but he was taken to Heathrow and forced onto the plane protesting loudly. His hand was badly injured in the process and eventually passengers joined in his protest and the airline refused to take him. He was taken back to the detention centre and in transit he was beaten up by the five men who had taken him. They are reported to get paid a considerable bonus provided they get the deportee out of the country.

Anselme was refused treatment for his injuries but his lawyer arranged for a Medical Justice doctor to see him. Then on 25 July he was released pending a hearing of his case before the European Court of Justice. He is now back with his friends. He wrote that he is very grateful for the support he has received and says he continues to put his trust in God.



The Red-Top Reader

Asylum seekers – oh, I know all about them. I read about them all the time in the paper. Scum of the earth, that’s what they are. They’ve got no right to be here, and as far as I’m concerned, the quicker they go back to the jungle or wherever they come from, the better. They come here because they’ve heard we’re a soft option, and what do they do when they arrive? They take our houses and our jobs, they get every kind of benefit they can scrounge, they jump the queue when it comes to treatment on the National Health. It’s God’s honest truth; I read it in the paper.

Half of them are criminals of one sort or another, and you can bet your life some of them are terrorists, hell-bent on destroying us. And in any case, if you forget about all that, if you want to be a bleeding-heart liberal softie and welcome the stranger and all that rubbish, just think about our country. Britain is - or was – a great country, but it’s only small and it’s crowded already. Even if some of these people are genuinely in need, it’s no use coming here, there’s just no space for them. And we don’t want their kids in our schools. I wouldn’t want my Johnny sitting next to a dirty little foreigner that didn’t even speak our language. Well, would you wish that on your kids? I tell you, it’s just not fair.

Source: Anon. [as usual]


Commission contacts

Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398

KateWard Secretary 01642 781676

Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621

Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043

email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop

or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS

website www.middlesbroughjp.org


Please ….

if you find this newsletter of some use to you or your church, perhaps you would consider sending a donation to the Treasurer: Nan Saeki 55 Moorgate York YO24 4HP. It would be very much appreciated.


NB

John Blatchford has been doing great things with our website – please check it out and let us have your opinion on it.



The Befriender

The plight of people seeking asylum can often be very bleak, and so we are always on the lookout for ways to offset the bleakness and loneliness of everyday life in a strange culture.

Kath Sainsbury, Mary Frankland and I try to take a group to Barmoor twice a year. It’s so difficult to raise the money we need for the trips, but so rewarding. For them to be able to relax in a lovely house far away on the moors, and not to be worried about immigration officials coming to pick them up is worth a fortune. The looks on the children’s faces when they see the size of the house is a sight for sore eyes! One of the children said to me, in a voice full of wonder, “Does the king live here?”

We also enjoy each others company at social events when the drums begin to throb and the dancing and laughter starts. Often we gather at each others homes to celebrate birthdays – or just to celebrate each other. Recently we met at Cath Ramos’ house to celebrate Hussain’s 21st birthday (he said it was the first time he’d had a cake!) also to congratulate Jean-Michel on his son’s getting into university in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to show our relief and happiness that Anselme is out of detention and Ballo is back on Teesside among his friends.

I am always impressed by the joy and love of life that is displayed by these lovely people who have such tragic backgrounds. Our lives have been enriched by the music, laughter and friendship which they have brought with them from all over the world. In bringing their culture to us they have increased our enjoyment of life and liturgy. I personally owe them a debt of gratitude for their friendship and support.

Last year we had a trip around Whitby harbour in a boat –four mums and their seven children and me. What a ride that was! The joyful reaction of the children added to the pleasure for all the other passengers too. So we all had twice as much fun for our money!

Since we started going to Barmoor we have been made so welcome by the people of the local Anglican church. Alistair, the vicar, invites us to sing and drum at Mass. He and his wife, Denise, have opened their home and garden to us and prepared a delicious barbeque for us. Jane Pool on the first day we met her invited us to her home for coffee – all seventeen of us! It’s now a regular thing.

The people of Kirbymoorside Catholic church always give us a great welcome and our children join in their children’s liturgy.

The joy of sharing love is gradually seeping across the North York Moors, who knows where it will go next? Win Logan

[For those who don’t know it, Barmoor is a large Quaker family house just outside Hutton-le-Hole, now owned by a Trust, used by many groups including the Commission]


MINSTREL MAN

Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter

And my throat

Is deep with song,

You do not think

I suffer after

I have had my pain

So long?


Because my mouth

Is wide with laughter,

You do not hear

My inner cry?

Because my feet

Are gay with dancing,

You do not know

I die?

Langston Hughes 1902-1967

African American poet


OLD CELTIC RUNE OF HOSPITALITY

I SAW A STRANGER YESTREEN,

I PUT FOOD IN THE EATING PLACE,

DRINK IN THE DRINKING PLACE,

MUSIC IN THE LISTENING PLACE,

AND, WITH THE SACRED NAME OF THE TRIUNE,

HE BLESSED ME AND MY HOUSE,

MY CATTLE AND MY DEAR ONES.

AND THE LARK SAID IN HER SONG:

‘OFTEN, OFTEN, OFTEN,

GOES THE CHRIST IN THE STRANGER’S GUISE.’

July/August 2008

July 17th, 2008

This month’s Commission meeting takes the form of a Prayer Walk around Osmotherley so part of this issue of the Newsletter has an Environmental theme. Those of us fortunate enough to …

Those of us fortunate enough to have access to the countryside can enjoy the healing properties of a walk in which we can breathe in the clean air and at same time look around at the beauty of creation. However the overall situation worldwide is nowhere near as happy. Of the damage caused by global warming, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental panel on climate change, 90% is caused by human activity. We should add to that the effect of war, including the actual explosive materials, the fuel burnt by planes, ships, armoured carriers and tanks, and then all the residual environmental damage caused by warfare, including depleted uranium residues and unexploded weaponry. It is surprising that, as Bruce Kent told us in May, these side effects of war seem never to be taken into account.

Contributions from readers are always welcome so I am particularly grateful to Sophie Harrison, a parishioner of St Hedda’s, Egton Bridge for agreeing to write a piece on her recent appointment as a Youth Advisor for UNICEF.

The Inaugural Anthony Storey Lecture at the University of Hull in May, organized by the Commission, was a great success. Something like two hundred people enjoyed a brilliant introduction by Professor Eamon Duffy to a wide ranging lecture by Paul Vallely. If you missed it, make sure that you come next year. Chris Dove

Note: the views expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission

Long term damage 23 years ago on the night of December 3, 1984, clouds of toxic gas escaped from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, Central India. Hundreds of children are still being born with birth defects as a result of what was the world’s worst industrial disaster. The gas killed 5,000 people that night and 15,000 more in the following weeks. The Indian government stopped all research on the medical effects 14 years ago, without explanation The disused Union Carbide plant contains about 8,000 tonnes of carcinogenic chemicals that continue to leach out and contaminate the water supplies used by about 30,000 people. The clean-up has been stalled by bureaucratic indifference, legal actions and rows over corporate responsibility. Dow Chemicals, which bought the factory in 2001, says that because the plant is on government land it is up to the state to clean it up. However officials say that Dow should pay $24.6m to dismantle the factory and restore the fields. Source: Guardian Weekly 9 May 2008

Humans cause 90% of environmental damage. Global warming is disrupting wildlife and the environment on every continent, according to a study that reveals the extent to which climate change is already affecting ecosytems. In the study reported in the journal Nature, researchers analysed reports highlighting changes in populations or behaviour of 28,800 animal and plant species, as well as focussing on environmental effects, including surging rivers, retreating glaciers and shifting forests. In 90% of cases the shifts in wildlife can only be explained by global warming, while 95% of environmental changes were consistent with rising temperatures. Source: Guardian Weekly 23 May 2008

Should we link nuclear disarmament and climate change? For years now it has been argued that we need to have a nuclear submarine fleet because it acts as a deterrent, to prevent any nuclear attack on the UK. But post-Cold War we no longer have any target, we have no nuclear armed enemy. Today’s threats are terrorism, climate change, global economic meltdown – and no nuclear weapons will help to defeat them. As retired Royal Navy Commander, Robert Green, puts it: “Weapons stimulate hostility, create instability, promote proliferation and generate an arms race. They represent terrorist logic on the grandest scale imaginable.” There is now growing support for a Nuclear Weapons Convention that would provide a framework and timetable for disarmament. Even the US appears to be changing its attitude, as seen in an open letter to the Wall Street Journal in January 2008.

The letter was signed by two former Secretaries of State (George Schultz and Henry Kissinger); a former Secretary of Defense (Wm.J Perry) and a retired Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (Sam Nunn). They argued that nuclear weapons are fuelling insecurity, which is in no-one’s interest, and that the US and Russia must take the lead in disarming. In the Presidential primaries Barack Obama stated: ‘It would be a profound mistake for us to use nuclear weapons in any circumstances’ in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

Using such weapons in situations involving civilians is ‘not on the table’ he continued. Subsequently he has pledged to work towards elimination. Having won the Democratic nomination, he could turn out to be the most pro-disarmament President of all time.

In Britain the situation has reached a pivotal moment. The nuclear submarine fleet is based in Scotland, which now has its own parliament.

Although under the terms of devolution the Assembly is not supposed to interfere in ‘foreign policy’ issues, they can reject Trident based on international law as well as moral grounds.

The Scottish National Party came to power in 2007 against a back-drop of a year-long anti-nuke campaign and 70% of the Scottish public don’t want to host Britain’s bombs any more. A parliamentary coalition has been set up to explore legal options, such as using health and safety and environmental legislation to hit Westminster with a massive fine very time a convoy carrying nuclear warheads from Aldermaston crosses the border!

Campaigners say that there will be a colossal defence spending crunch – not the time to be spending around £70-80bn over the next three decades to replace Trident. Campaigners believe we should be linking the abolition of nuclear weapons to the fight against climate change. Why not use the £70-80bn to finance a wholesale shift to renewable energy? They argue that Britain could supply 50% of its energy from offshore wave and windpower by 2030 by diverting funds and skills directly from nuclear submarine manufacturing.

Brenda Boardman of the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute estimates it would cost £12-13bn a year to reduce UK housing carbon emissions by 80%. Scrapping the Trident replacement programme would make this a lot more possible. Source: New Internationalist June 2008

Priorities? “In the past six months the G8 countries have found a trillion dollars to bail out their banks. It shows what can be achieved by a concerted effort by the global economy!” Source: Observer 15 June 2008 “Can there be any threat more alarming, in today’s world, than that of a nuclear or biological weapon falling into the hands of terrorists, or being used by a State, as a result of some terrible misunderstanding or miscalculation? The more States have such weapons, the greater the risk. And, the more those States that already have them increase their arsenals, or insist that such weapons are essential to their national security, the more other States feel that they too must have them, for their security.” Source: Kofi Annan London 31 January 2006

Commission contacts Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398 KateWard Secretary 01642 781676 Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621 Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043 email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS website www.middlesbroughjp.org

Letter to the editor: from Gerry Danaher Baroness Helena Kennedy’s criticism of the Iraq war in your May/June edition is forceful and forthright; it seems only right to put the case for it at the same time. The good case for the war was simple enough: to get rid of a tyrant who had terrorised and impoverished his own people, who had invaded two neighbouring countries, and who – rightly or wrongly – was believed to be ready to do it again if he could get away with it.

There was a hope that by getting rid of this tyrant, prosperity and freedom from fear could be brought to Iraq. This is difficult and may prove impossible. Blame for this lies not with the coalition troops, but with terrorist groups, many of them foreign, who do not want prosperity and freedom to come to Iraq.

It is worth emphasizing these good intentions of the coalition forces because, for reasons of demography, our relationship with the Islamic world is going to be Europe’s most important political problem for the rest of this century. (Due mainly to the spread of western medical expertise since 1945, the Muslim population of North Africa and the Middle East to Pakistan is expected to increase from about 150 million in 1950, to over 1000 million in 2050.) There is now nothing we can do to prevent the increasing influence of Islam in Europe. Despite some Middle Eastern countries having developed effective family planning schemes, populations will continue to increase rapidly in Sudan, Somalia, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, throughout this century. War or no war, the resultant poverty and turmoil will force Muslims to emigrate in large numbers. In the Europe of the future, peace loving Muslims and non-Muslims may be able to withstand those who seek power by terror, but it will be difficult. It will be less difficult if we can help Iraq to become prosperous and free from fear. Is there a glimmer of hope? President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran had an enthusiastic welcome to Baghdad in March this year, and President Talabani greeted him with a double handshake and a beaming smile. The Iranian President said he was “truly happy” to be visiting an Iraq “without the dictator” Saddam Hussain. At least the two Presidents are happy. It’s a start. Programme for 2008 Sep 20: ‘Enriching Our Communities’ -a Celebration of the contributions to our society from those seeking asylum in the Tees Valley. Sacred Heart Middsbro’ If you wrote about Cluster weapons thank you and congratulations, it worked! Dublin, Ireland, May 21st, 2008 Campaigners pushing for a ban on cluster bombs welcome this afternoon’s statement from Gordon Brown and call on the UK to now give up their remaining cluster bomb stocks and sign up to the treaty. In response to a question this afternoon, a Number 10 spokesperson said in a public statement that: “The PM has issued instructions that we should work intensively to ban cluster bombs that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. We have already banned two types of cluster bombs, neither of which had a self-destruct or deactivation mechanism. The prime minister has asked the MOD to assess the remaining munitions in use to ensure that there is no risk to civilians” Simon Conway, Co-chair Cluster Munition Coalition and Director of Landmine Action said: “We are glad that Gordon Brown is making good on his previous public commitment to ban cluster bombs and now expect the UK to give up the M85 and the M73, its remaining stockpile of indiscriminate
cluster bombs”. Up until now the British position has been dominated by their insistence to keep two types of cluster bombs M85 and M73. M85s were used by the British in Iraq in 2003. The M73 has never been deployed by the British, but has been used by the Americans in Iraq. It does not have a self-destruct or deactivation mechanism. Anna Macdonald, Head of Arms Control for Oxfam said: “Britain has at last come in from the cold – we hope that this strong statement from the Prime Minister will ensure that the UK signs onto the treaty and immediately gets rid of these weapons which maim and kill long after they have been dropped”. Campaigners and survivors from the Cluster Munition Coalition hope that this statement by Gordon Brown will provide evidence that there is room for manoever and may encourage other countries
of concern to reconsider their position. Source: Landmine Action Sophie – Youth Advisor UNICEF UNICEF is one of the world’s largest charities, working in 191 countries and with high profile supporters like David Beckham, to improve the health and welfare of young people, particularly in some of the world’s poorest countries. Established after WW2 the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund puts young people and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) at the heart of their policies, which means a real effort is made to involve the youth of today in all aspects of their work. One way that they do this is by setting up a team of Youth Advisors who are a group 15 young people that work together to help raise awareness locally and nationally of global issues. As a youth advisor I work with the UNICEF team to increase youth governance and raise awareness affectively and innovatively. I am very passionate about the involvement of young people at the highest levels, from local committees to governments. Two years ago UNICEF gave me the opportunity to address world leaders at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, showing that young people’s views can be taken very seriously. The UNCRC states that young people have the right to get involved in decision making that will affect them, and I feel that it is our social responsibility to make the most of this and to get out there and get active! As Benjamin Disraeli once said ‘the youth of a nation are the trustees of prosperity’. The future is ours, and it is our duty to shape and mould it! In my role as Youth Advisor I am focussing on peer education and producing resources for youth groups and schools to use, passing on knowledge to raise awareness among other young people. Educating young people on global issues like HIV/AIDS is hugely important and a real step to help preventing such problems worsening. HIV/AIDS is a disease that knows no barriers and affects every class, colour, sexuality and gender, and as Nelson Mandela recently said ‘aids is the greatest war against humanity’. In early August I will be attending the 17th International Aids Conference in Mexico City to discuss this situation and gain in depth knowledge and skills. I intend to utilize these in my work with UNICEF particularly at the annual outreach road shows which the Youth Advisors will be organising later on this year. I really enjoy my work as a Youth Advisor and see it as an opportunity for young people to become directly involved with issues facing our society today. This could include campaigning, lobbying politicians and fund raising. If you want to get active you can find out more at http://www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice/

Holy Spirit of God. 
Renew my hope for a world free from the cruelty and evil of war so that we may all come to share
in God’s peace and justice. Amen

May/June 2008

April 30th, 2008

As we approach what is for many the most beautiful season of the year, we cannot fail to be aware that

Editorial As we approach what is for many the most beautiful season of the year, we cannot fail to be aware that the inequalities and injustices in the world seem to be increasing: in our own country and in the world as a whole the poor are getting poorer and the gap between “the haves and the have-nots” is widening. For those of us who are concerned for justice and peace, however, this is not a time for discouragement and despair, but for renewed effort and commitment. Following our May meeting at which Bruce Kent is our speaker we have our annual prayer walk with a theme of Light. Further details relating to this are to be found at the end of this issue. In the March issue we asked readers to get in touch with suggestions or comments as to how the Commission could become more effective. To date we have only had one reply, maybe this just reflects a general lack of interest in the matter. But we remain convinced that as Bishop Terry wrote: “No-one can take the Gospel to heart without acquiring a taste for justice and peace. Nor can this ever be merely an academic exercise or remain in the realm of theory.” So we still await your ideas as to how we should do this. Please do write to your MP to ask that the UK government makes an effort to get an international ban on the use of cluster weapons at the May conference in Dublin. (see below) Sr Mary Walmsley has been unable to attend meetings due to new commitments so she has had to resign. We are very grateful for all her valuable work and commitment. Fortunately Kate Ward has very kindly agreed to take on the work as Secretary. And finally, may I apologise for two mistakes in the March/April Newsletter. First, the Inaugural Anthony Storey Lecture at the University of Hull, Lindsey Suite, Staff House Cottingham Road will be from 10.30am till 1pm not 3pm on 17th May. And our September meeting, that will celebrate the contributions to our society from those seeking asylum in the Tees Valley, is not on September 10 but September 20th. Chris Dove Note: the views expresses in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission

Law not War March 2008 marked the fifth anniversary of the start of the invasion of Iraq. On Remembrance Day 2007 Baroness Helena Kennedy QC gave a lecture at the Imperial War Museum. In it she said: “I believe the Iraq war to be illegal and immoral. I have no doubt that Saddam Hussain and his oppressive regime were responsible for egregious crimes against the people of Iraq. I signed petitions against his dictatorship and met with some of his victims who sought asylum here. I am sure many Iraqis, particularly the Kurds who suffered so monstrously at his hands must feel a degree of elation that he is gone, but I reject that war was the only means to securing Iraqi freedom. In addition to not having been authorised by the United Nations, the war was opposed by world opinion and especially by the people of the Middle East. It was also based on widespread deception by government and officials here and in the USA as to the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. By its actions our government violated the right of all of us citizens in democratic society to trust in the integrity of leaders, especially in matters of war and peace. By what right can we visit war on a country that was not threatening us; by what right can we ignore the laws of war, by what right do we tear up the international conventions painstakingly under construction in the hope of creating a world ordered upon respect for humanity and a desire for peace? Those who supported the war on the basis that legal niceties should be forgotten when we have the opportunity to remove a dictator should consider the precedent set and the implications for the rule of law in such a course. There is undoubtedly a need to reform the Security Council with its byzantine, undemocratic workings but it is worth remembering the impulse which created the UN, which was a desire to avoid wars and at every turn to wage peace. Respect for the rule of law and a workable democratic structure of international law will be a far greater guarantor of peace and security than displays of power and might. Law is one of the keys to any new order. Otherwise in our rush to win the so-called war against terrorism we will unleash an even greater terror.” Source: Pax Christi.
We remember

* 1.2 million Iraqi people have been killed directly or indirectly. As a result of the destruction of infrastructure tens of thousands experience malnutrition and disease.
* since 2003 there as been a mass exodus of people fleeing from the ongoing violence and occupation. More than 4.4 million Iraqis have left their homes. Some 2.2 million are displaced internally and more than 2 million have fled to neighbouring countries, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
* the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reports that one in five Iraqi refugees registered in Syria is the victim of violence. 10% of the young children of these refugee families are working for a living.
* tens of thousands of Iraqis are detained, many without trial. A UN Human Rights report in June 2003 expressed concern about the Multinational Force’s detention practices, and in particular the internment of suspects for prolonged periods without judicial review of their cases,
* according to the MoD the UK has spent £5 billion on the war in Iraq over and above the UK’s defence budget. Source: Christian Peace Witness for Iraq

Cluster weapons [yet again] In our May/June 2007 newsletter we reported some good news, that the UK government had agreed to “join a fast track process to negotiate a ban on cluster bombs.” Sadly this seems to be no longer the case. In 2006 the MoD called the Hydra CRV-7 system a cluster weapon. In July 2007, the Armed Forces Minister. Bob Ainsworth, said they did not after all fall within the government’s “understanding of a cluster munition”. So it is the same weapon causing the same lethal destruction; the only difference is that the name has been changed Source: The Guardian Weekly 21.09.07 In the latest Amnesty magazine Martin Bell pleads for a ban on the use of cluster bombs to be agreed at the next meeting of the international group which takes place in Dublin in May. He writes “A treaty banning cluster bombs can be a reality in 2008. Such a treaty will not only protect future generations – it will also provide assistance to the victims of these weapons and mobilise more support for the work of removing the millions of explosive devices already littered round the world. The legacy of such a treaty will be lasting and tangible. Multilateral action is being made to work. People will live who would otherwise die. Our government is still dragging its feet on the issue – supporting aspects of the ban but wanting some of its own cluster bombs to remain in service. Let’s change this.”

Cluster weapons [latest update]

Factfile

* One cluster bomb container will typically spread submunitions over an area the size of 2-4 football fields, effectively carpet bombing that area.
* Unexploded submunitions remain from attacks in 1970s and still kill people.
* One third of reported cluster bomb casualties are children. In Southeast Asia at least 60% are children.
* In February 2007, 46 states agreed in Oslo to conclude in 2008 a treaty prohibiting cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians. * In May 2007 68 states participated in a treaty preparation meeting in Lima. In December 2007 in a meeting in Vienna 138 states joined in and in February 2008, in Wellington New Zealand, a further 103 states, but still not Britain Can we hope that the UK will join the others in making the treaty a reality? I feel it is most important that as many people as possible write to their MP and/or David Milliband urging the government to support the Oslo Process to negotiate a new international instrument to ban the production, sale or use of cluster weapons. The UK must stop trying to get exemptions for types of cluster weapons that they argue are “safe”. This only risks creating loopholes that other nations will seek to exploit.

The push for more military spending The past few months have seen the beginning of an unprecedented campaign to raise military spending. A new organisation called the United Kingdom National Defence Association (UKNDA) was launched by a group of former military chiefs and politicians. A few weeks later, during a debate in the House of Lords, five former defence chiefs condemned the government for failing to fund the armed services “adequately”. All five happened to be patrons or vice-presidents of the UKNDA.

The UKNDA argues that while the Defence budget was 5.3% of GDP in 1984, it is now down to 2.2% and their demand is for this to increase to at least 3% – an increase of 35-40% over current levels, and the Conservative Defence Policy calls for a 50% increase. To support their arguments for these increases proponents point to the injuries and fatalities suffered by the armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and claim this is due to ‘inadequate resources’. They also call for increased spending on forces’ housing, education facilities and better medical care for those injured on active service. However, the UKNDA and Conservatives are choosing to compare today’s military spending with that of the height of the Cold War (1984).

The reality is that under the Comprehensive Spending Review of July 2007, the Defence budget for 2008-9 would be £34 bn, rising in 2009-10 to £35.3 bn and then to £36.9 bn in 2010-11, an increase of £7.7 bn over the three years. On top of this, by July 2007, we had spent £6.6bn on the Iraq and Afhganistan wars according to MoD figures . In fact the UK has the highest per capita spending on the military in Europe, second only in the world to the USA. Then, according to the National Audit Office report in November 2007, investigating new weapons systems on order for the MoD, the current top ten (by spending) military projects are currently estimated to cost just over £36 bn – more than the entire MoD budget for 1 year! And that doesn’t include the projected cost of replacing Trident – £20-25 bn. The obvious way forward is to call for the reallocation of the huge sums spent on military equipment into more productive areas. In fact there are plenty of security issues it could be spent on – countering climate change and conflict prevention are just two examples. If we are serious about peace and security we need to spend our money wisely. Rather than defence being too low on the list of priorities, war is far too high up on the list. Source: Fellowship of Reconciliation peace by peace Spring 2008

Depleted Uranium [DU] DU is nuclear waste left over after enrichment activities in the nuclear weapons and nuclear power industries. DU is chemically toxic and radioactive. It is used in armour-piercing munitions because of its very high density – 1.7 times that of lead. It is also used as armour in battle tanks, as ballast in some cruise missiles and in small amounts in some types of landmines. Why hasn’t the case for banning the use of DU ammunition been successful? It was easier to make a case against landmines, and similarly now against cluster weapons – the horrific results can seen wherever they have been used. But the remnants of DU weapons are less visible; it is a much slower story of toxic and/or radioactive poisoning, the long-term effects of which may not be known for generations. It is also dangerous because no-one fully knows what lies in store for future generations.

There are alarming signs from the ailments of people exposed to DU and from the bewildering disorders being shown in some of their children. But they are chronically under-researched. Doctors don’t know how to explain them. The governments that use these weapons and who claim they are safe don’t seem particularly bothered. In March 2007 two Australian soldiers active during the Gulf War of 1991 tested positive for DU contamination a full 15 years after their return from Iraq. The US and UK forces discharged an estimated 280 tonnes of DU ammunition in the first Gulf War. The US Army knew of the dangers six months before the war, in a report that detailed the risks of DU use, including cancer and kidney damage to both ‘natives and combat veterans’, it called for ‘public relations efforts’ to stave off the ‘potential for adverse international reaction’.

Basra Teaching Hospital reports on “a range of cancers increasing exponentially throughout the 1990s”. In July 2007 Iraq’s Environment Minister Nermin Othman called for international assistance following research linking a sharp increase in cancer to 350 DU-contaminated sites across Iraq. Source: New Internationalist November 2007 May 3 Bruce Kent ‘Movement against War’ English Martyrs York. July 19 Prayer Walk Osmotherley. Sep 17: ‘Enriching Our Communities’ - a Celebration of the contributions to our society from those seeking asylum in the Tees Valley. Middlesbrough.

Programme for 2008

Inaugural Anthony Storey Memorial Lecture, Sat 17th May 11.00a.m. – 1pm Lindsey Suite, Staff House, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull. “How to effect real change in the real world – the G8, Geldof and the grassroots” Speaker: Paul Vallely, Associate Editor of the The Independent, former chair of Traidcraft and Progressio. Chaired by: Professor Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity, Magdalene College, Cambridge Everyone welcome

Commission contacts Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398 KateWard Secretary 01642 781676 Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621 Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043 email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS website www.middlesbroughjp.org

Please …. Our postage costs have increased yet again so if you find this newsletter of some use to you or your church, perhaps you would consider sending a donation to the Treasurer: Nan Saeki 55 Moorgate York YO24 4HP. It would be very much appreciated.

LIGHT on our SPIRITUALITY DAY This year our Spirituality walk on Saturday 19 July will focus, through the kindness of Fr Damian, on the Lady Chapel at Osmotherley. We start at Cod Beck Reservoir car park at 10am. and the whole walk will be about five miles. There is some uphill walking but nothing very strenuous and we should easily reach the Lady Chapel by noon. At the Lady Chapel there will be a short service, to which everyone is invited to bring a piece of writing on the theme of Light which they find significant. Then we will have our picnic (please bring your own!) which we will have outside unless it is too cold or wet. Fr Damian has kindly arranged for tea and coffee to provided. We will then complete the walk by travelling northward through woodland and back to the car park. If anyone prefers not to walk so far they could meet up with us at the Chapel at noon. So that we do not start without anyone, please let Annie know if you are planning to come on the walk, on 01947 825043 or by email to dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop May the God of peace make you perfect and holy; and may you all be kept safe and blameless, spirit, soul and body, for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God has called you and he will not fail you. Thessalonians 5:24

A Prayer

MARCH/APRIL 2008

March 30th, 2008

Editorial We were very happy to welcome Bishop Terry at our Core Group meeting at the end of February. This gave us an opportunity to tell him

Editorial We were very happy to welcome Bishop Terry at our Core Group meeting at the end of February. This gave us an opportunity to tell him about the aims and work of the Commission and to ask him to send a message to our readers which you will see below. We look forward to further meetings with him. Poverty and Homeless Action week in January was supposed to mobilise public opinion within the churches and beyond to put pressure on our political leaders to bring about change. However as Church Action on Poverty notes, the least well-off are a third less likely to vote than their affluent counterparts and four times less likely to become school governors. There is a role here for individual Christians and Churches to press not just for an end to child poverty but also towards the goal of ending poverty across all generations in the UK by 2020. Inequality in Britain is at a 40-year high. It cannot be right that boardroom bosses can award themselves multi-million pound bonuses at the same time as their workers still fall below the poverty line. Ten years ago the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales commented in The Common Good: “There must come a point at which the scale of the gap between the very wealthy and those at the bottom of the range of income begins to undermine the common good: this is the point at which society starts to be run for the benefit of the rich, not for all its members.” Perhaps it is time for our bishops to speak again and to insist on a change. Our next meeting will be on May 3 at English Martyrs, York where our speaker is to be the well-known activist Bruce Kent, He is a wonderful speaker so please make a special effort to come. And finally, the Commission have instituted an Annual Anthony Storey Memorial Lecture and we are delighted that the speaker at the inaugural lecture on 17 May will be Paul Vallely. Further details can be found on the last page of the newsletter. Chris Dove

Note: the views expresses in this newsletter do not necessarily coincide with those of the Commission A Message from Bishop Terry As Christians we should know that justice is the bare minimum we owe to one another. It arises out of our natural interdependence. Justice cannot be avoided; it is the foundation of so much else, not least of all peace. Without justice there can be no peace and without peace there can be no civilising society. This is what you might call the natural imperative, but there is more, there is the divine imperative which urges us beyond justice and peace, but certainly presupposes it – namely, the Gospel. No one can take the Gospel to heart without acquiring a thirst for justice and peace. Nor can this ever be merely an academic exercise or remain in the realm of theory.

He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives, and to the blind new sight, to set the downtrodden free, to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour. [1]

Jesus came to proclaim to us the good news of salvation, of freedom, of healing, of truth, of dignity, of respect. Some have wanted to interpret this good news solely in terms of the hereafter – pie in the sky when you die. However, this salvation is for all human kind and for all time. It is also for the here and now. Didn’t Jesus tell us that the Kingdom is here already, that it is overtaking us? The good news is both spiritual and material; it is both for hereafter and the here and now.

Father all-powerful, we praise you for your presence and action in the world. Your Spirit changes our hearts; enemies begin to speak to one another, those who are estranged join hands in friendship and nations seek the way of peace together. Your Spirit is at work when understanding puts an end to strife, when hatred is quenched by mercy, and vengeance gives way to forgiveness.[2]

For us Christians, justice and peace are fundamental, but there is much, much more. Justice and peace are only the beginning. In Christ and through his Spirit we aspire to something even greater, beyond our imagining:

In that new world where the fullness of your peace will be revealed, gather people of every race, language, and way of life to share in the one eternal banquet with Jesus Christ the Lord.[3]

May that new world come, and may we be part of it!
+ Terry

Poverty in Britain A Joseph Rowntree Report in December 2007 said that the British government’s approach to tackling child poverty is in urgent need of a rethink. The number of children in working families that need to escape poverty is rising; half of all children in poverty are in working families, suggesting more needs to be done to tackle the problem of low wages. “Progress on child poverty has stalled at a level that is only half way to the target set two years ago. Tax credits may be working, but they are not enough on their own, yet the government’s budgetary and legislative programme set out in autumn 2007 contains no substantial new ideas about what should be done.”

DID YOU KNOW? the UK has proportionately more poor children than most rich countries one in three UK children lives in poverty – 3.8 million children 2.2 million pensioners are living in poverty 7.2 million working age adults in the UK are living in poverty 70% 0f Bangladeshi children in the UK are poor. women are the majority in the poorest groups London has a higher proportion of people living in poverty that any other region in the UK.

How is poverty calculated? Poverty is calculated as 60% of median income after housing costs. This is the measure of poverty used by most researchers, the EU and the UK governments. In 2005/6 the 60% threshold was worth: £108 per week for single adult with no dependent children. £186 per week for a couple with no dependent children. £223 for a single adult with 2 dependent children. £301 for a couple with 2 dependent children. Save the Children says that the government is 14 years behind its target of halving child poverty by 2010 and eradicating it completely by 2020. Save the Children classes the worst deprivation as that which forces families to live on £19 a day, after paying housing costs. Source: Church Action on Poverty Having touched on the problems of poverty in this country, the following news items give us an insight into the wider picture. UN cannot afford to feed the world The United Nations has warned that it does not have enough money to stave off global malnutrition this year because of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices. Using voluntary contributions from the world’s wealthy nations, the World Food Programme (WFP) feeds 73 million people in 78 countries, less than a tenth of the total number of the world’s undernourished. Its agreed budget for 2008 was $2.9bn. But with food price increases around the world of up to 40% this past year, plus serious hikes in fuel costs, that budget is not enough even to maintain current food deliveries. The shortfall comes at a time when many people, particularly in urban areas, who had thought that their food supply was secure, are now unable to afford basic foodstuffs. The head of the WFP, Josette Sheeran said, “There is a new face of hunger. There is food on the shelves but people are priced out of the market. There is vulnerability in urban areas and food riots in countries where we have not seen them before.” Afghanistan, Egypt, India, Pakistan, Malaysia and the Philippines are all involved in varying degrees of desperation. WPF officials say the extraordinary rise in global prices of basic foods were caused by a “perfect storm” of factors: a rise in the demand for animal feed from more prosperous people in India and China; the use of more land and agricultural produce for biofuels; and climate change. “For the poorest populations, 50% to 80% of income goes on food purchases” according to OXFAM. “We are concerned now about an immediate increase in malnutrition in the poorest countries, and the landless, the farm workers there, all those who are living on the edge.” And of course the lower the world food reserves, the more nervous the markets become, and the increased volatility is particularly detrimental to the poor who have small assets. The impact of climate change will amplify that situation. Record flooding in West Africa, a prolonged drought in Australia and unusually severe winter snowstorms in China have all had an impact on the world’s food production this past year. It is expected that the climate change factor will get bigger and this increases the anxieties for markets. Source: The Guardian weekly 29.02.08 Agriculture in the 21st century An article in Le Monde noted that biofuels and increasing meat production are taking the staple foodstuffs from the poor. The higher cost of oil adds to the cost of sea transport, which now accounts for a third of the price of grain, and it boosts the appeal of biofuels, so that sugar, maize, manioc and oil seeds are diverted from the food market. In some African countries palm oil is linked to the price of crude oil and local shoppers can no longer afford it. Because of higher standards of living, people in Brazil, China and India have acquired new tastes. In less than a generation, meat consumption in China has more than doubled, with a direct impact of demand for grains as more and more grains are being fed to animals. If economic growth in emerging countries continues, this trend will do so too. Every year the world has an extra 28.5 million mouths to feed; global population is expected to increase from 6.5 billion people to 9 billion people in the second half of the 21st century, so there is little chance of a drop in demand. To the three factors usually cited – rising population, economic growth and global warming – is added an equally important fourth: continued application of misguided policies. According to the World Bank, for the past 20 years world leaders have ignored agriculture. Although three-quarters of the world’s poor live on the land, agriculture receives only 4% of public aid. The Bank now acknowledges that increased agricultural output and poverty reduction depend on public investment in rural infrastructure: irrigation, roads, transport and energy. We will all have to produce more. Some recommend giving more land to farming, but global warming and urban sprawl are actually reducing the available space. It would also be possible to boost output, but intensive farming uses more water which is becoming a rare and precious resource. This leaves genetically modified plants – but their use is disputed. Agriculture is going to be a big problem in the 21st century. Source: The Guardian weekly 29.02.08 Climate Change The latest science suggests that a stated target of 60% cuts in emissions of CO2 by 2050 is woefully weak. The talk now is of making this 80% and the Christian environmental organisation, Operation Noah, after discussions with such bodies as the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research and others, is calling for a 90% cut by 2030. Such a target is realistic in the light of the recent statement by the former UK government Chief Scientist, Sir David King, that global warming constitutes a much bigger threat to our society than terrorism. If every country in the G8 pledged a minimum of 10% of its annual military budget to the transformation of its energy economy it would go a long way towards helping to ward off this huge threat to our future security. Source: Mark Dowd. The Tablet 9 February Note: A recommended series of websites offering ways of checking and reducing our carbon footprints include the following. If anyone has tried some please let me know your opinion as to their value. www.carbonfootprint.com climatestewards.net/index.php actonco2.direct.gov.uk/index Many carbon calculators offer you the chance to make a payment to offset your carbon use. There is an argument that offsetting just excuses continued “carbon indulgence” in the rich world. However funding a carefully chosen project to balance the consumption you cannot (yet) change is better than doing nothing. American control of UK bases The Government has been accused of treating Parliament with contempt after committing the Menwith Hill RAF base, in North Yorkshire, to the US missile defence system. RAF Fylingdales, near Pickering, has also been upgraded and could be used in the so-called Son Of Star Wars scheme. Under this scheme, the RAF base at Menwith Hill will house a tracking system that will link to US satellites and interceptor missiles based outside the UK. It is a field station of the US national security agency and has been described as the largest electronic monitoring station in the world. Between 1,500 and 2,000 US nationals from various agencies work there. Lord Wallace of Saltaire, retired professor of international relations at the LSE said: “The abandonment of British sovereignty in the operation of Menwith Hill presents a far greater incursion into British sovereignty that anything the EU has to offer. Menwith Hill is under American control.” Source: York Press The Commission’s Policy Review The programme for 2008 is complete and we are now thinking of what changes we might make from 2009. Over the years there has been a steady fall in the numbers attending Commission meetings. This is in spite of having some excellent speakers on a wide range of subjects. We have tried moving round the diocese, meeting in Middlesbrough, York, Hull, Malton, and Whitby but without making much difference. What is certain is that we are all getting older and this may be a reason for the reduced numbers coming to meetings. But the issues of justice and peace are just as important. So, should there be fewer meetings? Should we still produce 6 issues of the newsletter each year, or would you prefer fewer? If any of our readers have suggestions or comments to make on the work of the Commission that might be of assistance, please do write to Barbara or me. Would you prefer to receive the newsletter by email instead of by post? This would certainly save time and postage costs. For this reason, I will now be emailing the newsletter to those clergy who have email addresses, unless they are receiving batches of the newsletter. I am sure I will be told if this is not wanted! At the same time may I particularly ask those who have been receiving numbers of the newsletter for distribution to let me know if they agree to continue to do this or if [understandably] they feel the need for a break. Chris Please note the new web address for the Commission Commission contacts Barbara Hungin Chair 01642 784398 Nan Saeki Treasurer 01904 783621 Chris Dove Editor 01947 825043 email: dove.whitby@phonecoop.coop or 22 Blackburns Yard Whitby YO22 4DS website:www.middlesbroughjp.org Programme for 2008 May 3 Bruce Kent ‘Movement against War’ English Martyrs York. July 19 – Prayer Walk Osmotherley. Sep 10: ‘Enriching Our Communities’ - a Celebration of the contributions to our society from those seeking asylum in the Tees Valley. Middlesbrough.

Inaugural Anthony Storey Memorial Lecture, Sat 17th May 11.00a.m. – 3pm Lindsey Suite, Staff House, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, Hull. “How to effect real change in the real world – the G8, Geldof and the grassroots” Speaker: Paul Vallely, Associate Editor of the The Independent, former chair of Traidcraft and Progressio. Chaired by: Professor Eamon Duffy, Professor of the History of Christianity, Magdalene College, Cambridge So they say…. Of our limitations: how much difference can an individual make to a catastrophe such as Darfur? In The Talmud, Pirkei Avot says: “It is not given to you to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist.” “Can Christian thinkers shake themselves free from a domestic agenda dominated by a constant tinkering with ecclesial organisation or else an obsessive preoccupation with various aspects of sexuality in order to address the real questions of our day?” From “World Without End – Contours of a post-terrorism world” Leslie Griffiths & Jennifer Potter. Epworth Press 2007
[1] Luke 4.18,19 [2] Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II [3] Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation II